This unique volume focuses on Egypt’s conventional water resources and the main water consumer: Egypt’s agriculture. It provides an up-to-date overview and the latest research findings, and covers the following main topics: · History of irrigation and irrigation projects · Key features of agriculture, the administrative and legal framework in Egypt · Land resources for agriculture development · Food insecurity due to water shortages and climate change; resulting challenges and opportunities · Assessment of water resources for irrigation and drinking purposes · Impacts of upstream dams, such as the GERD and Tekeze Dam, on Egypt’s water resources and crop yield · Sustainable use of water resources and the future of mega irrigation projects · Quantity and quality of water in Egypt’s water resources bank This book and the companion volume Unconventional Water Resources and Agriculture in Egypt offer invaluable reference guides for postgraduates, researchers, professionals, environmental managers and policymakers interested in water resources and their management worldwide.

This unique volume presents up-to-date information and the latest research findings on unconventional water resources in Egypt and their connections to agriculture. It investigates how to cope with the severe shortage of water and how to improve the irrigation system’s efficiency. The main aspects addressed include: · History of drainage and drainage projects in Egypt · Towards the integration of irrigation and drainage water · Assessment of drainage systems and environmental impact assessment of irrigation projects · Maximizing the reuse of agricultural drainage water and agricultural waste to improve irrigation efficiency · Developing alternative water resources, such as desalination, for greenhouses · Drainage water quality assessment, microbial hazards and improvement of green and cost-effective technologies for treatment of agricultural drainage water and wastewater for reuse in irrigation · Towards the sustainable reuse of water resources in Egypt · Options for securing water resources in Egypt, and challenges and opportunities for policy planners This book and the companion volume Conventional Water Resources and Agriculture in Egypt are vital resources for researchers, environmental managers and water policy planners – and for all those seeking information on wastewater reuse, green and cost-effective technologies for improving water quality.

This book targets the issue of water scarcity in Egypt as a typical example of the world water crisis. Today, the available water resource is facing its limit because of rapid increase in water demand as a result of population growth and changes in peoples’ life-style. The basic idea to solve the problem of water scarcity is that the irrigation sector, the biggest user of water, should increase water use efficiency. However, the real problem is how this can be achieved in view of the crucial need for water in this sector. This book addresses this challenge through case studies from the Nile delta in Egypt. The water problem in the Nile delta, the major source for water in Egypt, is discussed in this book from all its various aspects. This book covers the situation before and after the advent of the Aswan High Dam, so that the reader understands the entire development. Another special feature are the extensive and scientific descriptions of contemporary topics in water and agriculture, especially from the viewpoint of water saving and sustainability. These descriptions are based on field experiments and surveys in a six-year international research project. Topics of this book are local, but their implications are global.

From the 1980s onward, billions of dollars were poured into irrigation improvement programs in Egypt. These aimed at improving local Nile water management through the introduction of more water-efficient technology and by placing management of the improved systems in the hands of local water user associations. The central premise of most of these programs was that the functioning of such associations could rely on the revival of traditional forms of social capital-social networks, norms, and trust-for their success. Social Capital and Local Water Management in Egypt shows how the far-reaching social changes wrought at the village level in Egypt through the twentieth century rendered such a premise implausible at best and invalid at worst. Dalia Gouda examines networks of social relationships and their impact on the exercise of social control and the formation of collective action at the local level and their change over time in four villages in the Delta and Fayoum governorates. Outlining three time frames, pre-1952, 1952-73, and 1973 to the present, and moving between multiple actors-farmers, government officials, and donor agencies-Gouda shows how institutional and technological changes during each period and the social changes that coincided with them yielded mixed successes for the water user associations in respect of water management. Social Capital and Local Water Management in Egypt is essential reading for anyone working in the field of community based natural resource management in Egypt, including policymakers and practitioners, donor agencies, and civil society organizations, as well as anthropologists and sociologists.

This book gathers contributions discussing climate change in Egypt from an agricultural perspective. Written by leading experts, it presents state-of-the-art insights and the latest research developments in light of the most recent IPCC report. Focusing on identifying the specific phenomena that affect climate change in Egypt, the book also addresses the effects of climate change in Egypt, particularly examining the quality and quantity of water resources as well as the socio-economic impacts of climate change on agricultural activities. Furthermore, it explores alternative solutions to support agriculture and food security and raises awareness of adaptation and protection as the key to adapting to the risks posed by climate change. Covering the four fundamental pillars of climate change: food security, availability, access and stability, this book is a valuable resource for stakeholders involved in achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals in Egypt and all countries with similar climatic conditions. It is also a unique source of information and updates on climate change impacts for graduates, researchers, policy planners, and decision-makers.

