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Many countries in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) are facing water scarcity, which poses a great challenge to agricultural production. Furthermore, water scarcity is projected to increase due to climate change, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The integration of solar power and water desalination systems in greenhouses to overcome water shortages is one of the preferred technologies in crop-growing areas. Crop growth control is done through sufficient management of environmental climatic variables as well as the quantity and quality of water and applied fertilisers with irrigation. Numerous crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, strawberries, flowers, and herbs can be grown under greenhouse conditions using desalinated water. This paper displays the state of the art in (i) solar-driven saltwater desalination to irrigate crops, (ii) the feasibility of water desalination for agriculture in the MENA region, (iii) the economics and environmental impacts of the desalination process, (iv) the quality of desalinated water compared with other non-conventional water resources and (v) recommendations for the future in the MENA region.

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In order to determine performance, gene action and heritability for earliness, yield and chocolate spot disease of faba bean, a half diallel crosses among six parental genotypes were evaluated under control and artificial infection by chocolate spot disease (Botrytis fabae sard). The results indicated highly significant differences among faba bean genotypes for all the studied characters under these conditions. All faba bean genotypes under study appeared to be high resistant or resistant for chocolate spot disease with a few exception under different conditions. Whereas, genotypes Misr 3, Wadi 1, Sakha 4 x Misr 3, Sakha 4 x Nubaria 1, and Misr 3 x Wadi 1 under the natural infection conditions. However,