Cairo, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched today the training program, under the project "Support for Sustainable Water Management and Modernization of Irrigation in Newly Reclaimed Areas". This technical cooperation programme is funded and implemented by FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR), and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI). This programme has a capacity building component that will be conducted by Heliopolis University.

A total of 25 trainees, were nominated by the two Ministries, to participate in the training session to serve as the technical nucleus in the implementation of project activities. The University of Heliopolis will offer a comprehensive training program that includes remote sensing and geographic information system, water consumption monitoring system, field monitoring and data analysis.

“FAO is currently testing an information management system based on monitoring and remote sensing data to support MWRI, as well as MALR in monitoring "water consumption" and "water productivity" in newly reclaimed areas, thereby promoting the 1.5 million feddans national project, said Toni Ettel, program coordinator, in his opening speech on behalf of Mr. Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative in Egypt.

The project "Support for sustainable water management and modernization of irrigation in newly reclaimed areas" aims to establish a system for monitoring and calculating water consumption at the field level and groundwater wells. Moreover, it aims at maximizing water productivity and building capacities of relevant professionals and stakeholders,” he added.

“The Water issue should be considered a top priority, therefore necessary solutions should be developed for the upcoming 1000 years, especially in a context where water scarcity is one of the issues facing several regions, not only Egypt. However, this issue has become more urgent for Egypt to address in light of the increasing population growth and limited water resources”, said Dr. Youssry Hashem, president of Heliopolis University.

“Selection of appropriate irrigation systems and optimal use of water are considered as necessary requirements for the 1.5 million feddan project. Hence, MALR will allocate all its resources to support this project. In this context, the training program will provide a range of experiences for the trainees to be able to support agricultural projects in Egypt in general,” said Essam Wassef, National Project Coordinator and the former President of the Agricultural Engineering Research Institute

“We have been seeking to use new methods and techniques in irrigation. A number of conferences and events have been held during the last period, including the Cairo Water Week, which focused mainly on the water scarcity issues and the introduction of new irrigation and water management techniques to overcome the challenges of water scarcity in the future. Therefore, this training comes in line with such ideology,” said Dr. Eman El Sayed, head of the Planning sector in MWRI

During the lifetime of the project, which was launched in February 2018, three agreements were signed with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation represented by the Horticulture Institute and the University of Heliopolis. The Ministry of Irrigation is responsible for applying water accounting standards to the study area- Siwa. While The Ministry of Agriculture measures water productivity with a focus on olive and date crops as the largest crops targeted in reclaimed land. The University of Heliopolis will conduct the training for the selected team from both ministries.

It is worth noting that the project applies monitoring by developing a drip irrigation system and a meteorological station in Siwa Oasis on an area of 30 feddans, and by comparing the results with the ones arising from the traditional irrigation methods in the same area.

The project is part of FAO’s support to the Egyptian Government under the Country Program Framework (CPF) 2018-2022, which includes using modern irrigation technologies and methods, adopting an effective water management system in the farm and a strong water monitoring system. It includes as well testing two types of modern irrigation technologies and practices (one in the old land and another one in the new territories) and verifying their efficiency during 2019.