Allocation of water resources for agriculture workshop

Review of resolutions of the second joint ministerial meeting held in January 2022, of which the adoption of the guidelines for improving water allocation for agriculture in the Arab region. Country representatives were informed of developments in the process of implementing the voluntary guidelines on water allocation for agriculture at the pilot level in each From Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine.

The four countries that expressed interest into voluntarily applying the guidelines (Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Palestine) presented challenges and constraints specific to each of those countries and briefed on progress made into applying the Guidelines on improved water allocation for agriculture in selected pilot areas.

Review of RICCAR outputs that are available on the data portal of the RICCAR Regional Knowledge Hub. Focus was placed on the use this data to assess the impact of climate change on the water and agricultural sectors and implement climate change adaptation and mitigation programs at the national and regional levels. Reference was also made to results of assessments studies on impact of climate change on the available water and the productivity of agricultural crops in the Arab region. Some international experiences in this field were also presented from China, Jordan, Spain and Egypt, and the lessons learned from these experiences were also highlighted, while discussing the possibility of applying these experiences in various Arab countries.

This session was dedicated to building knowledge on the necessary requirements for the application of the Guidelines on Improved Water Allocation for Agriculture, reviewing various tools needed such as Water Accounting and Water System Modelling (IHE), Remote sensing technologies for water productivity: Crop mapping using the WAPOR platform (FAO) and the institutional, financial, and legal frameworks for the implementation of Water Allocation.