PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Kenya: Netherlands donates $7 million to improve water management in Near East and Africa
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Dutch Government, collaborating with the FAO in water management, has donated US$7 million to support the use of remote sensing technology in helping water-scarce countries in the Near East and Africa monitor and improve the way they use water for crop production.
The Food and Agriculture Organization says in a news dispatch from Rome, that the additional donation brings the total budget up to US$10 million for the Dutch-funded project.
The project uses satellite data to find land areas where water use is not translating into optimal agricultural production, identify the source of the problem and recommend different planting and irrigation techniques.
"The project uses some of the most advanced technologies and takes into account the ecosystems and the equitable use of water resources," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said at an event marking the extended agreement at FAO headquarters in Rome.
He highlighted the importance of the project, noting the added stress that climate change places on farmers in the way they manage limited water resources.
“We all know that water is becoming scarce while at the same time it is crucial to producing enough good food for a growing number of people,” said Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to FAO Gerda Verburg.
“With this innovative remote sense approach to improving water productivity we give farmers a concrete tool to take decisions about the best use of water and what kind of crops to grow," he said.
The data tools created under the project, which will be freely available to governments and farmers alike, also aim to help policymakers in taking evidence-based policy decisions.
Some 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawn worldwide is used for agriculture – a figure that rises to as much as 95 percent in certain developing countries, posing major challenges to the sustainability of food production.
Growing scarcity of and competition for water also threaten to derail poverty alleviation efforts, especially in semi-arid rural areas where access to for this precious resource to grow food and rear livestock is essential for stable livelihoods.
The data portal will provide information on three spatial scales: the continental level over the whole of Africa and Near East, country and river basin level, and irrigation scheme level.
A key component of the four-year programme is an updated data portal of interpreted remote sensing satellite images that show the state of cropped areas in near real-time.
Based on this information -- which incorporates rainfall and crop transpiration data, among other inputs -- experts can quickly assess problem areas where water and land productivity are low, meaning these areas use relatively high amounts of scarce natural resources for minimal yield.
Using remote sensing rather than country survey data offers a unified measuring tool that allows for easy comparisons between the productivity of land areas -- from the country level to the farm level.
With the additional funding, the project will be expanding its target countries to include three additional countries - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as the Jordan River basin.
-0- PANA DJ/VAO 30Nov2015
The Food and Agriculture Organization says in a news dispatch from Rome, that the additional donation brings the total budget up to US$10 million for the Dutch-funded project.
The project uses satellite data to find land areas where water use is not translating into optimal agricultural production, identify the source of the problem and recommend different planting and irrigation techniques.
"The project uses some of the most advanced technologies and takes into account the ecosystems and the equitable use of water resources," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said at an event marking the extended agreement at FAO headquarters in Rome.
He highlighted the importance of the project, noting the added stress that climate change places on farmers in the way they manage limited water resources.
“We all know that water is becoming scarce while at the same time it is crucial to producing enough good food for a growing number of people,” said Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to FAO Gerda Verburg.
“With this innovative remote sense approach to improving water productivity we give farmers a concrete tool to take decisions about the best use of water and what kind of crops to grow," he said.
The data tools created under the project, which will be freely available to governments and farmers alike, also aim to help policymakers in taking evidence-based policy decisions.
Some 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawn worldwide is used for agriculture – a figure that rises to as much as 95 percent in certain developing countries, posing major challenges to the sustainability of food production.
Growing scarcity of and competition for water also threaten to derail poverty alleviation efforts, especially in semi-arid rural areas where access to for this precious resource to grow food and rear livestock is essential for stable livelihoods.
The data portal will provide information on three spatial scales: the continental level over the whole of Africa and Near East, country and river basin level, and irrigation scheme level.
A key component of the four-year programme is an updated data portal of interpreted remote sensing satellite images that show the state of cropped areas in near real-time.
Based on this information -- which incorporates rainfall and crop transpiration data, among other inputs -- experts can quickly assess problem areas where water and land productivity are low, meaning these areas use relatively high amounts of scarce natural resources for minimal yield.
Using remote sensing rather than country survey data offers a unified measuring tool that allows for easy comparisons between the productivity of land areas -- from the country level to the farm level.
With the additional funding, the project will be expanding its target countries to include three additional countries - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as the Jordan River basin.
-0- PANA DJ/VAO 30Nov2015
