Improving water productivity of Crops in the Mediterranean region: case of cereals
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Mohammed Karrou, Mohamad El Mourid. (17/5/2009). Improving water productivity of Crops in the Mediterranean region: case of cereals. Lebanon.
Abstract
Water scarcity and drought are the main constraints of crop production in the Mediterranean basin.
However, the situation is more alarming in the southern and eastern parts of the basin. Although
many technologies have been developed by scientists in the region to cope with these environmental
problems, the difference between the farmers' and potential achievable yields remain in general highly
significant in both rainfed and irrigated areas. A large dissemination of the improved management
packages can help close the observed yield gap. Moreover, because water shortage and drought
will be more intense in the Mediterranean due to the effects of the global warming, the increase of
land productivity should not be anymore the only objective, but more emphasis has to be put also
on the improvement of the productivity per unit of water consumed by the crop. This will ensure
water saving and higher global production. In this paper, the concepts of water use efficiency will be
presented and strategies of water productivity increase will be discussed. In the rainfed areas, these
strategies are based on better crop and soil management and the improvement of genetic makeup of
the cultivated plants to capture more water for use in transpiration, to use CO2 more effectively in
producing biomass and to convert more of the biomass into grain or other harvestable products. In
the irrigated zones, water losses at different steps of water use in crop production should be reduced
and water productivity has to be increased by the application of the required amounts of water and
nitrogen at critical stages. Moreover, supplemental irrigation and wide spaced furrows and raisedbed
planting irrigation technologies should be used to save water and irrigate more area. Finally,
varieties with higher water and nitrogen use efficiencies should be developed.
