Knowledge Management Portal

The project activities in Jordan focus on the interplay of the marginal dryland ecosystem (uplands) and the irrigated production system around the Jordan Valley (lowlands). The activity particularly tackles the ecohydrological rehabilitation of the largely degraded Jordan Valley’s side Wadis that are discharging towards the Jordan Valley. The activities will comprise community-inclusive design of rehabilitation and sustainable management options, small scale testing of rehabilitation implementation, and an ex-ante assessment of the potential for large scale impacts on the areas’ ecohydrology.

The up and out scaling of a technological innovation are driven by its suitability for specific farming system. These systems are defined by a complex interaction of climatic factors, and socio-economic considerations. Hence, in the optic of enhancing digital services to manage and reduce the impact of variable weather and extreme events, it is then critical to define these farming systems and their geographical distribution. In turns, such an information can later be used to inform policies, programming and investment decisions. The decision of adopting a given farming system in the Sahel is mostly driven by the climatic conditions affecting the farm, with the availability of moisture at specific times being a primary factor influencing this decision. Therefore, mapping the climatic factors affecting the cultivation of crops is a reliable proxy to predict the distribution of farming systems, especially if these are then linked to socio-economic considerations and validated on the ground at community level. This evidence-based approach can then be used to help determine the climate services that would benefit farmers and farming systems (including businesses, and other food and land system actors) to strengthen their resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.

Wheat is widely grown under semi-arid conditions. The majority of the wheat in the developing world, more than 100 mills Ha, is affected by abiotic stress, as heat and water scarcity because of climatic and/or irrigation problems. The activity under CRP Wheat titled, “Precision field-based Phenotyping Platform for Drought/Heat Tolerance-Morocco (PWPP) / Implementation of high-throughput Phenotyping (HTP) on the Lysimeter Station (PhysioTron) will generate high-quality phenotyping data on abiotic stresses (drought, heat + drought), complementing the potential of new molecular selection technologies, and therefore, expanding the precision and prediction value of phenotyping/genotypic data for new germplasm emerging from the WHEAT and partner breeding pipelines.

This case study capitalizes on existing agro-ecological, innovative practices in agro-pastoral systems of arid and semi-arid areas of Tunisia, to explore the monetary and non-monetary wealth creation in terms of social gender equity and economic well-being and resource-use efficiency stemming from with these practices that valorize the interactions between livestock and resource use at the farm and territorial levels.

The project will allow the order and installation of a climate chamber in ICARDA’s seed health laboratory in Rabat Morocco.