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Workshop on “Land and Water Policies to Sustainably Improve Food Security” (April 24-25, 2012. Amman, Jordan)

The workshop was organized by ICARDA’s USAID funded OASIS project, and was held at the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE).  The meeting was attended by HE Dr. Radi Trawneh - Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture in Jordan, ICARDA’s Director General - Dr. Mahmoud Solh, Dr. Faisal Awawdeh - Director General for NCARE, Dr. Scott Christiansen – Senior Agricultural Development Advisor from USAID/A&ME Bureaus,  and representatives from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen. The workshop served as a platform to present the findings and recommendations of successive in-depth researches on improved land and water management practices that sustainably enhance food security which were conducted in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Yemen (available at http://www.icarda.org/WLI/research.html). The lessons learned and recommendations made were further enriched by the discussions that highlighted common challenges and identified potential avenues to influence policy change. As a direct output of the workshop, the OASIS team will develop a synthesis paper with specific policy recommendations and policy briefs that can readily be available for policy makers.

 

WLI Monitoring and Evaluation Training (December 15, 2011. Amman, Jordan)

Training course on watershed modeling (July 9 – 14, 2011)

A one-day training on Monitoring and Evaluation was offered to WLI’s partnering National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and four representatives from ICARDA’s Oasis project. The training was given by Drs. Sarah Tully and Clarissa Hageman from USAID and Dr. Sandra Russo from the University of Florida. The training introduced the NARS to the objectives of USAID’s Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative, sought ways to align the FTF results framework to the benchmark indicators, and discussed the mechanisms to select appropriate indicators and collect data required.


 

WLI 3rd Regional Coordination Meeting (December 13-14, 2011. Amman, Jordan)

Training course on watershed modeling (July 9 – 14, 2011)

The 3rd WLI Regional Coordination Meeting was held at the Landmark Hotel in Amman, Jordan.  The meeting was attended by ICARDA’s Director General - Dr. Mahmoud Solh, representatives from partnering National Agriculture Research Systems (NARS), U.S. and regional universities, as well as representatives from ICARDA, USAID, and USDA. The meeting served as a platform to appraise the results and achievements of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) during the year 2011, and to draft work plans for 2012. Participants also benefited from plenary presentations on salinity research and livestock by experts from USDA-ARS. The regional meeting was followed by the 4th Steering Committee meeting, held on December 15, 2011 where proposed plans for 2012 and other issues that required the Steering Committee’s approval were discussed.
 

Promoting Synergies between ICARDA’s Water Benchmark Project and the WLI. (December 1-3, 2011. Amman, Jordan)

WLI National coordinators from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen attended the Annual Project Coordination Meeting for the Water Benchmark Project which was held in Amman, Jordan, 1-2 December.  The meeting was useful to identify linkages between the two projects, and agree on regional activities under the following research themes:

Working groups were constituted for each theme and were given the mandate to enhance synergy among the different partners and the two projects; sharpen research focus; and standardize research methods and approaches.

 

WLI TRAINING COUNRSE ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC SURVEYS (SEPTEMBER 11-15, 2011)

A training course on Socio-Economic Surveys was conducted at the Al Hussainia Benchmark site in Egypt.  The training which was offered by Dr. Aden Aw-Hassan, Director of the Socio-Economic and Policy Research Program at ICARDA, was attended by a total of 22 researchers and research-assistants from the WLI socio-economic team. The training covered important topics including data collection, designing questionnaires, conducting surveys, and evaluation of data collected.

INTRODUCTORY TRAINING ON GIS (AUGUST 25-29, 2011)

A three day in-house training workshop on “Basic Introduction to ArcGIS” was recently conducted by the WLI team in Lebanon. The training, offered by Dr. Ihab Jomaa, targeted 11 researchers from Lebanon’s Agricultural Research Institute (LARI). The trainees were equipped with basic skills that will allow them to use geographic knowledge to better understand and manage the WLI benchmark sites in Lebanon.

A visit to the WLI benchmark site in Lebanon (July 31 – Aug. 6, 2011)

Dr. Prasanta Kalita from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and his PhD student Mr. Joseph Monical will be visiting the WLI benchmark sites in Lebanon during the week of July 31st- August 6, 2011. The visit, which is part of the WLI student exchange program, will include scheduled meetings with the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI), and the American University of Beirut to finalize the scope of work for the planned research. Mr. Monical is expected to return to Lebanon and begin the research in December 2011.

training COURSE on WATERSHED MODELING (July 9-14, 2011)

Training course on watershed modeling (July 9 – 14, 2011)

A specialized training course on Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) - a simulation model that helps understand soil and water dynamics at watershed scale was held in Jordan during July 9-14, 2011. Participants included researchers working on joint projects in Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Syria. The training began with a field visit to a research site at Al-Majidyya for familiarization with field measurements for water harvesting. This was followed by two days of classroom work and three days of on-the-job training using data collected during the previous seasons from Ethiopia, Jordan and Syria.

