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Progress in implementing soil conservation and water harvesting in Jordan

Feras Ziadat, Mohammad Mudabber, Ahmed Sharydeh, Awad Ka’abneh

Consortium Research Program on Dryland Systems (CRP DS)ICARDA – NCARE Technical Meeting for Tafilah-Salamieh Action Site

(Jordan sites) Ayass Hotel, Amman September 21-22, 2014

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Soil Conservation• Land degradation and water scarcity

are major threats in the dry areas

• The area suffer from severe soil erosion and reduction in productivity.

Devastating land degradation resulting from extreme rainfall events

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Soil Conservation• Selection of farmers and four fields

in Erak and Tafila, implementation arrangements

• Maintenance of existing structures• Establishing demonstration fields in

Mushaggar (IWLMP and DISPS)

Participatory testing and dissemination of soil and water conservation interventions

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Water harvesting and grazing management• Maintenance of existing system in Erak• Selection of site for implementing

Valerrani WH in Tafila to start in November 2014

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Water harvesting and grazing management

• Selection of site for integrated watershed management in Majidyya (IWLMP and DISPS)

• Organizing two field days

for grazing management in Majidyya (IWLMP and DISPS)

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Water harvesting and supplemental irrigation • Implementation of hill lake (~7,000 m3), cultivation

of barley and vegetable crops, data collection. • Farmers’ initiative and support from NCARE &

ICARDA

Water harvesting to improve productivity and livelihoods

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Water harvesting & supplemental irrigation

PriceJOD

ProductionTon

AreaDunum Crop No.

1500 3.5 (Seed)50

Barley 11000 5.0 (Hay)2625 4.50 5 Cucumber 23200 11 .00 25 Tomato 3150 0.50 - Corn 4100 0.25 - Pepper 58575 Total

• Implementation (January 2014) • Cost (6248 JOD)

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Watershed modeling • Data collection for the 2013/2014 season• Data analysis and results• MSc thesis defended successfully by Lubna

Mahasneh (partially supported by CRP-DS): Adapting SWAT Model to Assess the Impact of Water

Harvesting Interventions on Runoff and Soil Erosion in an Arid Environment: A Case from Jordan

Watershed modeling, monitoring and management

Calibration by comparing farmers’ practices versus water harvesting interventions

Simulated and observed sediment yield and runoff quantified the potential of water harvesting interventions in reducing soil erosion and combat land degradation.

Simulated and observed biomass increase should encourage formers to adopt water harvesting interventions to maximize productivity and provide protection against erosive rainfall.

Without water harvesting With water harvesting intervention (Farmers Practice)

Soil and water losses No/little losses

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Watershed modeling • Introductory SWAT workshops, Amman - January

2014• Advanced SWAT workshops, Amman - June 2014

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Activities summarized• Soil conservation: fine-tuning and dissemination through participatory

trials – integration with DISPS

• Water harvesting and grazing management: working with farmers to fine-tune grazing practices – integration with DISPS

• Water harvesting and supplemental irrigation (hill lakes): testing a model in Tafila

• Watershed modeling: to assess the impact of soil and water conservation, mainstreaming and training

• Integrated land use planning and suitability analysis – collaboration with ARMP II (IFAD funded project)

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Conductive-Line activities across countries & sites

Develop, test and disseminate soil and water conservation practices to combat land degradation and improve agricultural

productivity

Overall message • The adaptability of the

proposed interventions and acceptability by communities are promising indicators for wider uptake and adoption

Soil eaters !!!