Environmental resources project area

Land and Water Productivity: Technical report.

This volume contains the presentations made at the Eighth International Conference on Dryland
Development. It is hoped that it will serve as a repository of information on the problems and prospects of
sustainable management of dry areas and preventing desertification, and will thus be of interest to those
involved in research, extension, development and policy formulation for the benefit of the people of the dry areas. It is our belief it would serve as an important contribution to the objectives of the IYDD.

In order to improve water and land productivity through better water management, the workshop focused on increased surface irrigation efficiency through better land preparation and improved system parameters, and through Improved human capacity of local researchers and technicians.

Few regions present bigger development challenges than the African drylands – home to nearly 300 million people, and the vast majority of Africa’s poor. Food security and rural welfare in these areas are limited by a range of factors, biophysical, socio-economic and policy-related. And many of the biggest challenges – poverty, drought, land degradation, food insecurity – will be exacerbated by climate change.

This issue of Caravan chronicles ICARDA’s efforts in developing a research strategy and a need-based research program for the CAC region. In doing so, ICARDA played a major role in bringing together all partners, most importantly donors. The article on page 8 traces the history of this effort and provides an overview of the current status of collaboration.

ICARDA’s West Asia Regional Program (WARP) coordinates agricultural research and development activities in Cyprus, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and lowland Turkey. With its head office in Amman, Jordan, the program plays a key role in joint bilateral and regional initiatives, as well as implementing several projects.

This report on ‘Assessment and Improvement of Wheat and Maize Water Productivity in Lower Karkheh River Basin’ helps researchers and scientists interested in sustainable water development to improve the Water Productivity (WP) of wheat and maize in irrigated lands of the Karkheh dam downstream.

This report is the second in a series of three publications that comprises an overview of the Iraq Salinity Assessment. This report documents solutions and impacts identified in the first report in this series. The third report in the Assessment proposes investment options and methods to analyze the investment options to manage and remediate salinity in Iraq.
This report has been compiled from project contributions from a number of authors across all of its seven technical Components.

ICARDA has long-standing outreach programs in North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Red Sea region (Fig 2). In its current strategic plan, the Center will extend its work to the drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Almakatei village, located on Alatf canal, was selected purposely to represent the community. Its agricultural land is located across three main districts in Menoufia Governorate – Al Bagour, Shebin Al Koum and Quesna. This was considered as one of the main advantages of selecting this site. El-Menira tertiary on Alatf canal was selected as the site for the study of the pipeline group. It is about 870 m long and it serves an area of about 40 ha. El-Hamra tertiary was selected for the study of the open canal group and serves an area of 30 ha.

Presentation on Project Assessment of Ecosystem Services for Improving the System of Water Resources Management in Agriculture of Kazakhstan.