ICARDA Caravan, Issue No. 23

Focus

Fighting Desertification
in Jordan and Lebanon

Akhtar Ali, Ahmed Bulad, Anwar Kozah, Theib Oweis, and Adriana Bruggeman

Desertification is an extreme form of land degradation caused by a combination of climatic factors and human activity. Over 2 billion people in more than 100 countries are directly or indirectly affected. Each year, 6 million hectares of farmland are forced out of production. Dry areas are especially vulnerable. According to the UNEP, some 3.5 billion hectares of drylands are affected by desertification. In Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, 80-90% of rangelands and 56-70% of rainfed croplands are degraded.

Lebanese farmers build basins on rocky slopes, to harvest water for fodder shrubs.

A new OPEC-funded project works with farm communities in Jordan and Lebanon to test simple water harvesting technologies to fight desertification.

Desertification is often irreversible, and always frighteningly expensive. Losses in the Middle East and North Africa are estimated at US$38 per hectare for rainfed crops and US$7 per hectare for rangelands, at 1990 prices. And this is just the value of foregone benefits and loss of productivity; it does not include the cost of human suffering, lost livelihoods, and damage to the environment.

In 2000 the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) launched a Sub-Regional Action Program to combat desertification and drought in West Asia, involving several national and international partners including ICARDA. As part of the program, ICARDA works with national research and extension agencies in Jordan and Lebanon. Together, we engage with local communities to test and implement interventions for combating desertification. This article describes progress made in the initial project phase.

Jordan
A pilot site was established in cooperation with the National Center for Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer (NCARTT). The site is the Mahelleh catchment, a 15 km2 watershed with steep slopes, numerous gullies, and shallow, easily eroded soils. Curiously, water is the major cause of desertification in the catchment! Rainfall is only 160 mm per year, but runoff generates and dissipates quickly in the upper catchment, causing heavy erosion.

The erosion is accelerated by tillage for barley cultivation on slopes and gully margins. Soil productivity is rapidly declining. Livestock production – a major part of the local economy – has declined, because degraded rangeland no longer provides enough grazing for animals, and farmers cannot afford to buy feed concentrates. Limited rainfall also means shortages of water for crops, vegetable gardens or livestock.

Correspondingly, the main focus of the project is on management of rainwater and runoff. Several methods have been tested with community participation: water harvesting strips, contour ridges, gully check structures, biological control of rills and small gullies by planting cactus, rehabilitation of rangeland by planting shrubs in the upper catchment, a water harvesting pond for animals, small dams for irrigating home gardens and cash crops.

Strips: alternating strips of cropped and fallow area, where the fallow strips act as miniature rainwater catchments. The ratio of cropped to catchment area varies from 1:1 to 1:3 depending on slope, soil type and rainfall. This method can harvest enough rainwater to double crop yields.

Contour ridges: parallel stone ridges are built 5 to 10 m apart to stop runoff water (and the soil it carries) from damaging downstream areas. Each ridge collects runoff water from the area immediately upstream/uphill, and the water is channeled to a small plantation of fodder shrubs. With a combination of well designed ridges and drought-tolerant shrubs, project communities were able to meet a large proportion of their fodder requirements.

Control of rills and gullies: a combination of vegetative cover (to slow down runoff) and physical structures (to stop and divert runoff water) is a cheap, effective way to prevent rills and gullies from expanding.

This check structure halts runaway water, helping to stabilize a gully in Jordan.

Water reservoirs: small ponds are easy to build, even on slopes, by selecting a suitable depression, and sealing off the lower end with a masonry wall. On a slightly larger scale, a low-cost earthen dam can meet most of the community's needs for domestic purposes, supplemental irrigation, or livestock. Reservoir size can be matched to runoff conditions (total amount, flow rates) and the labor and material available for construction.

Lebanon
Two pilot sites, Yemouneh and Deir El-Ahmar, were established in the mountains of Lebanon in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture. Because of their topography, mountainous areas are often affected by flash runoff events, resulting in sheet and gully erosion. Erosion reduces the soil's capacity to store water, so soil moisture levels are generaly low.

Stone dikes in Lebanon harvest water for fruit trees, and also reduce erosion.

Yemouneh represents the high mountainous area: 1360 m above sea level, significant snowfall, and average precipitation of 650 mm per year. The community has 3500 people, with 541 ha of the 2950 ha area under cultivation. The other pilot site, Deir El-Ahmar, is mainly rangeland and forest, and is managed by the community. The population is around 15,000.

The project began with a series of formal and informal community meetings at both sites, facilitated by the Ministry of Agriculture. Farmers identified their main constraints – degradation of forest and rangelands on the hillsides, and water shortages. The project team then proposed interventions tailored to the area, which were discussed by the community. This participation was key, because the interventions require collective community action; for example planting and managing forest trees and shrubs on communal land, for water and soil conservation.

Runoff strips (brown) between patches of crops act as miniature water catchments.

Other interventions included terraces, stone dikes for fruit trees, and ridges for forage shrubs. Agricultural extension workers and farmers were trained on these technologies. Two reservoirs were built with help from local organizations. They will harvest winter precipitation and surplus flows for use in summer (mainly for irrigation and livestock). Maintenance, water allocation etc. will be managed by the respective communities.

.•	Small basins are dug on hillsides, across the slope, to collect runoff water. The basins are semi-circular in shape, 1 to 3 m in diameter and about 30 cm deep. Shrubs are planted in the basins, and grow rapidly with assured water availability, enabling control of soil and water erosion.
.•	Contour terraces, made of locally quarried stone, are built across the slope, or on flat land near waterways. Terrace bunds are 50-100 cm high; distance between terraces varies depending on slope, crop water requirement and rainfall.
.•	Fruit trees are planted on the terraces: usually olive and almond trees, or apples and apricots if supplemental irrigation is available.

Lessons learned

.•	Local institutions play a key role; first in mobilizing the community, and later in continuing implementation in the absence of external funding.
.•	Communities cannot be forced to participate, but when successful technologies are demonstrated, community involvement progressively increases over time. This requires a long-term perspective and capacity building of local organizations, which can continue the work.
.•	Intervention packages must include actions that directly improve local livelihoods.
.•	Runoff and erosion affect both upstream and downstream areas. Farmers in these areas may have different resource constraints and capacities; these differences must be factored into the project design.
.•	Communal lands are often highly degraded because there are no standard rules or accepted norms to manage them. To rehabilitate such areas, the key is enhancing the community's capacity to develop and implement management practices.
.•	Water harvesting is vital. It can produce both immediate (more water for crops) and long-term benefits (re-establishment of degraded rangeland).

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Akhtar Ali (a.ali@cgiar.org) is a Water and Soil Engineer at ICARDA. Dr Ahmed Bulad is Director for Water and Soil at NCARTT, Jordan. Anwar Kozeh is an agricultural engineer at Deir El-Ahmar, Lebanon. Dr Theib Oweis (t.oweis@cgiar.org) is Director, Megaproject on Water Management and Drought Mitigation at ICARDA. Dr Adriana Bruggeman (a.bruggeman@cgiar.org) is an Agricultural Hydrologist at ICARDA.

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