Damascus-SANA
Experts of the Arab Center for Studies of Dry Areas and Arid Lands “ACSAD” started today training 16 technicians from the Maghreb “Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco” on the use of a specialized program “Aqua Crop” related to irrigation water management and studying the impact of climate change on crop productivity in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “FAO” as part of a training course held at the center’s headquarters in Damascus.
This three-day course aims to transfer the accumulated experiences of the Arab Center’s experts in the field of using the “Aqua Crop” model, which is one of the most important components of the capacity building project.
The Director General of the Center, Dr. Nasr El-Din El-Obeid, pointed to the importance of building and developing Arab capabilities in terms of using modern technologies, pointing out that the Aqua Crop model is an essential step for finding effective solutions to the problems and challenges of water resources in the Arab region, especially the increasing need for water in exchange for the scarcity of available water and the deterioration of the water resources. The quality of a large part of it and the low efficiency of its use.
Al-Obeid called for mobilizing all necessary capabilities to take appropriate measures to improve irrigation water management according to the new training program, because it contributes to providing accurate information about the water needs of agricultural crops necessary to accurately estimate water rates, which helps in improving irrigation water management and raising the efficiency of its use.
Al-Obaid indicated that the available water resources in the Arab region are characterized by their limitedness, and that the annual per capita water quota in the region is close to 600 cubic meters, exceeding the global estimated scarcity limit of 1,000 cubic meters per capita per year, and it is expected that the water gap will jump to approximately 130 billion cubic meters during the period 2020. -2030.
It is noteworthy that the Arab Center Organization ACSAD implemented a similar training course at the beginning of last week for 18 trainees from “Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt” as part of a series of courses it holds, part of which is implemented by default.
Ghassob Abboud
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