With the participation of 16 Arab countries, ACSAD virtual conference on sustainable management of land resources

Rif Dimashq-SANA

On the occasion of the World Soil Day, with the participation of 16 Arab countries, the Arab Center for Studies of Dry Areas and Dry Lands (ACSAD) held today the first virtual Arab scientific conference on the sustainable management of land resources and water use, in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Muhammad Hassan Qatna.

Minister Qatana stressed in a lecture during the conference the necessity of developing a national strategy for managing natural resources and developing a systematic plan to implement the results of scientific research and joint Arab cooperation in exchanging the results of this research and successful initiatives and mobilizing local and international organizations and NGOs to be partners in financing, planning and implementation.

In a statement to reporters, Minister Qatna stated that the current climate changes require thinking about how to invest land and water resources, because food security has become threatened and can only be achieved by applying laws related to the proper and sustainable management of these resources, stressing the need to place scientific studies that will be presented by researchers during the conference within a national strategy or Arab resource management to be able to face challenges and cooperate with farmers, investors and organizations in order to achieve sustainability and food security.

In a similar statement, the Director-General of the Center, Dr. Nasr El-Din El-Obeid, said that the conference will be attended by more than 200 experts, scientists, researchers and officials in the Arab countries, pointing out that as a result of climatic changes in the Arab region, more than 12 thousand hectares of agriculture are produced annually, which could produce more than 20 million Tons of strategic crops that maintain food security.

For his part, Dr. Ahmed Saleh Muhaimid, Director of the Department of Land and Water Uses in (ACSAD) and Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Conference, indicated that the conference deals with how to protect natural resources and increase the productivity of these sources of agricultural production through the application of the basic principles of sustainable management and food security through the application of the most important means Recent studies related to improving land characteristics and increasing crop productivity in the various agricultural sectors in the Arab world.

Dr. Ihab Jannad, Director of Water Department at the Center, explained that ACSAD worked on the construction of several mountain lakes in order to store rainwater to cope with drought and the application of technologies such as conservation agriculture and simple technologies to rehabilitate pastures and assess the impact of climate change to limit its effects.

The opening of the three-day conference, which is held under the slogan (land and water resources, hope for future generations, and lasts for three days), was attended by the Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Engineers, Dr. Yahya Bakour, and a number of Arab experts and researchers and representatives of relevant international organizations and bodies.

Mehran Mualla