Deciphering the genetic code of Egyptian buffalo will be the first step to increase the production of red meat and improve its quality, said President of the Agricultural Research Center Abdel-Moneim el-Bana. The genome project on Egyptian buffalos is the first in the Middle East, Bana said in a press release on Thursday. Researchers at the Institute of Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research completed the first phase of the project by using second-generation technology in cracking some aspects of the buffalo genome, he said.