The training was conducted by a ‘SWAT team’ led by Prof. Raghavan Srinivasan, Director of the Spatial Sciences Laboratory at Texas A&M University and leader of the team that developed the model. This course is the beginning of a planned long-term partnership with Texas A&M University within the framework of USAID-funded projects.

The course was inaugurated by Dr Faisal Awawdeh, Director General of Jordan’s National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension. ICARDA representatives included Dr Theib Oweis, Director of the Integrated Water and Land Management Program; Dr Nasri Haddad, Coordinator, West Asia Regional Program, and Dr Feras Ziadat, Soil Conservation and Land Management Specialist.

Student research at WLI benchmark sites (Summer 2011)

The summer student research program has officially begun. Graduate students from the University of California-Davis (UC-D), Texas A&M University (TAMU), Utah State University (USU), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) will soon begin their research at the benchmark sites in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. The students will be working on research topics that were formulated through a collaborative effort that involved ICARDA, IWMI, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), as well as the students’ advisors from both the national and U.S. universities.

Training Workshop on ‘Extension and Water Management – with a focus on rainfed areas’ (June 27 – July 1, 2011)

Training Workshop on ‘Extension and Water Management – with a focus on rainfed areas’

A one week training workshop on “Extension and Water Management – with a focus on rainfed areas” was conducted at the Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC) of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Haouch Sneid, Bekaa, Lebanon. The training is one of a series of trainings planned on the topic, focused on irrigation and water management problems in rainfed areas, and the appropriate methodologies and solutions that will improve the effectiveness of the extension agents in on-farm water management. The training, which was a combination of classroom and practical/field instruction, was offered by experts from the University of California at Davis (UC-Davis), Utah State University (USU), AUB and ICARDA. The training was attended by twelve mid-level researchers and extension specialists from Syria and Lebanon who are currently working with the WLI, four post-graduate students from AUB currently involved in research activities at the benchmark site, and two summer exchange students from UC-Davis and USU.

Feedback on the training from Dr. Mark bell, Director, International Learning Center, UC-Davis
I believe the workshop was highly successful and we from UC Davis were in particular very impressed with the facilities.
More so, we were impressed by the support provided by Nicolas El Haddad, the AREC Farm and Facilities Manager. I ran experiment stations for many years while at CIMMYT and IRRI, so I am aware of the challenges of running such a facility.
Mr Haddad was outstanding in terms of his knowledge, his support and the quality of the facility he is managing. I hope that AUB appreciate the outstanding individual they have. He is clearly committed, competent and personable. By so capably taking care of so many support activities, he  played a significant role in the success of the workshop. He has left both national and international participants and foreign trainers alike with a very positive impression of AREC and AUB.

Special roundtable and ‘webinar’ event on “Lessons Learned and New Directions for the WLI”, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC. ( June 8, 2011)

On 8 June 2011, Scott Christiansen moderated a webinar at IFPRI in Washington, DC entitled “Lessons and New Directions for the WLI.” The panel concluded that the WLI is a “ready to use” regional platform that can supply a new generation of land and water users; field-tested agricultural S&T for development; and techniques to translate S&T innovations into jobs.

A presentation by ICARDA Director General Mahmoud Solh about the framework of the WLI led to an intervention by Jim Hill from UC–Davis, who spoke about modernizing extension and advisory services using the WLI as a platform; Sandra Russo, University of Florida, who described capacity development efforts between the Middle East Regional Universities and US universities; and Jack Boyson from the International Youth Foundation, who talked about new directions for job creation in the areas where WLI sites are located in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and Yemen.

Lessons centered on how the WLI assembled a functional organizational structure that includes NARS, universities, NGOs, International Organizations and donors.

The presentations are available on-line

 

Dr. Theib Oweis Visits Texas A&M University (TAMU), (April 28-29, 2011)

Dr. Theib Oweis, Director of IWLMP and manager of WLI, visited TAMU on the 28th and 29th of May. Important outcomes of the visit include: (i) the decision to have two graduate students from TAMU work at the WLI benchmark sites in Jordan and Egypt during the summer of 2011, (ii) the agreement to have Dr. Raghavan Srinivasan, Director of Spatial Science laboratory at TAMU, supervise a student from Jordan who will be doing research on watershed management modeling using the SWAT model, (iii) a one week training workshop in Amman on “Using SWAT for Watershed Management Modeling” for all WLI partners working on SWAT modeling. The training will be conducted by Dr. Srinivasan sometime during the third week of July, 2011.

THE 6th IWA SPECIALIST CONFERENCE, JORDAN (MARCH 29-APRIL 2, 2011)

At the conference, Dr. Oweis gave a presentation on “Strategies of water management in the middle east and the role that WLI can play in improving livelihoods through better water use.”

