The potential of small-scale rainfed agriculture to strengthen food security in Arab countries

Abstract

In most Arab countries, domestic agricultural production is insufficient. The gap between production and demand is likely to increase due to climate change and other factors. This review paper examines the challenges and possible solutions to ensuring food security in the future. It focuses on rainfed agriculture, which accounts for two-thirds of the region's cropland, the bulk of its food staples, and almost all its rangelands. Given the scarcity of water and arable land, there are few opportunities in the region to expand cultivated area. But numerous effective, proven technologies are available that can increase productivity per unit area of land or volume of water. Crop technologies include, for example, new stress-tolerant varieties, supplemental irrigation and other techniques to increase water productivity, and conservation agriculture and other land management methods. Livestock nutrition and productivity could be increased with new forage or dual-purpose varieties, and greater use of alternative feed sources such as feed blocks made from crop by-products. The paper describes some of these technologies, and summarizes results obtained from on-station and on-farm testing. The key issue is poor adoption of available technologies. The priority for researchers and policy makers must therefore be to scale up investments in research and extension; encourage private sector participation; and create enabling policies to encourage technology adoption, market participation and more sustainable use of natural resources, by smallholder farmers.

Climate Change and Soil Degradation Mitigation by Sustainable Management of Soils and Other Natural Resources

“…The land-use conversion has been an important factor in the total anthropogenic emissions with an attendant increase in radiative forcing. The gap between agronomic production and food demand, already affecting more than one billion people, is likely to increase by the projected climate change, especially so in marginal areas such as in the Arab countries [28].…”

The influence of market orientation on firm performance and members’ livelihood in Ethiopian seed producer cooperatives

“…The overwhelming majority of agricultural producers are asset-poor smallholders who use simple technologies (hand hoes and oxen) and cultivation practices (low agricultural input practices) and are characterised by low productivity, limited capital, and vulnerability to natural and man-made changes (Haddad et al, 2011). Their agricultural activities are mainly dependent on unpredicted rainfall, and their practice in using irrigation is very limited (Olesen & Bindi, 2002).…”

Adoption of Small‐Scale Irrigation and Its Livelihood Impacts in Northern Ethiopia

“…In China, irrigation income has enabled rural farm households to send children to school, buy groceries for the family, visit relatives in distant areas, and afford mobile phones (Huang et al, 2006). Makombe and Sampath (1999), Kamara et al (2002), Mati (2008) and Haddad et al (2011) reported similar findings.…”

“…This increased the cropping frequency to two/three times a year, and also increased the farm yield. Furthermore, farmers could switch from low-to high-value production, in this way realizing more income and assets (Haddad et al, 2011;Fanadzo, 2012;Kuwornu and Owusu, 2012).…”