WATDEV Local Feedback Meeting in Egypt boosts Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Following the successful Regional Workshop in Egypt, a Local Feedback Meeting was convened on 2 December 2025, at SEKEM Farm in Belbies, Egypt. Organized by Heliopolis University in collaboration with ASARECA, CIHEAM-Bari, and in the presence of AICS Cairo, the meeting aimed to disseminate, discuss and advance the results of the Best Management Practices (BMPs) feasibility studies.

The meeting brought together over 50 participants, including representatives from Zagazig University, Benha University, Water Users Associations, farmer cooperatives, community leaders, and local farmers, together with the WATDEV project partners, creating a strong platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration.

The meeting opened with a welcoming remark from Prof. Wael Khairy, Heliopolis University, emphasizing the urgent need to shift from traditional farming practices towards sustainable approaches to preserve the soil and ensure long-term food security. He also encouraged participants to actively contribute to the discussion and to share the knowledge gained with other farmers in their community. Dr. Gaetano Ladisa, WATDEV Project Manager at CIHEAM-Bari, highlighted that scientific research alone cannot drive change, but that farmers??? knowledge, experience, and ideas are essential for developing practical and sustainable solutions. He stressed the key role of participants in developing practical implementation protocols that can support wider BMPs adoption.

Ms. Concetta Bianco, WATDEV Project Coordinator at AICS Cairo, presented the latest progress of WATDEV project sharing its recent achievements and upcoming implementation steps. This was followed by Mr. Moses Odeke, Interim head of Programme at ASARECA, introducing the meeting???s objectives and underlined the importance of sharing local experiences to validate feasibility findings and support the development of practical BMP implementation protocols.

Focusing on the objectives of the meeting, PhD. student Samar Gomaa from ISRIC, presented the Feasibility Studies findings, analysing BMPs simulations, baseline assessments, and community perceptions on the potential adoption of improved management practices. She highlighted the three BMPs selected in Egypt: manuring, intercropping, and Water Users??? Association (WUA) and their potential to enhance both productivity and crop quality. 

An interactive Q&A session allowed participants to actively engage in the discussion, sharing practical field experiences and propose recommendations on how to maximize land productivity and sustainability. Responding to participants??? interest, the Heliopolis University team provided further technical clarifications on each BMP to ensure a shared understanding of their application and benefits. To further strengthen farmers and community participation, a participatory evaluation session was organised and facilitated by ASARECA and HU. Participants were divided into working groups to jointly assess the feasibility, sustainability considerations, and implementation challenges of the three BMPs. The direct exchange between researchers, farmers and community leaders enriched the dialogue, helping validate the study findings and ground them in the real field experience. 

This was followed by an open discussion session to collect stakeholders??? key inputs to develop BMPs implementation protocols. Through guided questions, WATDEV team captured practical recommendations for the BMPs protocols.  The discussion addressed critical aspects of farm and water management, including water sources, irrigation systems, water quality, crop planting and harvesting, seeds sourcing and certification, compost and organic processing as well as post-harvest handling, storage, and marketing. This discussion ensured applicability, sustainability, and alignment with local constraints and opportunities.

The meeting concluded with the collection of farmers??? perceptions on local water management, through a structured questionnaire prepared by Ms. Claudia Fantini from CIHEAM Bari. These essential bottom-up insights will direclty be used for subsequent WATDEV work packages.

Overall, Egypt Local Feedback Meeting demonstrated the value of participatory, evidence-based decision-making, a cornerstone of WATDEV approach. Funded by the European Union, in the framework of the DeSIRA Initiative, WATDEV strengthened the validation of simulated BMP scenarios aligned with local needs, constraints, and priorities through combining advanced modelling tools with local knowledge and active stakeholder participation.

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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.