Climate-Smart and Low Environmental Footprint Innovations For Dry Areas (MENA Region)
COP27-Water Pavilion-Thematic Day 2: Climate Resilience and Low Carbon Approaches, Systems and Technologies
During the Thematic Day 2 of the COP27-Water Pavilion, Dr. Vinay Nangia,Research
Leader, ICARDA elaborated on climate-smart and low environmental footprint innovations for dry areas including the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Agriculture and agri-food systems of the highly vulnerable region needs a radical transformation under a changing climate.
Dr. Nangia stressed that MENA region have the lowest reserves of freshwater resources in the world. Water availability has been decreasing by two thirds over the last 40 years. Due to this growing water scarcity, changing climatic conditions, and increasing water demands, the region is expected to experience economic losses estimated at 6 -14% of GDP by 2050.
Currently, many remote sensing (RS) evapotranspiration estimates are available for use in regional planning and policy development. These estimated in the region still suffer from uncertainties as they are not rigorously validated.
ICARDA, in collaboration with FAO’s Regional Office for Near East and North Africa (RNE), has established the first regional network for field measurement of evapotranspiration in five countries - Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, where different ET measurement options are used. The network builds common understanding and methodology on ET measurements in the field and through remote sensing to deliver accurate data assessments
Precision agriculture is yet to be widely developed but ICARDA is already leveraging advanced digital and geospatial tools, big data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in its innovative water management approaches in Egypt and across the region.
ICARDA's system uses drippers with much lower activation pressure than standard commercial irrigation equipment, significantly reducing energy costs and water use.
A new ICARDA-managed project—ICT2Scale—is using mobile phone messaging services that target smallholder farmers with information on new dryland farming technologies and farm management practices.
FAO has developed and used data and information presented in a portal, known as WaPOR – Water Productivity through Open Access of Remotely sensed derived data – to provide near real-time data that can be used for a range of applications in agriculture and water resources management.