FAO Organization issued a report stating that water scarcity has become one of the most pressing food security issues in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt, in particular, faces a major problem as the population is constantly growing, which depends mainly on a fixed and specific source of fresh water, which is the Nile River. Therefore, the impact of water scarcity on agricultural production and food availability is an urgent issue that must be addressed. While a large number of scholars are seeking for Government political reforms to be able to deal with the negative impact of water scarcity on food security in Egypt, we find that the Research Institute for Sustainable Environment has recently been studying the strategies that local farmers apply it to overcome this problem in the Middle East region.
The Institute emphasizes that these strategies are no less than important that followed government strategies and everyone must encourage those domestic initiatives that deal with the issue at its roots and can mitigate the negative impact of water scarcity.
“Most of Egypt’s agricultural production depends on local farmers, and this is the main reason that calls for us to study the problem from its roots and look carefully at the strategies that local farmers apply to cope with the problem of water scarcity in order to reach realistic solutions. Water users must be involved in the process of developing a schedule of water use that suits their actual needs.” Hajar Al-Didi, the research assistant at the Sustainable Environment Research Institute said.
The Research Institute for Sustainable Environment, in cooperation with both World Center of Colombia in the Middle East and the American University of Beirut, conducted an analysis of farmers’ feedback from the problem of water scarcity in the Middle East. The Research Institute for Sustainable Environment focused on three areas in Egypt. Richard Toetler, Administrator of the Research Institute for the Sustainable Environment said, “We have studied the current situation of agricultural lands in three Egyptian villages in different environmental scales: the first is an urban village in the Delta (Shubra Qabla), another is located in reclaimed lands in the West Delta (Imam Malik), and the last one is located in the oasis community in the Western Desert (Abu Minqar). By this, we would have covered various environments in relation to the available water resources, because the desert community depends mainly on groundwater, while the other mentioned villages depend mainly on the water of the Nile River”.
The Research Institute for the Sustainable Environment has a long and close relationship with those agricultural communities, and the Institute has conducted many interviews with large groups of residents of these areas to determine the strategies that they apply to face the problem of water scarcity in agricultural communities.
Many farmers have resorted to well-drilling technology to meet the shortage of fresh water resources. Nevertheless, the Research Institute for Sustainable Environment believes that one of the most positive solutions is to resort to agriculture using modern irrigation systems.
Changing planting dates is the third successful sustainable solution that farmers have used to cope with water scarcity.
The Research Institute for the Sustainable Environment discovered that farmers were also suffering from an insufficient water distribution problem. “When we interviewed farmers, we found that one of the biggest problems they face is that the water crisis is not just a shortage of water, it is also an inadequate distribution of water,” Tina Jaskolsky, Project Coordinator and Project Manager at the Research Institute for the Sustainable Environment explains. Farmers whose lands are located at the end of the canal get less irrigation water compared to farmers whose lands are located at the beginning of the canal. In this way, farmers cannot rely at all on the irrigation and water distribution schedule set by the government. This is precisely the main reason why farmers push to irrigation with large quantities of water when it reaches them, to compensate for the lack of water in other days and weeks. This process in particular lacks fairness and efficiency, in addition to the fact that excessive irrigation will damage the soil and crops.
For this reason, the Research Institute for the Sustainable Environment prefers to resort to sustainable local solutions, such as using “Floppy Sprinkler” irrigation system, encouraging and supporting its use and changing planting dates to help alleviate the impact of water shortage on agricultural crops. “These local efforts can be supported by the participation of farmers in financing the installation of modern irrigation systems and “Floppy Sprinkler” systems, says Tina Jaskolsky. Support and assist farmers in the process of selecting other new varieties of crops for planting; In addition to coordinating with the Water Users Association and Farmers Associations to support the process of managing water resources in an efficient and effective way. ”
At the same time, the Sustainable Environment Research Institute hopes to continue engaging with local farmers to facilitate the actual assessment of their freshwater needs. “That’s exactly what we have been doing for a long time and this is definitely what we will continue to do.” Twitler says.
