WLI Regional Knowledge Exchange Workshop on Decision-support Tools and Models September, 2013, Djerba, Tunisia Water Management Strategies and Impacts on Livelihoods in Egypt

WLI Goal and Intended Outputs Overall Goal: to improve the livelihoods of rural households and communities in areas where water scarcity, land degradation, and associated problems are prevalent. Intended Outputs: 1. Integrated water and land-use strategies for policy-making, tools for sustainable benchmark management and organizational mechanisms for community inclusion at the benchmark site. 2. Enhanced knowledge, skills and qualifications for key stakeholders in the benchmark sites. 3. Improved rural livelihoods of farmers in the benchmark sites through the adoption of sustainable land and water management practices and livelihood strategies. National Policy Objectives in (EGYPT): 1.Increase the productivity of both land and water units. 2.maintain the sustainability of water and land use. 3.Improving the livelihood of rural inhabitants. 4.Reducing poverty rates in rural areas.

South El- Husiania El Zankalon El-Bustan Damnhour Benchmark sites Agroecosystem: Irrigated agricultural

 The sustainability of the irrigation system…?  The gap between on-farm irrigation management & general irrigation network management [knowledge, management, & planning strategies]… ? Major questions…

Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Nile Delta Sustainability of the irrigated land A. Assessing the sustainability of the irrigation system (Modeling ) B. On-farm soil degradation analysis B.1 Baseline assessment B.2 Comprehensive case studies of soil degradation [soil compaction, salinity build-up, water table fluctuation] B. 3 Spatial analysis and hazard map development of soil degradation baseline in the Nile delta region C. Water Constraints on Crop choice and farmers income in the Thiba irrigation scheme

 At Behaira Governorate and very close to Damanhour city.  Area is 241 ha(735 Feddans).  The water source from El Nasery Canal then Sabya and Habib Canals.  The location has only one main drain of Nasr Allah drain.  Dominated soil types: Clay, Silty-Clay Damnhour Old land benchmark

Monitoring and Evaluation Measure supply and demand through Water Balance On-demand spatial assessments Options for improvements Build scenarios for up-scaling model A. Assessing the sustainability of the irrigation system (Modeling ) Evaluation Indicators: -Water productivity -Water use index or Application adequacy [PA] -Distribution efficiency [PF] -Dependability [PD] -Others… Measure Performance classes GoodFairPoor PAPA 0.90 – – 0.89< 0.80 PFPF 0.85 – – 0.84< 0.70 PEPE 0.00 – – 0.25> 0.25 PDPD 0.00 – – 0.20> 0.20

A. Assessing the sustainability of the irrigation system (Modeling )

Irrigation sustainability assessment (Modeling )…linkages & the way forward Develop an appropriate tool to help in designing possible efficient, economic and sustainable irrigation strategies that maximize water productivity and minimize environmental harmful impacts. “Water productivity optimizer (WP_optimizer)”: integrated modeling framework, aiming to analyze water productivity and environmental impacts of irrigation practices, starting from field scale to tertiary canal irrigation zone scale. Activity [A] is linked to the modeling analysis of “Irrigation Benchmark project”

Irr. network Spatial analysis Scenarios WP_optimizer is developed and coded by VB.Net using ArcGis 10 tools, for windows 7. “WP-optimizer” has two connected routines: -On-farm irrigation management, -Irrigation distributary network. WP-OPTIMIZER STRUCTURE AND THEORETICAL BASIS

Selection of the most suitable on-farm model Parameter WAVESIMETAW SALTMED SWAPSPAWCropSystDSSATAquaCrop 1-Objective Theory Crops Strength constrains & limitations inputs outputs license Interface The availability of scientific review, case studies and technical assistants calibration Error alerts & log files Overall compatibility index 0= not compatible 10= highly compatible

On-farm Model [SaltMed]...(Ragab, 2002) “SaltMed” is the on-farm water management model, it has been developed (Ragab, 2002) as a generic model that can be used for a variety of irrigation systems, soil types, soil stratifications, crops and trees, water management strategies (blending or cyclic), leaching requirements and water quality.

