I C A R D A    N e w s

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS

P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105;
E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Website: www.icarda.cgiar.org
For more information contact: Dr Surendra Varma (s.varma@CGIAR.ORG)
 
 
5 May 2005
A Water Research Week at ICARDA
A number of important activities related to the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management were held at ICARDA headquarters during the week of 8-15 April 2005, organized by the mega-project on Water and Drought.
Participants of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) Workshop on Basin Water Productivity, held at ICARDA on 13-15 April.

A workshop for Coordinating Lead Authors of the Comprehensive Assessment (CA) of Water Management was held on 8-10 April. The CA document is a culmination of work undertaken over the years by the System-wide initiative on water management led by IWMI. The assessment, to be published in 2006, will include chapters on water productivity; rain and marginal water use as well as water use in rice; land degradation; polices and institutions; aquaculture and future water use scenarios. A total of 18 authors and scientists from several international institutes led by Dr David Molden of IWMI discussed the content and final layout of the document. ICARDA is leading two of the nine chapters of the book. Work on the chapter on water productivity is led by Dr Theib Oweis and that on the marginal-quality water use in agriculture by Dr Manzoor Qadir.
Workshop of Lead Authors of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management.
Two parallel workshops on water productivity and on rainfed agriculture were also held on 10-12 April. The water productivity workshop was held to finalize the chapter on the assessment of water productivity. Lead authors and potential contributors finalized the content of the chapter. Authors from IWMI, IRRI, ILRI, ICRISAT, FAO, UC Davis, and several other international institutes participated in the meeting. The rainfed component is led by ICRISAT, with ICARDA leading water harvesting, supplemental irrigation and wheat yield gap studies. Drs Eddy De Pauw, Mustafa Pala, Adriana Bruggeman, and Theib Oweis participated in this workshop.

On 11-12 April, theme leaders and basin coordinators of the CPWF met to discuss progress and future plans. The meeting was chaired by the CPWF Global Coordinator, Dr Jonathan Woolley.
Workshop on Assessment of Water Productivity at the Basin Level. Addressing the participants is Dr Jonathan Woolley, CPWF Global Coordinator.
More than 50 scientists and experts from around the world came to ICARDA headquarters on 13-15 April 2005 for a high-level consultative workshop on “Assessment of Water Productivity at River Basin Level,” organized within the framework of the project on “Improving On-Farm Water Productivity in Karkheh River Basin,” funded by the CPWF. The project is spearheaded by ICARDA, working in partnership with the national program in Iran, four CG centers and other institutions. The workshop aimed at developing a framework for the assessment of water productivity in agriculture at the river basin level. The methodology will be used at the Karkheh, Euphrates and Amudaria river basins and other CPWF basins. Participants included the CPWF Global Coordinator Dr Jonathan Woolley; the CA Coordinator Dr David Molden; the Karkheh Basin Leader and ICARDA Board Member Dr Abbas Keshavarz, senior researchers from the Karkheh river basin in Iran and Amudaria river basin in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Euphrates basin in Turkey and Syria; project managers of the CPWF from other river basins in Latin America, Africa and Asia; theme leaders and basin coordinators and several prominent scientists from international advanced institutes and CWANA NARS.

On behalf of the ICARDA Director General, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, Dr William Erskine, Assistant Director General (Research), welcomed the workshop participants to what he called “the heartland of water scarcity.” He outlined some of the work that ICARDA is doing to increase water productivity including the development of water harvesting systems, use of supplemental irrigation in rainfed areas, development of crop varieties resistant to abiotic stresses, and making irrigation more efficient. He emphasized that ICARDA’s work is done in partnership with national programs, and welcomed the Challenge Program as a means to operationalize the link of research at international institutions level with the NARS.

The CPWF Global Coordinator, Dr Jonathan Woolley, said that the CP is a joint venture between five CG centers and 14 other national and international institutions, with the main objective to ensure the production of more food with less water. He noted that other sectors are competing for water with agriculture, which has meant that there is decreasing water for food production, while the demand for food is growing.

Dr Abbas Keshavarz from the Karkheh River Basin project in Iran made a presentation on the water scarcity problems facing agriculture in Iran. He said that though 84% of the water in the country is used for agriculture, it is not enough to ensure sustainable food production self-sufficiency. “Increasing water productivity is the only solution for the future because we cannot increase the amount of available water for agricultural production,” he said.
Participants of the Comprehensive Assessment Water Productivity Workshop, held at ICARDA on 11-12 April.
The Director of ICARDA’s Mega-Project on Management of Scarce Water Resources and Mitigation of Drought in Dry Areas, Dr Theib Oweis, said that the Karkheh river basin project aims to enhance food security and improve livelihoods through increased and stabilized water productivity. He said that since there was no methodology available for assessing water productivity at the river basin level, it was necessary to hold a consultation workshop with experts from the three river basins, partner institutions and other projects of the Challenge Program on Water and Food to develop a framework for conducting the assessment.

Keynote presentations were made by Drs Molden (IWMI), Hsiao (UC Davis), Peden (ILRI), Sugunan (WorldFish), Guchuki (CPWF) and Oweis, in addition to presentations from Karkheh, Euphates and Amudaria basins researchers. The participants developed basin level assessment methodologies.

The workshop was closed by Drs Erskine, Woolley, and Keshavarz.

About ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA (www.icarda.cgiar.org) serves the entire developing world for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean; and dry-area developing countries for the on-farm management of water, improvement of nutrition and productivity of small ruminants (sheep and goats), and rehabilitation and management of rangelands. In the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA is responsible for the improvement of durum and bread wheats, chickpea, pasture and forage legumes and farming systems; and for the protection and enhancement of the natural resource base of water, land, and biodiversity.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) is a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting15 international research centers that mobilizes cutting-edge science to promote sustainable development by reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition and health, and protecting the environment.
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