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Home Technical Summary What the project is about Relevance Ecological Agriculture in the Middle East Cooperation Working together in a troubled region Sustainability Water-saving crops of the future Technical Objectives See the plants Evaluation How the plants are doing Project Map See the sites Format Where and how Current Status Project timeline Buy Dr. Elaine Solowey's latest book  "Small Steps Towards Abundance: Crops for a More Sustainable Agriculture" on Amazon.com, or from the publisher. |
Relevance To Regional Development Almost all countries in the Middle East are chronically short of water. Agriculture must compete for water resources with large-scale industry and the needs of growing populations. Therefore, it is vital that the kind of agriculture practiced should use as little water as possible. In addition, agricultural activities should safeguard the soil by requiring little tillage, have a minimal impact on the sparse ecosystem, and produce materials that can be used to promote small scale industries in those same arid areas which are singularly lacking in employment, industry and opportunities. Moroccan and Israeli cooperation in the development of a new kind of sustainable agriculture will have many benefits. Foremost, is the exchange of suitable germplasm. Morocco has a reservoir of salt and drought tolerant plants. The Atlas and anti-Atlas areas are the native ranges of the argania spinosa, a nut tree that is the source of one of the finest edible oils. Carob, caper and almond cultivation are also advanced in the drier areas with high-yielding and salt-tolerant varieties that have a semi-commercial footing. This germplasm has great potential value in Israel. Drip Irrigation Israel has investigated and acquired many varieties of salt and drought tolerant plants, including the Marula tree from the Kalahari desert, the Zisiphus from India, the Mustard caper from the Sinai, the Sapodilla from the arid sections of South America, and the Cactus apple from the desert of Peru. Israel is also a leader in the field of drip irrigation. In the most arid and saline areas of the respective countries, drip irrigation will be necessary to establish the test plantings of these crops. A joint effort will allow Israel and Morocco to benefit from each country's plant research through doubling the number of crop candidates. Cooperation will also allow and facilitate the transfer and adaptation of existing irrigation technology to new crops and new sites. Finally, successful strains and appropriate technologies can be extended to individual farmers in the areas for integration into existing farms, and the establishment of new agricultural enterprises. Innovative Aspects The crop candidates are an innovative mix of the old and new. Carobs, capers, almonds and argania are ancient crops in Morocco that sustained small-scale rural industry for hundreds of years. Although they are particularly suited to Israel's barren south, these plants never reached the same level of development in Israel. The germplasm transferred from Morocco to Israel will be the more salt tolerant strains of these venerable cultivars. Along with germplasm, will be a vast body of information and cultivation techniques which have made these ancient crops successful. In contrast, the germplasm transferred from Israel to Morocco will be new crops brought to Israel as the result of a worldwide search for crop candidates for arid and saline zones. These new plants have been collected from deserts all over the world. Some have attained semi-commercial status in Israel, and others are already being cultivated for export. As new crops are badly needed in the arid areas of Morocco, the germplasm transferred from Israel to Morocco will be the best strains of these new cultivars. Seven hundred and fifty million people, about one in six, live in the areas known as the semi-arid tropics. Farming is inevitably small scale and the ambition is not to feed the cities as in Europe, but for farmers to subsist with enough left over for a little income. In these regions crops must be bred not for an ability to respond to high inputs, because the inputs are inevitably low. They must be bred above all for resilience. 2 In Project M-20-018, the crop candidates will be introduced to quarantine sites and then planted out in orchard/agroforestry formats designed to fit in harmoniously with the sparse ecosystems of the arid zones. To minimize topsoil loss due to wind erosion, minimal clearing and tilling will be done prior to the trees being planted. Irrigation will be done by drip line so that no water will be lost to run-off. Careful planning will allow quick growing species to protect slower developing plants. Plantations will be mulched and composted with locally available organic material to reduce water loss and to replace expensive imported fertilizer with a cheap locally obtainable material. 2Tudge,C.,1988, Food Crops for the Future, p. 4, Basil Blackwell Ltd.,Oxford. 
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No part of the contents herein may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For more information on this project, contact Dr. Solowey elaine@desertagriculture.org |
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