The Nile Valley is a typical and may be the largest irrigated area in the region. Egypt is expanding irrigated areas while water resources are not increasing. Sustainability is being threatened by excessive pressure and changing land use. Marginal-quality water is being used and sustainability is being threatened. National research institutes has done work in Egypt and results show the urgency in developing approaches to improved water productivity and protection of ecosystems services from the threat of increasing salinity and land degradation. These problems define a common research task: to develop and integrate techniques and technologies with full community participation for the acquisition and supply of water to agriculture and for the efficient utilization of all sources of water in irrigated agricultural production. A benchmark site in Egypt will be chosen that is representative of irrigated areas in the region with research results transferable to other irrigated areas of WANA. The two other major irrigated countries of the region are the Sudan and Iraq. Two satellite sites will be established in these countries.

Objective, Outputs and Activities

Objective

Widespread integration and adoption by farmers in the irrigated agriculture, of suitable irrigation systems and methods to maximize irrigation water productivity in more productive and sustainable irrigated agricultural cropping systems.

Expected Outputs

• i. Review reports on existing cropping systems and their management, irrigation technologies, water productivity, environmental impacts of inappropriate irrigation practices and management options for marginal-quality water, policies and institutions.
• ii. Potentials options/interventions (technologies, institutions, policies) for maximizing water use efficiency (economic, social, technical, and environmental).
• iii. Production functions for water utilization by different crops under improved management practices.
• iv. Report on analysis and impact assessment (issues; scale, aggregation, etc..) for selected models (application, calibration and scenario development).
• v. Technological packages for improving water management (improving water productivity) under different irrigation and agricultural systems.
• vi. The potential impacts and consequences of water valuation and demand alternative management options and policies (including satellite sites) assessed.
• vii. Guidelines, packages, technologies, policies and recommendations for improving Water Productivity in irrigated areas developed.

Activities

• i. Farm survey and analyses to assess the actual water productivity (WP) for multi-cropping systems and to determine the source of inefficiency in water use in target areas.
• ii. Model simulations to assess water use efficiency and environmental effects of different potential technologies in the different production systems under consideration.
• iii. Field trials at selected locations and farmers' fields to generate data required for modeling water productivity (WP) and sustainability and fill the gaps in the available information necessary for improving water management.
• iv. Conduct analysis of the existing policies and institutional setups regarding improving water productivity (WP) and develop recommendations for improvement.
• v. Develop guidelines, packages, technologies, policies and recommendations for improving water productivity (WP) in those areas.
• vi. To achieve these outputs, multidisciplinary and multi-institutional teams were established and discussed, in a national workshop, the project document and framework for implementing it. Agreement on the activities that will be implemented during the four years of the project was reached. Around 50 researchers representing 6 institutions in Egypt with representatives from Sudan and Iraq in addition to ICARDA scientists have participated in the workshop. The activities that will be implemented in Egypt benchmark site have the following components:

Component 1: Review Studies

Component 2: Site Selections and Characterization

Component 3: Socioeconomics studies

Component 4: Technical and Socioeconomic Interventions

Component 5: Human Capacity Building and dissemination of the results

This workplan explains in detail the approach, the activities, time schedule, and the budget of the project. A logical framework for the project was developed and presented in this workplan, which summarize the expected output from each activity with the verifiable indicators and the risk associated with it. The workplan also listed the scientists and researchers from the different national institutions and from ICARDA who participated in the workplan development and who will be involved in the implementation of the activities.

Irrigation-Summary of the workplan.pdf  Irrigation-Workplan of Irrigation Benchmark.pdf

Irrigation-Workplan of Irrigation Benchmark.pdf  Irrigation-Activities Gantt Chart.pdf