This Regional Program serves the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, and the United Arab Emirates) and the Republic of Yemen. The Program addresses four priority themes (i) rangelands, shrubs, irrigated forages and livestock; (ii) protected agriculture; (iii) the abiotic stresses of heat, drought and salinity; and (iv) on-farm water use and irrigation management.

Major Activities and Key Achievements

• Rangelands, shrubs, irrigated forages and livestock: Plant and seed collection missions were carried out in the UAE, Oman and Yemen and databases and herbarium specimens prepared. Feed quality of some of these indigenous forages has been measured in vivo with initial results showing their nutritional value to be as high as introduced material.
• Rehabilitation of heavily degraded rangeland in Saudi Arabia with indigenous shrubs and trees.
• Water-use efficiency of current forage systems measured in the UAE, Oman, Yemen and Kuwait.
• Work started to reduce water use, pesticide use and plastic house cooling costs in protected agriculture.
• Abiotic Stresses: In the UAE, forages and shrubs screened for salinity tolerance to maintain production where water quality is poor.
  

Current Emphasis

Emphasis is on arresting environmental degradation, improving on-farm water-use efficiency, and conservation and enhancement of biodiversity of indigenous desert species.

• Evaluation of water-use efficiency of currently-used and indigenous forages and their mixtures
• Collection, classification, storage and multiplication of important indigenous desert and mountain forages and shrubs
• Assessment of feed quality of important forages
• Rangeland rehabilitation techniques
• Development of an integrated disease and pest management program for the Arabian Peninsula
• Improving the water use efficiency of selected vegetable crops
• Improvement in greenhouse design and cooling systems
• Field assessment of different forage crops for tolerance to salinity
• On-farm water-use and irrigation management
  

Future Directions

The Program will strengthen research on environmental issues, particularly the degradation of rangelands and groundwater. By conserving indigenous plant species of the Arabian Peninsula, their genes will be available for future molecular biology research for feed and forage capable of withstanding high temperatures, drought and salinity. In protected agriculture, more emphasis will be put on reducing hazardous chemicals, water use and cooling costs.

Regional Coordinator: