WATDEV Beneficiaries Participate in the Second Module on ???Innovative Technologies in Agriculture and Water Management??? at CIHEAM Bari

As part of ongoing efforts to equip WATDEV stakeholders and beneficiaries with the skills to address environmental challenges, CIHEAM Bari held the second module of the ???Water, Soil, and Crop Management in a Climate-Smart Agriculture??? Course, which took place from September 9th to 20th, 2024. This module focused on “Innovative Technologies in Agriculture and Water Management” and aimed to provide participants with the latest knowledge in new technologies and their applications in water management for agriculture.

This second module was divided into two phases: virtual training from September 9th to 13th, followed by in-person sessions at CIHEAM Bari, Italy, from September 16th to 20th. Twenty participants from Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan attended the course, which combined theoretical lessons with hands-on experience in advanced agricultural practices. The training also prepared participants to become trainers in their home countries, ensuring that the knowledge they gained could be shared with local farmers, authorities, and stakeholders. This initiative supported sustainable agricultural and water management practices across their regions.

 

Opening and Online Sessions

During the online training week, experienced Professors covered a range of topics, such as:

  • An introduction to Precision Agriculture (PA) and its practical applications
  • The use of mechanization, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture
  • Socio-technical perspectives on PA, including its challenges and sustainability
  • The role of technology producers and service providers in precision agriculture
  • Tailored PA strategies for the Southern Mediterranean region
  • CIHEAM Bari???s innovations in pest surveillance and large-scale water management

These sessions provided a solid foundation for the hands-on training that followed in Italy.

In-person training and Field Visits in Italy

The in-person training featured a welcome address by CIHEAM Secretary General Teodoro Miano and an overview of the course agenda by the WATDEV team at CIHEAM Bari. This part of the program focused on digital technologies in agriculture, smart farming, and solar-powered irrigation systems. Participants applied what they learned during a field visit to CIHEAM Bari???s experimental fields. They practiced using drones for agricultural monitoring, specifically the DJI MAVIK 3 ENTERPRISE drone, equipped with multispectral and RGB cameras. Participants conducted exercises on post-flight mapping and scanning.

 

Exploring Water Management at Acquedotto Pugliese

On September 18th, the group visited the Puglia Region Aqueduct Management Authority, the Acquedotto Pugliese (AQP) Headquarters in Bari.

Here, they attended a seminar on key topics in smart-water management, including:

  • Water Distribution Systems (WDS) addressing leakages and rehabilitation
  • Smart Water Management (SWM) solutions and their role in managing non-revenue water (NRW)
  • A technical tour of AQP???s laboratory and control room

Phenotyping and Wastewater Reuse in Metaponto

The following day, participants travelled to the ???Metapontum Agrobios??? URT-IPSP experimental farm, a research Institute which is part of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), partner of WATDEV. Here CNR organized a workshop on Recent Advances in Plant Phenotyping for Abiotic Stresses???. Topics covered included:

  • Platforms for precision phenotyping, both indoors and in the field
  • Saline agriculture and the selection of resilient plant species
  • The use of AI in plant phenotyping and lean phenotyping technologies
  • Reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation, including a demonstration of a portable prototype for treating municipal wastewater

These discussions highlighted the importance of using advanced scientific tools and sustainable practices to strengthen agricultural resilience in the face of climate change.

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Final Technical Visits in Gravina di Puglia

The final day of training included visits to some innovative agricultural businesses in Gravina di Puglia. At Andriani SpA, participants learned about the company???s work in healthy food production, particularly its pioneering gluten-free pasta factory. They also visited the ApuliaKundi farm to see how spirulina algae are produced using treated wastewater.

The course concluded with a visit to La Valle Verde farm, where participants observed no-till seed drilling technology integrated with 4.0 agriculture practices, demonstrating how innovation could boost both productivity and sustainability.

During the field visits, participants had the opportunity to discover the main cultural hotspots of the territory with the aim of getting further inspiration and cultural enrichment from this international training. A guided visit was organized at the historic building hosting AQP Headquarters in Bari, at the Hera Temple in Metaponto, and in the old town of Gravina di Puglia.

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Ude Kebele groundwater irrigation scheme under the Adaa Becho Groundwater Irrigation system (ABGIS) in the Awash Basin

It is a new intervention area with perspectives to be expanded. It is therefore envisaged that the lessons from other countries could be scaled out in this area.

Ada’a-Becho Groundwater Irrigation (ABGIS) is located in Ada’a Wereda some 50 km from Addis Ababa. The Adama road passes nearby the scheme and has no access limitation.  This scheme is part of Ada’a-Bacho Irrigation Development Project that comprises three conjugate Kebeles (i.e., Dhankaka, Ude and Qallitty) in Ada’a District of East Shawa Zone, Oromia Regional State.

The Ude Kebele Groundwater Irrigation Site is small, scheme selected to demonstrate groundwater irrigation practice demonstration sites as it is new irrigation development area will be a learning site for a medium scale community owned groundwater irrigation development in Ethiopia.

ABGIS landscape is one of the low reliefs that slopes gently north-west and south east wards. Apart from close to the hills virtually all slopes are nearly less than 3- 4%, with the majority of the slopes of 0-2%. 

The climatic variables of the project area are highly governed by the topography of the area (mainly altitude). The highland area lies at an altitude of over 2300 m asl and covers 17.5% of the project area. Mean annual temperature of this part of the project area ranges from 12.50C to 160C.

The major crops produced include Teff, chick pea, wheat, barley, vetch, and maize.  Few farmers also produce tomato and onion as cash crops. Crop production in the area is by and large rain-dependent. But in few farmers produce vegetables twice a year using pumped water from Mojo and Waddecha rivers.

The problems in ABGIS are connected with the limited experience in fruit crop production.

Koga Irrigation System (KIS) in the Abbay Basin

KIS is an established and relatively well performing irrigation scheme in Ethiopia. In here besides Irrigation water management, there are also success stories in watershed management.

Koga is located some 40 km from Bahri Dar town (Regional capital of Amhara Regional State. The  Bahir Dar –Addis Ababa highway passes through the scheme (Fig 2), hence the scheme is year round accessible.

Koga irrigation system comprises of 19.7 km of lined main canal, 52 km of lined secondary canals, 156 km of unlined tertiary canals, 905 km of unlined quaternary canals and 11 lined Night Storage Reservoirs (NSRs). The main canal was designed to provide irrigation water for 24 h during irrigation period.

There are 12 secondary canals designed for 12 h irrigation supply each covering an area of irrigated land ranging from 220 ha to over 1000 ha. Tertiary canals are designed for 12 h irrigation supply. The area irrigated by a tertiary canal range between 20 ha to 65 ha. The quaternary canals have a capacity of irrigating 8–16 ha of land while field canals will serve an area of 2.0 ha within the quaternary unit. The maximum field canal design capacity is 30 l/s.

KIS is the best performing among many community-managed irrigation schemes. Unlike other schemes this was designed and developed as an integrated watershed and irrigation development project.

Among the problems associated to the KIS are Seasonal water shortage and associated conflicts between Irrigation water user associations, low irrigation water application efficiency, catchment degradation. In order to increase water productivity in the KIS, water saving technologies will be promoted.

The Gezira irrigation scheme

The Gezira Scheme is located between the Blue Nile and the White Nile Rivers within a semi-arid agro-climatic zone. In terms of accessibility, it is easily accessible by Wad Medani road and the trip between Wad Medani, the capital of the Gezira State and headquarter of the scheme (Barakat), and Khartoum takes about three hours. The scheme is one of the largest irrigation schemes in the region with 880,000 hectares (ha). It is one of the main sources of foreign currency (cotton export), and food security (wheat, sorghum, vegetables) for Sudan. It has huge infrastructure with a value estimated at about US $ 8 billion. The scheme had played a vital role in the history of irrigation in Sudan and Africa and has become a model for many irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of design and operation system. Therefore, any research aiming at improving water management in Gezira scheme is not only beneficial to the project, but also to similar projects at national and regional scale.  There are many challenges that the scheme face and urgent need to investigate Best Management Practices (BMPs) that  can overcome these challenges and enhance productivity. Some of these challenges are deterioration of irrigation infrastructure, inefficient water distribution within the scheme, agricultural drainage discharges directly in the Blue Nile without treatment impacting water quality, institutional weakness and instability.

Belbies district

Belbies district is located 20 km south of El Zagazig city between Long. 31o 24′ and 31o 39′ E and Lat. 30o 19′ and 30o 29′ N. It is bounded at the east by Abu Hammad, at the west by Minia El Kammh and in the south by the Tenth of Ramadan City districts.

As a part of the east Nile Delta, Belbies district constitutes a portion of an arid belt of north Egypt. It is characterized by a long dry summer and short temperate winter with a rainfall period from October to March. The climate is hot in summer; the average temperature is in the range of 19.7oC and 34.7oC, while during winter it ranges from 7.4oC and 18.4oC.

Due to intensive agricultural practice, which involves the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, many soils and shallow aquifers are contaminated. Consequently, pollution of groundwater has become a major concern in recent years. Wastewater disposed in canals can diffuse in groundwater. Overexploitation of groundwater and intensive irrigation in major canal commands has posed serious problems for groundwater managers in Nile Delta e.g. Sharkia governorate. The development of groundwater resources, technology-oriented management skills, adequate and efficient groundwater monitoring system, empowerment of women in unprivileged areas are among the challenges to be addressed. Indeed, water management projects are one of the priority topics in the political agenda of Egypt.