Capacity-building needs, R&D needs and technology transfer opportunities in the field of drainage and salinity for North-African countries

Abstract

This paper reviews the current situation of drainage and salinity control in irrigated agriculture in North-African countries. In these countries, water scarcity is an important concern and the situation will become worse in the near future. In this context, it is of utmost importance to improve the efficiency of irrigation which is the major water consumer, while ensuring the sustainability of the systems. Drainage can play an important role in this respect and the time seems ripe to strengthen the capacities and the emphasis put on drainage and salinity control. Two prerequisites are identified. First, drainage should not be seen merely as an artificial system aiming at removing water from waterlogged or salinized areas. A more comprehensive and integrated view should be adopted whereby drainage is related to all transfer processes -and possibly artificial ways to improve these transfers- which participate in the salinity control. As such, drainage and irrigation developments should be strongly connected and their performances should be perceived as interrelated. Second, salinity should not be seen only as a soil characteristic but as a risk which is managed by farmers. One of the major priorities of a drainage and salinity control programme is to acquire, and disseminate locally validated references through a network of field experiments and monitored field plots providing data both on the functioning of the systems and on their agro-economic performances.