June 2002
Time-tested Pitcher Irrigation Helps Green the Slopes of Khanasser Valley
By Zuhair Masri
CWANA Highlands and Mountains > Time-tested Pitcher Irrigation Helps Green the Slopes of Khanasser Valley
Women in Serdah plant an olive tree beside clay pots that will seep water to sustain the plant through the hot, dry summer.
Khanasser Valley in northern Syria has much in common with dryland areas throughout Central and West Asia and North Africa. The Valley’s 11,000 residents rely mostly on the land for their survival, yet find it harder and harder to maintain a balance between resource utilization and conservation. The result is land and water degradation that threatens the long-term productive capacity of the Valley. In response, some ICARDA researchers have taken a fresh look at an ancient technology, pitcher irrigation, which could lead to the re-greening of Khanasser’s barren slopes.
Farmers learn about the benefits of pitcher irrigation, cisterns, and water harvesting in Khanasser Valley.
In its simplest form, pitcher irrigation entails burying an unglazed, porous clay pot next to a seedling. Water poured into the pot seeps slowly into the soil, feeding the seedling’s roots with a steady supply of moisture. It is one of the most efficient and least costly irrigation systems ever devised, ideal for small farmers trying to eke a living out of dry marginal land. In fact, it is even recorded in Chinese texts dating back more than 2000 years.
     Since1997, ICARDA has been working with farmers in Khanasser to test the potential of pitcher irrigation to grow olive trees, and other fruit trees, on the barren valley slopes. Ten small farmer-participatory applied research sites now flourish, and the success has caught the interest of neighboring farmers.
     It is hoped that the pitcher technology can help reverse some of the severe degradation that has occurred in recent years in Khanasser, which has seen trees felled, slopes overgrazed, and soil used up and eroded due to unsustainable land-use and irrigation practices.

Benefits of pitcher irrigation:
• Efficient—water is delivered directly to the root zone, and less water is lost to evaporation
• Inexpensive—makes use of local materials
• Easy to use
• No need for water pressure
• No need for water filters

The water gradually seeps out through the porous walls into the root zone under hydrostatic pressure and/or suction, to maintain plant growth around the pitcher.

A young olive tree is fed by pitcher irrigation on a Khanasser Valley hillside.
Farmers gather around a cistern to learn more about pitcher irrigation and other water-efficient dryland technologies.

Farmer participatory research

Among the established sites, two trials were set up to compare pitcher irrigation with the farmers’ regular practice of hand watering without pitchers. Olive trees were established in Serdah, a village in the foothills of Jebel Shbeith, and Qura’a, in the foothills of Jebel Al Hass. In each village, Roman style cisterns had recently been built to collect and store water, 12.5 m3 and 27 m3, respectively.
     The farmers prepared the plantations themselves. They built simple stone bunds, earthen graded bunds, diversion ditches, and retention ditches to collect and concentrate runoff around the trees. During the dry season, the trees without pitchers were watered using buckets four times per month. At the same time, the pitchers were filled with water from the cisterns asneeded.
     The pitcher irrigation used less water, and all the trees survived the dry period. A number of farmers in neighboring villages have decided to try growing fruit trees using pitcher irrigation, which is a breakthrough considering that fruit trees entail a relatively long-term investment—5-7 years before they bear a good crop.

Community involvement

ICARDA’s soil conservation and land management project works closely with communities and groups to create a range of practical options through farmer-led and down-to-earth experimental study. A survey of farmers in Khanasser Valley has suggested that:
• Any land rehabilitation measures in the valley must be adapted to fit the land utilization and life patterns of the farmers.
• The conservation of the natural resources in the area—the establishment and maintenance of the conservation measures—should require only minor financial and labor input from the farmers.
• The major activities should be in winter, after the sowing of the rainfed fields, when the farmers are present in the village.
     Tree plantations on the mountain slopes can conserve soil and prevent erosion. Trees, such as olives, require only minor inputs, and only when the plantation is being established. Olives are harvested in November, when most of the farmers have returned to the village.

Just the beginning

By working with farmers to find and improve practical technologies, ICARDA can hope to improve livelihoods and conserve natural resources in Khanasser Valley, and then help spread that success to other dry areas around the world.

Dr Zuhair Masri is a Research Associate in ICARDA’s Natural Resource Management Program.