Training Workshop on 'GIS Applications in the WLI Benchmark Sites.' ( April 10-14, 2011)

Training: GIS Applications in WLI Benchmark Sites
GIS Application Training, April 10-14

Training on “GIS Applications in the WLI Benchmark Sites” was held during the week of April 10-14, 2011. The training was organized by the Water and Livelihood Initiative (WLI) in close collaboration with the Jordanian National Center for Agricultural Research & Extension (NCARE). The training was given by Dr. Feras Ziadat from IWLMP/ICARDA, and Engineers Safa Mazahreh and Lubna Al-Mahasneh from NCARE/Jordan. The purpose of the training was to equip WLI resource teams in GIS techniques that will allow them to undertake advanced bio-physical characterization of their respective benchmark sites. The training covered all three agro-ecosystems (rainfed, irrigated and rangeland) and focused on undertaking land suitability analysis, and database management using real data from different benchmarks for illustration and on-the-job training. A total of 12 mid-level researchers from WLI partnering countries participated in this training. The trainees will continue to work on developing their suitability criteria for all represented agro-ecosystems including forest and afforestation, as well as detailed suitability criteria for particular land utilization types within each agro-ecosystem. A follow-up workshop will be planned depending on progress made by the partners.

Visit of Drs Francois Molle and Fadi Karam to Egypt (April 4-7, 2011)

Integrating Gender into Research at the WLI Benchmark Sites
Dr. Karam, Dr. Molle and Dr. Ibrahim Atta at the Zankalon Research Station

Dr. Fadi Karam and Dr. Francois Molle, representatives from ICARDA, made a one-week trip (April 4-7, 2011) to Egypt to visit the three benchmark sites in the Nile Delta. The visit was facilitated by Dr. Fawzi Karajeh - Director of the Nile Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Program (ICARDA), and Dr. Atef Swelam – National Program Officer, Water Management (Egypt). During their visit Dr. Karam and Dr. Molle discussed with the WLI team in Egypt about the Initiative’s accomplishments in 2010, approved the plans for 2011, and identified research topics that could be undertaken by MSc students from USA and Egypt during the of summer 2011. Dr. Karam and Dr. Molle also visited the field trial on irrigation management in the Al Bustan benchmark site (New Land), the training facilities at the West Nubaria Rural Development Project (WNRDP), and the Zankalon Research and Extension Station at Diarb Negma. The field visits were especially useful in learning about on-going research programs related to the effects of raised bed technique in increasing productivity of rice and and summer vegetable crops in central and eastern parts of Nile Delta, and to have a better understanding of extension services offered to farmers in the area.

WLI Training: Integrating Gender Approaches into Research
Trainees holding a focus group discussion in Khanser valley, Syria. Photographs taken by Dr. Malika A. Martini (March 2011).
WLI Training: Integrating Gender Approaches into Research

Training Workshop on ‘Integrating Gender Approaches into Research at the WLI Benchmark Sites’. ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria. (March 6-10, 2011)

The training was organized by the Water and Livelihood Initiative (WLI) in an effort to ensure the integration of gender in WLI’s agricultural research activities. Women play a very important role in both the management and utilization of water in rural households. Women also use and experience water shortages differently than men. The recognition and inclusion of their needs, preferences, and priorities is thus very important for the success of the Initiative.

The training was attended by local researchers from various partnering countries including: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. The training was given by Dr. Sandra Russo, Dr. Kathleen Colverson, and Ms. Jillian Jensen from the University of Florida; in collaboration with Dr. Malika Martini and Mrs. Alessandra Galie from the Socio-Economic and Policy Research Program (SEPRP) in ICARDA. The training covered a broad spectrum of topics that ranged from basic introduction to gender, to the application of gender analysis tools to collect and use data in planned activities. Trainees were challenged to look beyond the ‘closed household’ model and have a gendered perspective in conducting their research.

Second WLI Middle Eastern Regional Coordination Meeting (February, 13-15 2011)

The Second WLI Middle Eastern Regional Coordination Meeting was held at ICARDA headquarters from February 13-15. The workshop was attended by representatives from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen; and representatives from University of California-Davis, University of Florida, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as two regional hub universities – the University of Jordan and the American University of Beirut. The meeting created an excellent platform for each country to report on achievements and general progresses made during the year 2010 and to plan for the year 2011. The completion of socio-economic and biophysical data collection for each of the identified benchmark sites were the major highlights of the achievements. The meeting also served as a good forum for knowledge sharing among participating NARS and for the identification of future areas of focus for capacity building.

The Third WLI Steering Committee Meeting was held on 14 February. The meeting was chaired by Dr Kamil Shideed and focused, among other things, on progress and future work plans, issues related to resource mobilization, and the need for enhancing the partnership between U.S. universities and other WLI stakeholders.

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