Presentation by Dr. Ithar Khalil World Food Programme Egypt Country Egypt Eng. Othman El Shaikh Project Manager Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region Project

1. Dr. Ithar Khalil
World Food Programme
Egypt Country Egypt
Use of On-farm Low Cost Techniques in
Smallholders Irrigation- Experiences from the Field
Eng. Othman El Shaikh
Project Manager
Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit
the Southern Egypt Region Project

2. Background
Southern Egypt
• Highest Food insecurity and
poverty rates- Heavy
dependence on smallholdings
agriculture
• Stressed land and water
resources
• Highest temperature rise and
current extreme weather
events
• Highest losses in crop
productivity
• Highest livestock productivity
affected
• Highest water demands

3. Background…cont’
• In response, GOE proposed a project to support resilience of smallholders in Southern Egypt.
• Project is funded by the AF. WFP is the implementing entity and MALR is the executing entity.
• Project Objectives:
•
1) improve the adaptive capacity of the Southern region of the country in the face of anticipated
climate-induced reduction in food production through a set of integrated interventions and
2) build institutional capacity at national, regional and local levels to enable sustainability and
replication of the project interventions
5 years 135,757 direct + 1.7 indirect beneficiaries

4. Project Interventions
• Component 1: Technology transfer
• Community level mobilization
• Establishment Climate information centers in NGOs
• Early Warning System 5 days & recommendations.
• Building resilience in agricultural production
• Building resilience through livestock and poultry production
• Introduction of water saving irrigation
• Component 2: Capacity building for climate knowledge and
replication of interventions under component 1

5. Objectives of this Presentation
1) present techniques implemented and have proven to reduce
water consumption in irrigation
and
• 2) present a quantification of the resulting water savings for
each of these techniques

6. Canal Lining
Earth
irrigation
canals are
lined with
concrete
• water savings due to
reduced seepage
• allowed farmers at the
end of the canals better
access to the water
• reduced pumping costs
for all farmers along the
canal
water usage is reduced by
approximately 25%.

7. 2. Soil Laser Leveling
• reduced water
consumption on
average by 20%.
Unevenness in
the soil surface
topography has
several negative
effects
Farmers must
devote more
resources to
establishing and
maintaining the
crop
will receive less
income
fields have
uneven water
coverage

8. Raised bed
cultivation
On the irrigation water
saving front, savings of 15%

9. Water Saving Crops & Varieties
Hibiscus
consumed
19% less
water than
maize
New varieties of
sugar cane
•narrower
leaves with
fluffs
•reduced
transpiration
(accounts for
60% of the
water
consumption)
•have a one
month shorter
live than
traditional
varieties
•Reduction of
10-15% in
water
consumption
Fennel in
winter used
17% less
water than
wheat

10. Land Consolidation
Consolidation
of
fragmented
land holdings
supports
smallholders
in arranging
themselves
into small
groups of at
40-80 farmers
improve
water
management
resulting in
10-15%
reduction in
irrigation
water usage
due to the re-
alignment of
the irrigation
channels