FAO and ICARDA further their collaboration to mitigate water scarcity impacts

The two organizations sign an agreement to accelerate research outputs reaching farmers’ fields.

Rapid population growth in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) is not being matched by growth in agricultural production, making the region ever-more dependent on food imports and increasingly vulnerable to market and supply shocks. This trend makes it vital to boost investment in agriculture in the region.

Food security in the region is closely linked to high vulnerability to food-related “external shocks”. NENA is exposed to global food price volatility, natural disasters, increasing water scarcity, and conflicts, all of which have direct and indirect impacts on people’s well-being and nutritional status.

Acknowledging the urgency and scale of water issues faced by the region, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have today strengthened their collaboration and partnership by signing an agreement aimed at scaling out proven climate smart agriculture field interventions to boost significantly water productivity in irrigated and rain fed agriculture by more that 25 percent.

The agreement was signed by Dr Mahmoud Solh, ICARDA Director General and Mr. Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the NENA.

With water resources declining in the region, it becomes ever more critical to maximize water-use efficiency in agriculture. In order to target interventions effectively, both organizations reflected on organizational strengths and agreed on where and how to best implement ICARDA-FAO collaboration. A number of potential thematic activities and locations emerged from this agreement within the frame work of FAO Regional Water Scarcity Initiative in the NENA; increasing water productivity in rain fed and irrigated agriculture in pilot countries of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

“What we are demonstrating inhere in the agreement between FAO and ICARDA is that the research starts at farmers’ need and the solution ends at farmers’ filed. This agreement is presenting the importance of the linkages between research and development to generate technology transfer at a scale for sustainable improvement in agriculture and water productivity and farmers’ income. We aim at introducing innovative efficient agriculture and water management packages that are not only increase agriculture water productivity, but also farmers’ income” Dr Mahmoud Solh, ICARDA Director General stated.

“The region has made significant strides in the last decades in developing its water usage and storage capacities, but there is still much work to be done to improve water efficiency in agriculture, protect water quality, and address challenges related to food security and climate change.” said Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the NENA.

Moving forward, both organizations committed to a series of meetings with other partners counterparts to finalize plans for implementation.

This partnership with ICARDA stems from the MOU signed between FAO and ICARDA within the framework of Dry land Systems Program and FAO Regional Initiatives; Water Scarcity, Sustainable Small-Scale Agriculture and Building Resilience to enhance Food Security and nutrition launched in 2013 to promote cooperation among NENA countries for the sustainable improvement of agricultural productivity in a context of water scarcity, climatic changes and related food security problems.

A self-sufficiency that is more than the sum of its parts

Gulf states’ strides in food industry show adverse conditions do not have final say

The GCC countries, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have transformed into a regional hub for the food industry over the past two decades, an impressive enough development given the water scarcity and lack of arable land.

This reflects the quality of the economic management, which allows Gulf nations to overcome difficulties and reach for better achievements.

In the past, GCC states used to import their needs of dairy products and agricultural commodities. But, since the turn of the 21st century, they have been able to meet most of their requirements for some of these products, and have evened turned net exporters.

This remarkable development coincided with a decline in food production across many Arab countries. Though they may have had better conditions for the agri-industry, what they lacked was the sound management and the advanced infrastructure needed to encourage inward investments. This happened despite their populations having doubled over the past three decades, which, sure enough, led to a spike in demand for food commodities. What this managed to achieve was a further complication of their economic and social conditions.

This context better, reflects the sound economic policies and prudent management adopted by the GCC countries, which lacked the basic requirements to develop a food industry such as raw materials. This has led to the GCC states taking on the role of main provider of dairy and agriculture products to other Arab countries. Today, these can be seen on supermarket shelves in Sudan, Iraq, Egypt and Syria, where these goods are of higher quality and sold at competitive prices.

It was not easy to achieve this paradigm shift and which overturned earlier concepts about the impossibility to develop food industries in the GCC. But the interest in infrastructure development, including development of irrigation systems and water treatment, supported by its ambitious private sector and introduction of the latest technologies in cultivation in saline lands and water-saving have contributed to turning the previous concepts upside down and transforming the oil-rich countries into a hub for the food industry.