ICARDA Caravan 6

These Egyptian farmers (Right and center) found plenty to talk about with this Syrian farmer. They had stopped to ask him about his animals as the visitors traveled through the Maragha steppe.

  never knew I would see and learn so much--or that it would change my ideas. I now feel motivated to get back to my farm in Egypt and start rehabilitating a piece of the land by resting it, and reintroducing shrub plants like I have seen some of the Syrian farmers doing."
        The speaker was Egyptian farmer Idris Yadam Nouh Hassan, from El-Negeila community in Marsa Matrouh, North-West Egypt. And words like his are music to the ears of ICARDA scientists and technicians who, working with the Syrian national program, had just organized a traveling workshop for Mr Hassan and other farmers from Marsa Matrouh.
        The trip was another activity in the Marsa Matrouh natural-resources management project, an Egyptian Government project supported by the World Bank for which ICARDA is providing technical backstopping (see box, page 21). It is not the first such workshop--a similarly successful one was run on legumes/cereals rotation, amongst other things, in the spring (see Farmers believe farmers in Caravan No. 5). The latest workshop lasted some days and covered a variety of aspects of the farming system, including rangeland rehabilitation and water harvesting.
        One of the gravest threats to natural resources in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region is the degradation of rangeland, or steppe, an essential resource for grazing; its loss also opens the way for desert encroachment (see Caravan No. 3). And one of the biggest problems facing government technicians working with the Marsa Matrouh project in northwestern Egypt is getting farmers to rehabilitate their rangeland. Farmers can see the reasoning behind it, but they don't know how they can do it in practice, given the already serious pressure of livestock and human populations on the land, and the fact that some of them are already using marginal land. For those who can cordon off parts of their land (i.e. whose land is not communally 'owned'), wouldn't they risk being refused access to other people's rangeland if they refused access to parts of theirs? And they are not sure of the long-term benefits of rangeland rehabilitation.

Mohammed Al-Hijazi, Director of the El-Mahasse Range Improvement and Water-Harvesting Project,  Syria, explains a model of the project to the visitors and ICARDA staff.

22,000-hectare park, of which small areas are being cordoned off and rested to allow rehabilitation. Bedouin are still allowed to graze their animals in some areas, under the project's supervision.
        In addition to monitoring changes in vegetation as a result of protection, the project has an active seed-production program. Natural range does not seed every year, as it does not produce every year, usually because of low rainfall. So the project ensures a constant supply of seed for sowing in a good year. Mr Mireh particularly favors Salsola vermiculata (shrubs) and Atriplex leucoclada (saltbush) and has found direct sowing in a good year very effective. The farmers were soon sharing their experiences

This large dam, with a storage capacity  of 300,000 cubic meters, forms part of  the El-Mahasse Water-Harvesting  Project.

When the sheep move in the Syrian steppe, everybody moves. These young children are waiting for sheep to be loaded so that the family can move in search of better grazing for the animals.

with saltbushes and shrubs on their farms--especially the decreasing diversity as a result of overgrazing.
         Some of the farmers could remember when Atriplex species (saltbushes) and artemesia covered large parts of their range. But these have all but disappeared now, and in dry years, farmers are often forced to sell their livestock as they cannot afford to buy fodder and water to carry them through the drought--which shrubs and saltbushes used to help them do.
        The farmers were therefore very keen on their visit to El-Mahasse Range Improvement and Water-Harvesting Project managed by the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Directorate of Irrigation, which consists of a large water-harvesting and catchment project. Rainfall is measured and harvested over 1000 hectares, then spread and collected through a complex system of contour ditches and small dams before ending up in a large dam with a storage capacity of 300,000 cubic meters of water, and five large cisterns, with a total storage capacity of 11,000 cubic meters, used to supply water for animals. The project has planted 16,100 olive trees and 4500 pistachio trees. The farmers were particularly interested in looking at rainfall-use efficiency of fodder and fodder/shrub rotations. This complemented their discussions with farmers working with ICARDA and practicing fodder-vetch rotations in El Bab 60 kilometers northeast of Aleppo, Syria (see  Shrubs could help save the steppe in Caravan No. 3).
        As Idris Yadam Nouh Hassan said, seeing is believing. For Egyptian technicians like Salama Abdel Rahman, who traveled with the party, a large part of their problem had been solved; the farmers understand what they were suggesting.  And they now knew that it could work, for them, their households, animals and for the environment on which they depend.

Mr Faik Bahhady is Assistant Livestock Scientist in ICARDA. Dr Farouk Shomo is Economics Research Associate, and  Ms Christine Kalume is Science Writer/Editor, ICARDA.

        The other major problem technicians and farmers in the region face is the lack of water. The farmers rely on rain for their crops, and rainfall is limited--around 120 to 130 mm a year--varied and unreliable. Wells are problematic and, although some farmers have water cisterns, these still rely on rain; if there is no rain, there is no water in the cisterns. Most of the area has experienced drought this year and in 1996, and many farmers were forced to sell some of their livestock as they could not afford to buy  feed or water. Others left the area to find grazing for their animals.
        With these two problems in mind, ICARDA's Natural Resources Management Program and Human Resources Development Unit, in collaboration with the Egyptian government, organized a tour of relevant Syrian projects for five technicians and five farmers representing the five sectors of Marsa Matrouh--and significant individual farmers.
        The trip included visits to two Syrian farmers who, working with ICARDA, had decided to protect areas of their land--with visible success. The Egyptian farmers saw with their own eyes how it was possible to rotate the areas being protected and that, by avoiding grazing during the critical seeding period, it was possible to have quite dramatic results.
        The message about rangeland protection was reinforced by their visit to El-Talila National Park, where Mohammed Mireh of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) explained the Syrian government's Italian-funded project to rehabilitate the rangeland and reintroduce wildlife into the park. The idea is to concentrate on degraded but high-potential rangeland rather than rangeland which is naturally poor. As Mr Mireh told the group: "80-90% of land acts as a watershed for high potential areas of rangeland." The project is initially concentrating on 130 hectares of the