“NENA ET-Network”, regional Evapotranspiration Measurement Network expands

August 2022, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations established a regional evapotranspiration measurement network “NENA ET-Network” in eight countries of the NENA region in partnership with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) (coordinating) and the University of Cordoba (Spain) supporting with the ET–Cordova instrument. The ET Network was launched in 2019 with 5 pilot countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine). In each country a reference station has been selected where different instruments are used to measure the crop evapotranspiration and support the improvement of remote sensing based measurements. One of the standard instrument introduced in each reference station is the “ET-Cordova” a cost effective agro-meteo station completed with several sensors to enable automatic measurement and calculation of the real water consumption of crops (ETa). This affordable technology is designed to allow users to develop and maintain it themselves.

The instrument initially designed by the University of Cordova and introduced in 2019 in the NENA region after two years of successful testing in southern Spain. Lessons learned has enabled its improvement and the introduction of a more robust version. To complete the coverage needed in each country, the 2.0 version is now proposed to other sites with diverse agro-ecosystems.

Morocco and Tunisia, who have been piloting the ET Cordova since the 2019 (each in one site) are now expanding spatially in new sites and for new crops. Field missions of the UCO experts supported the process of knowledge transfer to local teams in both countries – in May 2022 in Tunisia and in July 2022 in Morocco. The aim of the missions was to transfer know how on the ET Cordova to local research teams: learning while installing the new version of the ET Cordova and upgrading the older version in different sites in both countries.  To ensure an efficient and sustainable functioning of the stations at local level and reinforce the national technical partner’s capacity building, the Cordoba team also provided trainings in favor of both the National Institute for Field Crops and the Olive Institute personnel in Tunisia and the Regional Office for Agricultural Development of Souss Massa (ORMVA) staff in Morocco. Both training sessions included theoretical and practical aspects in regard with its functioning mechanisms and principles, operationalization and maintenance.

To know more about the ET network and the use of the ET Cordova for standard measurements in the different partner countries, we met with the University of Cordoba team who answered our questions:

Why is it important to calculate/estimate crop evapotranspiration (ET)?

Evapotranspiration is the main parameter of water loss in terrestrial ecosystems. Its quantification is therefore extremely important in agronomy as it is directly proportional to the crops yield. It is an essential element for formulating irrigation schedules since crop water requirements (irrigation) are based on the knowledge of crop ET. ET is also one of the two components of water productivity.

What does the CORDOVA-ET station exactly do?

The ET Cordova station, is a agro-climatic stations completed with a set of set of components designed to record the micro-meteorological variables necessary to calculate the real evapotranspiration by the energy balance method. The CORDOVA-ET station allows to calculate not only the reference ET (ETo) but also the ET of the crop if it is placed within a crop, taking into account the microclimatic variability within the plot since the measurements can be taken at four different locations by placing four different nodes around the field in question. The station has controlled manufacturing costs and is based on accessible technologies and open-access software allowing the countries to replicate it with the available means.

How many stations have been now successfully installed? And what’s next?

The first prototype was developed by the University of Cordoba and the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture and was tested during summer 2018. As the test phase had showed encouraging results, the network was expanded through the deployment of stations in all eight partner countries. Teams from the Ministries of Water and Agriculture in all of these countries as well as researchers from public institutes have been trained on the installation, calibration and development of these stations.

ET stations are an easily replicable tool and partner countries have everything to gain from integrating it within their agro-meteorological data collection network. It is for example the case in Morocco where discussions are now being held with Agrotech farmers’ Professional association in Souss Massa.

The ET Network activity is implemented in under the regional initiative on water scarcity and the ET Cordova introduction is supported by the WEPS-NENA project “implementing the 2030 Agenda for efficiency, productivity and sustainability in the NENA region” funded by the Swedish International cooperation (SIDA).