• Innovative Solutions from the Arab World: Securing Water Futures. Led by the President of the World Water Council Mr Loïc Fauchon and the Chairman of the Arab Leagues' Water Ministers Council, participants in this session discussed solutions to water issues and the political decisions needed to ensure implementation of these solutions.
• Agents of Change in the Arab Water Sector. Led by the Director of the Arab Water Academy, Prof. Asma El Kasmi and the Rector of UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education Prof. Andras Szollosi-Nagy, this session focused on the needed policy discussions and capacities for water sector decision makers in the twentieth-first century.
• New horizons, New Partners, New Solutions. A private high-level leaders working lunch where attendees looked at the issues that must be answered if the Arab World wants to secure sustainable and integrated water management.

The Arab Water Academy, an institution established by the Arab Water Council and co-hosted by both the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi and the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, was officially launched in July 2008 in Abu Dhabi.

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ICBA Seminar in Azerbaijan

Baku in Azerbaijan was the location for ICBA's Seminar on the utilization of marginal water in agriculture, with special emphasis on countries in Central Asia and Caucasia. A collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Azerbaijan Ministry of Agriculture, the Seminar was convened on 21 June 2010 on the sidelines of the 35th annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB Group.
 
The Seminar was well-attended by staff from the Azerbaijan Ministry of Agriculture, other local institutions and agencies as well as IDB and Azerbaijan senior officials. In his welcoming address, the Ministry representative highlighted the importance of the scientific seminar in achieving the IDB's strategy to focus on capacity building and transfer of scientific knowledge. The representative expressed his belief that there was scope for stronger cooperation between all parties to ensure more opportunities for scientific interaction and learning in the future.

In the following address, H.E. Mr Birama Sidibe, IDB Vice-President in charge of Operations, stressed the important role of ICBA through its researches and projects about the use of marginal water resources, such as saline and treated water, aimed at enhancing agricultural production in IDB member countries. H.E. Mr Birama Sidibe also praised the outcomes of the joint projects between ICBA and the national agricultural researches in the Central Asia and Caucasus region and seminars such as the one held in Baku.

Dr Ahmad Almasoum, Deputy Director General, ICBA, and Head of the ICBA delegation, alluded to the many challenges facing the IDB-member countries and then elaborated ICBA's success in meeting these challenges through its approach of a partnership model and emphasis on capacity building and knowledge-sharing. see more...

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Gulf Water Week 2010

With average rain less than 100 mm per year, declining groundwater reserves and high reliance on desalinated water, Abu Dhabi was an ideal location for experts in water conservation, wastewater treatment and water distribution to explore water scarcity solutions at the recent Gulf Water Week 2010 conference.

ICBA's Irrigation Management Scientist, Dr Nurul Akhand, joined the conference delegates from countries across the Gulf and South-East to share his expertise in the reuse of reclaimed water in irrigation and its potential to mitigate water scarcity. At the conference held 24-26 May 2010, Dr Akhand explained that the key to the successful reuse of reclaimed water is water quality standards.

The existence of standards for the protection of human health and the environment and then ensuring compliance with these standards by regular water quality monitoring are essential strategies. International and local experience has demonstrated that once water quality standards are in place and implemented fully throughout the water treatment and use cycle, then reclaimed water can be used successfully in irrigated agriculture, forage production, floriculture, landscaping and groundwater recharge. The public perception of risks associated with the use of reclaimed water also needs to be addressed to ensure wide-scale adoption of this much-needed water resource.

At the end of day 2, Dr Akhand formed a panel with his colleagues from South Africa and Abu Dhabi to discuss in an interactive forum with the audience the opportunities and challenges in wastewater reuse in the Gulf region.

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Agreement inked today between Abu Dhabi Farmers Centers and ICBA

'Agricultural producers and consumers will be the clear winners benefiting from this agreement between FSC and ICBA', said Dr Shawki Barghouti, Director General of ICBA, as he and Mr David O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi Farmers Service Center (FSC), signed the agreement on 23 June 2010 in Abu Dhabi in the presence of H.E. Rashid Mohamed Al Shariqi, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA).

The Farmers Service Center was established in 2009 by ADAFSA to streamline links to the farming community. Concerned about the rapid depletion of natural resources, ADAFSA had targeted the agricultural sector for reform given its high levels of water use and unsustainable production practices.

In the short term reform will focus on the implementation of efficient integrated farming systems, including livestock, along with forages, vegetables and date production. Water usage in agriculture can be reduced by more than 40% through changes to the cropping patterns, adoption of improved water application techniques and the updating of old and inefficient on-farm water systems. The resultant improved agricultural productivity will considerably benefit the environment. In the longer term, the FSC will consider sustainable agricultural practices in relationship to markets in Abu Dhabi.

