Theme 3: Natural Resource Mangement
Project 3.1:
 Water Resource Conservation and Management for Agricultural Production in Dry Areas
Goal: Improved productivity and quality of the limited water resources currently and potentially available for agricultural use in dry areas.
Indicator: Improved productivity of water (from rainfall, conventional and non-conventional sources) in agricultural production; quantity and quality of water available to agriculture.

Purpose: Improved technologies and management options for rainfall, conventional and non-conventional water resources available to attain higher water use efficiency and sustainable agricultural production.
Indicator: Improved technologies, methodologies, and recommendations are available to national programs
Output 1: Methodologies, recommendations and information available to the NARS on efficient capture, storage and utilization of rainwater through water harvesting and integrated watershed management.
Indicators: Improved methods for selecting appropriate sites reduce effort, time and cost of planning water harvesting.
At pilot demonstration sites a greater part of rain is captured and utilized in improved water use efficiency.
Information on the socioeconomic constraints and potential policies and actions to overcome them are available to decision-makers.
Milestones:
2003:
 Conference on water harvesting and water use efficiency in the region.
  2004: Book on ICARDA's research on water harvesting published.
2005: Assessment of water harvesting potential and consequences in the dry areas completed within the Central Asia program.
Output 2: Optimal strategies and practices for using limited water resources conjunctively with rainfall in rainfed agriculture.
Indicators: Major supplementary irrigation environments and their interaction with farm management documented.
Technologies for efficient use of water in supplementary irrigation available to NARS for implementation.
Water productivity and total farm production levels increased at farmers' demonstration sites in representative areas.
Milestones:
2003:
 Model for optimal management of supplemental irrigation evaluated and tested.
Proceedings of the supplemental irrigation workshop published
 
2004:
 Research on supplemental irrigation in Tunisia and Morocco completed.
Recommendations on the management of supplemental irrigation of legumes published.
 
2005:
 Assessment of the consequences of implementing water saving strategies on water and the environment completed within the Central Asia program.
Output 3: Water management packages for sustainably optimizing on-farm water use efficiency particularly in irrigated areas.
  Indicators: On-farm water use efficiency increased at demonstration farms using developed packages.
Recommended on-farm irrigation management strategies and techniques that improve water use efficiency and natural resource management are available to NARS.
Research trials and monitoring sites for studying sustainability and improved water use efficiency established, in collaboration with NARS, in representative areas.
  Milestones:
  2003: Conference on results and recommendations from research on water use efficiency and water harvesting.
  2004: Proceedings of the conference on water use efficiency and water harvesting published.
  2005: Regional workshop on water use efficiency held in which promising and effective alternatives for cropping strategies and management practices to improve on-farm water use efficiency identified.
  Output 4: Strategies, methods and techniques for the safe and sustainable use of non-conventional water resources in agriculture.
  Indicators: Research trials established in collaboration with NARS in representative locations to adapt improved packages.
Guidelines and recommendations for the safe, productive and sustainable use of non-conventional water resources available to NARS.
Awareness of the potential and limitations of the use of non-conventional water resources increased.
  Milestones:
  2003: Database on available and potential non-conventional water resources in CWANA operative.
  2004: Proceedings of the workshop on the use of low quality water published.
 
2005:
 Recommendations on the cropping systems feasible under various qualities of water in the dry areas published.
  Output 5: Methods for assessing the safe utilization of renewable groundwater resources in agriculture.
  Indicators: Guidelines for the assessment and the management of renewable groundwater resources in agriculture available to NARS.
Recommendations for improved management of renewable ground water resources available to decision-makers.
  Milestones:
  2003: Recommended methodologies combining technical and socio-economic parameters for sustainable use of ground water in irrigation published.
  2004: Model for evaluating the sustainability of groundwater use in supplemental irrigation evaluated and adapted to Syrian conditions.
 
2005:
 Review of groundwater management success stories in WANA prepared.
  Output 6: Strengthened capacity of national research, extension and management personnel and greater public and governmental awareness of the importance of water conservation and management issues.
  Indicators: Capacity of NARS personnel to conduct research on water management issues and application of results increased.
Quality of NARS research in water management problems improved.
Collaborative research and demonstrated sites produce required data and analysis.
  Milestones:
  2003: Training course on water use efficiency in dry areas.
Regional workshop on managing scarce water resources for combating desertification in Asia within UNCCD TPN4 and TN1.
  2004: Training course on water use efficiency in dry areas.
 
2005:
 Training course on integrated watershed management in dry areas.
Duration: 6 years.
  Users and beneficiaries:
The ultimate beneficiaries are farm households in rainfed, marginal areas and irrigated areas. The main users are national researchers; technicians, policy makers and others concerned with water issues.
  Collaborators:

 
  • Water harvesting systems: linkages through the Ecoregional Programme: On-farm Water Husbandry in WANA in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. Collaboration with IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), France.
  • Supplemental irrigation: national institutes of Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the Central Asian states.
  • On-farm water use efficiency: IWMI, ICRISAT, ESCWA (UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia); collaboration through ICARDA's Nile Valley and Red Sea Regional Program and NARS of Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Turkey and the Central Asian states.
  • Use of remote sensing, GIS and the modeling of rainfall and water harvesting: University of Karlsruhe, Germany; Cemagref and IRD, France; General Organization for Remote Sensing, Syria; NARS of Jordan and Turkey.
  • Non-conventional water sources: Collaboration with the Gulf States; NCARTT (National Centre for Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer) and Jordan University for Science and Technology, Jordan; Aleppo University, Syria; Tunisia; the Central Asian states; CIHEAM-Bari; INRA-France; McGill University, Canada; USDA; IWMI.
  Cost:

 
  2003 US$ 2.803 Million
  2004 US$ 2.982 Million
  2005 US$ 3.101 Million
  System Linkages: 
Output 3 Sustainable Production: 80%
Output 5 Enhancing NARS: 20 %
Linkage to the Systemwide Programme in Soil Water and Nutrient Management (SP-SWNM) convened by CIAT and the Systemwide Initiative on Water Management (SWIM) convened by IWMI.
  Financing Plan:
  Unrestricted core funds. Restricted funding from JICA for training in Syria; restricted funding from USDA-ARS for research on GIS in water management in Tunisia; collaboration with NARS in Egypt financed by Egypt; collaboration with NARS in the Arabian Peninsula funded by the Arab Fund, IFAD and the OPEC Fund; funding from Barani Village Development Project in Pakistan. Anticipated funding for activities in Central Asia from the Asian Development Bank; anticipated funding from IFAD for a regional program in on-farm water management; anticipated financing within the sub-regional and regional thematic networks of the UNCCD.
     
  Theme 2, Project 2.1