water |
Access to water is a
fundamental need for food security, human health and agriculture, and
its looming scarcity in the North Africa and Middle East region is a
huge challenge requiring an "urgent and massive response," FAO
Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in Cairo.
Accessible fresh
water in the region has fallen by two-thirds in the past 40 years. It
now amounts to 10 times less per capita availability than the worldwide
average, underscoring the need for a significant overhaul of farming
systems, he added.
A recent study by
FAO showed that higher temperatures may shorten growing seasons in the
region by 18 days and reduce agricultural yields a further 27 percent to
55 percent less by the end of this century. The rising sea level in the
Nile Delta is exposing Egypt to the danger of losing substantial parts
of the most productive agriculture land due to salinization.
Moreover,
"competition between water-usage sectors will only intensify in the
future between agriculture, energy, industrial production and household
needs," he said.
Graziano da Silva
attended a high-level meeting covering FAO's collaboration with Egypt on
the '1.5 million feddan initiative', the government's plan to reclaim
eventually up to two million hectares of desert land for agricultural
and other uses.
He expressed his
strong support to the Egyptian Authorities and committed to back
programmes aiming at addressing water scarcity and promoting climate
resilient agriculture.
The
Director-General's visit to Egypt included meetings with President Abdel
Fattah el-Sisi, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Land
Reclamation, Investment and International Cooperation, as well as the
Secretary General of the League of Arab States.
Sustainability in a dry land
FAO's work in the
region has already led to developments such as decentralized groundwater
governance schemes in Yemen and Morocco, the introduction of solar
pumping in Egypt, water harvesting in Jordan, innovative methods of
accounting for water and bolstering drought preparedness in Lebanon and
Tunisia, the formulation of the United Arab Emirates' first national
agricultural policy - an example of integrating multiple strategies with
a sharp focus on water conservation and climate change - and pilot
technology experiments involving installing water meters on farms.
Egypt's future
agenda is particularly tough as the country "needs to look seriously
into the choice of crops and the patterns of consumption," Graziano da
Silva warned, pointing to potential water waste in cultivating wheat in
the country.
In support of
Egypt's approach, he said FAO would favor holding an agricultural
investment forum towards the end of the year aiming at boosting public
and private investment in the agriculture value chain to support
economic growth and employment generation with the focus on four areas:
wheat, sugar, meat and horticulture.
Policy advice and
best practice ideas on the governance of irrigation schemes is a key
offering in FAO's Near East and North Africa Water Scarcity Initiative,
backed now by a network of more than 30 national and international
organizations .
The initiative has
gained momentum, buoyed by its endorsement by the League of Arab States
as well as donor support, Graziano da Silva said. Urgent actions
supporting it include measures aimed at reducing food loss and waste and
bolstering the resilience of smallholders and family farmers, that
require implementing a mix of social protection interventions,
investments and technology transfers, he added.
During his stay,
which ended on Thursday the Director-General paid tribute to a group of
rural women engaged in improving nutrition at the family level,
benefitting from FAO training and revolving funding.
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