Workplan of Rainfed Benchmark.pdfTotal area of Morocco is 71 million ha; but only 13 % (9.2 million ha) is considered as arable land. The rest of the area is composed of bare and non productive land (44 %), pasture (30 %), forest (8 %) and native alfalfa (5 %).

The agriculture sector plays an important role in Moroccan economy. It was demonstrated that that there is a high positive correlation between the national gross domestic product and the agricultural gross domestic product.

Arable land in the country is divided rainfed and irrigated zones. But, although irrigated sector contributes with 45 % in the agricultural added value, rainfed zones called “Bour” continue to play a major role because it covers around 87 % of the arable land and houses around 65 % of rural population.

Morocco has been hit by several years of drought and consequently is suffering from severe water scarcity. The frequency of drought was in average 1 over 5 years before 1990 and has increased to 1 over 2 years during the last decade. These environmental constraints have affected crop production and water resources availability.

Because of the increasing water shortage and drought, the national agricultural research program is aggressively searching for ways to overcome this problem and a number of options for utilizing the existing resources more efficiently have been explored. The option of implementing supplemental irrigation at a large scale as a more efficient practice than conventional irrigation has been adopted at the national level. The national program has requested ICARDA’s support in exploring the option and setting guidelines for its sustainable use. The proposed research would take Morocco as the benchmark to develop and test with full participation of rural communities improved technologies for utilizing efficiently the limited water resources available in the rainfed areas that increase water productivity and optimize water use and that are economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound. The focus will be on integrating supplemental irrigation in the farming systems and transfer the approach to other areas of the region. Although supplemental irrigation will be the focus of the research, all water associated elements and cropping systems advanced technologies will be researched in an integrated manner. In addition to the experience of Morocco in this area, this research will take advantage of the extensive work being conducted by ICARDA in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Jordan.

The typical water perimeter of Tadla was chosen as Moroccan benchmark based on agreed criteria between all involved stakeholders. This perimeter is located in a semi-arid region (300 mm average rainfall) where irrigated and rainfed areas represent 26000 ha and 133600 ha, respectively. An integrated research program will be designed and implemented in two representative communities (Ouled Zmam and Bradia) involving local population, institutions and decision makers. Field trials, farmers’ demonstrations, etc., will be implemented by NARS with support from ICARDA.

To insure the integration of supplemental irrigation in the farming systems and transfer the approach to other areas, the project involves, in addition to farmers, 9 local and national institutions of Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, one water users’ association and one basin agency.

Moreover, since Syria, Tunisia and Algeria are major rainfed agriculture and supplemental irrigation countries, they are the most to benefit from this research program in addition to Morocco. Consequently, satellite sites in Syria, Tunisia and Algeria will be established and linked with the benchmark site in Morocco for exchange of the results and transfer of the outputs.

Key Questions That Need to be Addressed

Although supplemental irrigation has great potential, maximum benefits depend on its proper application as one element in a package of practices that includes other farm inputs and management practices. Consequently, farmers need to be involved in the development and testing of the technology at the community, and possibly at the water basin, level. There are a number of key questions that need to be addressed if supplemental irrigation is to reach its potential under farm conditions:

• What is the most appropriate and feasible amount and timing of supplemental irrigation under farm conditions?
• What are the appropriate crops and cropping patterns that would produce the highest returns, in terms of rainwater and supplemental irrigation water productivity?
• What is the economic feasibility of supplying (access to water sources) and applying (application technique) water to rainfed crops?
• What conditions are necessary for water user associations to regulate water use in a sustainable way?
• What are the constraints to and the incentives for using water in supplemental irrigation and how can supplemental irrigation contribute to more sustainable livelihoods?
• What are the economic and environmental consequences of using water in supplemental irrigation and how can they be dealt with?
• What policies will be needed to create an enabling environment for the adoption of water efficient technologies for the sustainable management of rainfed systems?

Objective

Adoption by farming communities of strategies and tested technologies for the optimal conjunctive use of rainwater and scarce water resources in supplemental irrigation systems for improved and sustainable water productivity in rainfed areas.

Expected outputs

• Recommendations for appropriate irrigation systems and schedules to ensure optimal water productivity and net benefits to the rainfed resource users;
• Strategies for conjunctively utilizing rainwater and other scarce water resources in combination to maximize the benefits from each of them and to increase agricultural production in a sustainable way;
• Effective methodologies to tailor production systems, cropping patterns, and cultivars to match water requirements for agricultural production with sustainable water supply in accordance with the socio-economic environment;
• Recommendations for operational guidelines to deal with the trade-off between water use efficiency and net benefits under different socio-economic conditions.

Activities

• Select and characterize the site and communities;
• Identify and analyze possible constraints to the adoption by farmers of efficient water use options;
• Assess ex-ante impact of new options of supplemental irrigation system;
• Analyze existing policies and institutional setups regarding improving water use efficiency and develop recommendations for improvement;
• Develop, test and promote production techniques, alternative innovative approaches and practical tools such as models and decision support systems giving enhanced output per unit of water;
• Evaluate, together with the stakeholders, potential strategies that match water requirements with water supply and optimize the use of water within the biophysical and socio-economic environment of the target areas;
• Develop guidelines, packages and technological, institutional and policy options for improving water managements in the targeted areas

Irrigation-Activities Gantt Chart.pdf  Rainfed-Workplan for the 2004.pdf

  Rainfed-Timetable and Milestones.pdf  Rainfed-List of Project Management and Technical Staf1.pdf