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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. |
The Objective: Introduction of 10 Species This quote from the Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Development expresses succinctly much of the rationale for project M20-018. Despite an agricultural revolution in the South over the course of a single generation that has produced enormous benefits for farmers, consumers and economies, many of the poorer rural people are yet to benefit. They live in regions with poor quality soil and unpredictable rainfall. Either they are remote from agricultural services that promote the package of inputs necessary to add value, or they cannot afford to take a risk by adopting the whole package. More importantly, many simply find the package unsuitable for their needs or tastes. In addition, inappropriate use of inputs imposes costs in terms of both economic efficiency and external costs imposed on others from agricultural pollution and environmental degradation.... If the projected world population of 8 to 13 billion people is to be fed, new efforts based on maximizing the use of renewable resources internal to the farm, rather than a high external input approach will be required. These will be centered on agro-ecological technologies capable of achieving permanent improvements to agricultural production that do not damage the environment.4 The overall aim of the project is to determine whether certain sustainable crops (new and old) can be useful as orchard/agroforestry cultivars for arid and saline lands of Morocco and Israel which suffer from a dearth of crops, a shortage of sweet water, a lack of appropriate irrigation technology, and a very narrow agricultural/economic base. Checking Fruit Quality and Yield Since the target areas of Israel and Morocco are saline, arid, hot, poor and difficult to develop, the crop candidates were chosen for their salt tolerance, low water requirements, value as fresh food, value as raw materials, processibility into value-added projects, land reclamation properties, and suitability for minimally-impacting formats. The introduction of new crops more suitable to the sparse land and harsh climate, coupled with low-cost water saving irrigation technologies, if successful, can be a significant long-term improvement over some of the present agricultural systems. Some of the 10 primary candidates are already in their native niche, but need improvement. They are readily available for experimentation. Others are "exotics" that have been introduced to the area in formal research programs and have been proven to be appropriate and not invasive(weedy). Potential Usefulness of the Crop Candidates
The 6 Alternative Species A "second-string" list of crop candidates Observation Germplasm Species which show promise may be upgraded into the list of alternative cultivars. 4Kirkby,J. P. O'Keefe and L. Timberlake (Eds.)1995, The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Development, Earthscan Publications Ltd., London. 
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 Home | Technical Summary | Relevance | Cooperation | Sustainability Technical Objectives | Evaluation | Project Map | Format | Current Status |
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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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