System boundaries and water inflows and outflows for the calculation of the water balance WP-OPTIMIZER STRUCTURE AND THEORETICAL BASIS

The time step of the WP-optimizer water balance simulation is 15 days, in order to match actual national irrigation rotations system. WP-OPTIMIZER STRUCTURE AND THEORETICAL BASIS

WP_optimizer is under evaluation now, using a case study from the Nile Delta Region.

Activity [B]: On-farm soil degradation analysis Sustainability of the irrigated land A. Assessing the sustainability of the irrigation system (Modeling ) B. On-farm soil degradation analysis B.1 Baseline assessment B.2 Comprehensive case studies of soil degradation [soil compaction, salinity build-up, water table fluctuation] B. 3 Spatial analysis and hazard map development of soil degradation baseline in the Nile delta region Soil compaction & salinity in old land

B. Soil degradation assessment in old land  Questionnaire form … o the sources of soil compaction due to agriculture practice, o the perception of the farmers the effect of soil compaction Sample size:  Phase I: 50 points without field measurements,  Phase II: 50 points with field measurements for soil compaction and soil salinity at different stages of the cultivation season, as follows:  Before land preparation and planting  After land preparation and planting  Mid of summer season  End of summer season

B. Soil degradation assessment in old land Data collection from the 38 sampling points: Questionnaire form, Soil compaction, moisture and salinity. Data collection from the 12 sampling points (4 selected fields on each mesqa of the selected 3 mesqas): Questionnaire form, Soil compaction, moisture and salinity, Crop pattern at each mesqa Analysis of mechanical and chemical properties of the soil before and after cultivation season, The quantity of the irrigation water at the mesqa level, The quantity of the irrigation water at the field level ( if possible), Crop yield at the field level.

20 cm 40 cm 60 cm Before plantingAfter plantingMiddle of the season

C. Water Constraints on Crop choice and farmers income in the Thiba irrigation scheme (New land) IWMI: François MOLLE & Wafaa GHAZOUANI Objective: how the quality of water supply to end- users in the Thiba scheme fed by branch canal 20, in terms of adequacy (quantity is enough to meet crop requirements), timeliness (water is available when needed), predictability (crop choice and management can be planned based on reasonable expectations), impacts crop choice and therefore farm income.

Activity [C]: Research steps:  Generate GIS layers based on Google Earth [Tiba scheme, Nubaria], through information gathered at the village and farm levels (including the use of groundwater).  Use information generated from remote sensing data by IFAD’s “Smart ICT” project, to study the spatial heterogeneity of evapotranspiration across the command area.  Compare with data from the survey and generate a synthesis map showing the quality of access to water.  Select a sample of branch canals  Conduct farming system surveys, unpack the rationale of crop choice at the farm level, and identify possible improvements in collective action around water management.  Map and assess the overall yield gap due to both reductions in yields and constraints to crop choice.  Synthesize results on the productivity gap, and ways to close this gap by improving water management

Activity [C]: Preliminary results: -The quality of water supplies to particular farm depends heavily on its location within the network -factors contributed to the heterogeneity of water supply: -power cuts which affect the main pumping station and the electricity networks of the collective pumps -Physical illegal intervention on the irrigation infrastructure to increase water supply, -Social influence of the control of infrastructure and application of the official rotation between the sub-branches of the BC. -Economic results showed a gap of production, which was mainly induced by both restriction on crop choices and decrease of crop yields as one moves to downstream the BC

The way forward…  Irrigation system sustainability assessment in old land…to be cont.  Include branch canals in the modeling assessments  Soil degradation due to agriculture practices…to be cont.  Modeling study of the effect of applying deficit irrigation on irrigation system performance at the old land Benchmark AquaCrop model Major field crops Pilot fields to collect the required data Include climate change impacts

Thank you