With 55.5 billion cubic meters of annual water allocation, the Nile River accounts for 98% of all available freshwater in Egypt. Some 85% of this is captured by farmers to irrigate their crops. But a combination of population growth and worsening climate change conditions means that farmers' water needs exceed what the river can supply.
ICARDA's Soil, Water, and Agronomy (SWA) team of researchers supports farmers to transition, technically but also behaviourally, from farming conditions where water is no longer abundant – but increasingly scarce and precious.
Alongside its partners, ICARDA is working to enhance water productivity and higher 'crop-per-drop' efficiency by streamlining and improving irrigation methods, water systems, and technology. Precision agriculture is yet to be widely developed in the Global South. 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.
As part of CGIAR's Excellence in Agronomy Initiative (EiA), ICARDA works with key private, public, and research partners in Egypt to improve digital extension advisory to local farmers. The GeoAgro Pro phone app provides packages of best practices selected from field surveys and digital tools to support farmers achieve higher crop and water productivity.
Source: icarda.org