H.E. Rashid Mohamed Al Shariqi welcomed the collaboration between FSC and ICBA. He praised ICBA's in-country experience and particularly its specialized technical activities in Abu Dhabi, which will be fully utilized in this partnership with FSC to ensure the delivery of sustainable agricultural practices in the Emirate.

Mr O'Brien elaborated that FSC chose ICBA as its partner given ICBA's long experience in the region providing technical support and capacity building to farmers and extension services across a range of aspects such as improved irrigation systems; on-farm management of saline water and land resources; improved crops and cropping systems; and the establishment of demonstration farms.

Dr Barghouti explained that the collaboration between FSC and ICBA to sustain farm-level productivity in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi by introducing improved farming management practices and developing capacity building for extension services and farmers will cover a period of 54 months.  

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2010: International Year of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is life, biodiversity is our life
The year 2010 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Biodiversity to increase worldwide awareness of biodiversity and its importance, and to engage more people in its conservation. The International Day for Biological Diversity will be observed on May 22, with the theme "Biodiversity for Development and Poverty Alleviation". In September, the UN General Assembly will hold a special high-level meeting on biodiversity at its 65th annual general debate.

As part of the public discourse on the importance of biodiversity, the director general of Bioversity International, Dr Emile Frison, stated:
"Any serious discussion of biodiversity conservation must include the diversity of crops and livestock that are absolutely fundamental to human survival and well-being. Agricultural biodiversity is not only vital for human and animal nutrition; it is also indispensable for meeting the challenge of climate change and for lifting people out of poverty".

Since its establishment in 1999, the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) has contributed to the conservation and sustainable use of diversity of crops through its plant genetic resources program. For the last 10 years, ICBA has been collecting and maintaining the germplasm of species with proven or potential salinity tolerance to provide a source of genetic diversity; a critical strategy to help sustain productivity in degraded environments. see more ...

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Agriculture in the 21st century
The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture was acknowledged recently as an important research leader in the journal Science in an article arguing for a paradigm shift in thinking about agriculture in the 21st century.

Written by experts from American government departments, international plant and water bodies based in countries ranging from Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia, the article explores the need for a radical rethinking of the role of agriculture due to population growth, arable land constraints, fresh water limits and the effects of climate change.

Population growth is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, however, the extent of arable land and consequent ability to grow crops for food is diminishing due to urbanization, salinization, and desertification. Water scarcity already affects many regions throughout the world - a situation exacerbated by climate change.

The article discusses a range of solutions including the 'widespread adoption of more effective and sustainable agronomic practices', 'exploring the genetic variability in existing food crops', the use and improvement of conventional and molecular breeding, as well as molecular genetic modiciation (GM), aquaculture and the scale-up of dryland and saline agriculture'. It is in the area of dryland and saline agriculture that research leaders such as ICBA have a major opportunity to contribute solutions.

Science vol. 327 12 February 2010 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;327/5967/833?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=327&firstpage=833&resourcetype=HWCIT

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World Water Day 2010

The importance of water quality is evident in many of the ICBA projects recently completed and in progress. Building on its strong reputation among international centers of excellence in the use of saline water for agricultural production, ICBA conveyed its plans in the ICBA 2008-2012 Strategic Plan to broaden its role to cover the wider water front.

Consequently the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, who had been commissioned by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council to prepare a proposal on the development of the plan emphasizing water supply, demand and sustainable future water use, selected ICBA to implement this project.  

The Abu Dhabi Water Resources Master Plan published in 2009 by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi revealed the following facts:

• Groundwater is Abu Dhabi Emirates's only strategic water reserve
• Agriculture uses the most water (48%) - mainly fresh and brackish groundwater
• At current rates of agricultural use, all of Abu Dhabi's fresh and moderately brackish water will be exhausted in 20-40 years
• Domestic and industrial water uses 13% - provided mostly from desalination
• Desalinated water supply systems (the sole source of potable water) - only 2 days of storage capacity
• Forestry, amenity and landscaping uses 28% - mainly reclaimed water supplemented by desalinated water & groundwater
• Water wasted or lost is 5% - includes unaccounted for desalinated water and reclaimed water dumped in the desert or the Gulf.

ICBA followed this work with further development planning in the formulation of the UAE Strategic Plan for Water Conservation (a project undertaken on behalf of the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water); the Strategic Plan for Recycled Water for Abu Dhabi Emirate; and within the region, the Feasibility of Managing Aquifer Recharge Using Excess Treated Wastewater in Oman.