by Al-Amal Women’s Association for women’s development Senada Hociema

Description

The climate has shifted from semi-arid to arid causing drought and therefore a lack of water.

As a result, during these drought periods, farmers are increasing their reliance on groundwater, and digging deeper wells, from 120 to 200 meters deep to find water for the plantation. This practice resulted in drought relief component aimed at responding to the challenge of adapting to climate change and more effectively managing extreme natural phenomena.

Results

  • More than 20 different aromatic and medicinal plants planted.
  • About 100 people who have benefited from this agricultural practice.

Climate smartness*

As it is expected that climate change in arid and semi-arid regions will place additional challenges to water management for agriculture. Therefore medium- to long-term strategies at farm and watershed/river basin/aquifer levels are essential to participatory develop climate change adaptation plans and programs. This can help to integrate scenarios where complementary water management practices are implemented in scenarios where depletion of groundwater is a limiting factor for agricultural production. In this sense, access to water should be complemented by CSA practices that help farmers to move towards more efficient use of water. For example, development and selections of climate change resilient varieties (drought resistant crops), soil conservation practices (for preserving moisture), development of climate sensitive cropping calendars, rainwater harvesting systems/reservoirs, improved irrigation schemes and efficient irrigation systems such as micro sprinklers or drip irrigation systems, among other practices and technologies. As most of these on-farm/landscape options are well known, it is important that the efforts promoted in the policy and institutional frameworks, are harmonised to strengthen adaptation capacity of the sector, including national level initiatives such as improved weather forecasting capacity and Early Warning Systems just to mention a few.

*This is done in the framework of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach. Climate-smartness in agriculture means understanding impacts of climate change and variability along with the agricultural activity, which includes the planning of what crop to plant, when to plant, what variety to plant and what type of management practices are needed to reduce the impact on the environment (e.g. emissions reduction), maintain or increase productivity (e.g. yields) while increasing resilience and improving livelihoods.