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture is FAO's first flagship publication on the global status of land and water resources. It is an 'advocacy' report, to be published every three to five years, and targeted at senior level decision makers in agriculture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed at sensitizing its target audience on the status of land resources at global and regional levels and FAO's viewpoint on appropriate recommendations for policy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimensions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land and water resources, (ii) the rate of use and sustainable management of these resources in the context of relevant socio-economic driving factors and concerns, including food security and poverty, and climate change. This is the first time that a global, baseline status report on land and water resources has been made. It is based on several global spatial databases (e.g. land suitability for agriculture, land use and management, land and water degradation and depletion) for which FAO is the world-recognized data source. Topical and emerging issues on land and water are dealt with in an integrated rather than sectoral manner. The implications of the status and trends are used to advocate remedial interventions which are tailored to major farming systems within different geographic regions.

Mediterranean irrigation is diverse due to, among other factors, the relative importance of water in the economy of each country, varied levels of aridity, heterogeneous levels economic, social and technological levels of development, and differences in political and social organization. However, most of the Mediterranean countries face similar problems to meet their water demands because of the scarcity and variability of renewable resources, growing water requirements from non-agricultural sectors, increasing environmental concerns related to water quality and environmental degradation, a social demand for larger public participation, and important technological changes. The time has come to reconsider the “not one drop lost to the sea” philosophy of yesteryears largely and to 'live within limits'. This book focuses on eight selected countries (Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Israel and Egypt) and provides a comparative perspective that both thoroughly explores their specificities and identifies the common challenges faced by the irrigation sector in these countries. The book has been written at a critical moment, when the continued application of a supply-side water management model is revealing its unsustainable nature in numerous places; when significant technological changes are taking place in the irrigation sector; when new forms of management and governance are widely held as badly needed; and finally, when climate change is compounding many of the difficulties that have characterized irrigation policies and practices in the past decades. This complicated future context makes Mediterranean irrigation face various political dilemmas on water management, raising social tensions, triggering territorial and land conflicts, and stimulating new technological developments. This book provides a timely analysis of the particular trajectory of eight Mediterranean countries in these uncertain transformations, and attempts to identify the best strategies to avert or overcome future risks.

This book offers a broad and global level description of the current status of wastewater use in agriculture and then brings the readers to various places in the MENA Region and Europe to explain how some countries and regions have addressed the challenges during implementation. On a global scale, over 20 million hectares of agricultural land are irrigated using wastewater. This is one good, and perhaps the most prominent, example of the safe use potential of wastewater. Water scarcity and the cost of energy and fertilisers are among the main factors driving millions of farmers and other entrepreneurs to make use of wastewater. In order to address the technical, institutional, and policy challenges of safe water reuse, developing countries and countries in transition need clear institutional arrangements and more skilled human resources, with a sound understanding of the opportunities and potential risks of wastewater use. Stakeholders in wastewater irrigation who need to implement from scratch or improve current conditions, find it difficult to gather the necessary information on practical implementation aspects. The main objective of this book is to bridge that gap.

This book includes multi-disciplinary quantifications of the effect of climate change on water requirements of wheat, maize, rice and sugarcane. Furthermore, it provides on-farm management that faces water scarcity under current situation and under climate change. Changing cultivation method (raised beds instead of furrows or basins) or increasing irrigation application efficiency (sprinkler or drip systems instead of surface irrigation) can reduce the applied water. Irrigated agriculture, although profitable, it endures wasteful use of valuable water resources. Taking into account the risk of climate change, developing countries like Egypt will highly suffer. Furthermore, the effect of intercropping (two crops use the applied water to one of them), and/or using crop rotations (arrange crops to reduce the applied water, increase water productivity and sustain soil fertility) on production and consumed irrigation water by crops were comprehensively analyzed.

The Nile is the world's longest river and sustains the livelihoods of millions of people across ten countries in Africa. This book provides unique and up-to-date insights on agriculture, water resources, governance, poverty, productivity, upstream-downstream linkages, innovations, future plans and their implications.