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rate is quickly rising. The Jordanian Government has decided

to adopt the water harvesting technique to enabling large-scale

planting throughout the Badia, which is substantially improv-

ing fodder and forage productivity, crop yields and incomes for

pastoralists and farmers. Planting the fodder shrubs in widely

spaced roads has reduced the pressure on rangelands which

have now recovered with much more vegetative growth/cover.

This has initiated the recovery process of lands degraded due

to overgrazing and desertification. Benefiting pastoralists and

farmers are enjoying more than 1.6 times their previous forage

shrub production and significantly higher rangeland productiv-

ity. Their yield for barley has more than doubled as compared

to that grown without water harvesting and water application.

This intervention was coupled with research to promote

drought-tolerant shrub species as a crucial means of assist-

ing rangeland rehabilitation efforts, helping to conserve

rapidly-depleting water resources and maintaining grazing

at sustainable levels. One of the most commonly planted

shrubs in the Mediterranean,

Atriplex halimus

, is known

for its remediation of degraded rangelands and salt-affected

areas. It is commonly used as a forage plant for sheep

and goats and contributes significantly to the feed calen-

dar when herbage availability is low. It is the only green,

protein-rich forage available during late summer and early

fall when it is needed for the nourishment of pregnant and

early-lactating ewes. Disseminated as part of a participa-

tory sustainable grazing strategy, which was developed

in cooperation with landowners, pastoralists and other

community members, the promotion of native perennial

shrubs has been a successful response to continuous land

degradation. Recent successes include a significant increase

in barley production, up from 50 tons per hectare to 200

tons per hectare in one rural community, and a near total

halt of sediment loss due to the construction of micro water

harvesting structures.

These technologies implemented in Jordan’s rain-fed

Badia for improved water and land management have

successfully increased the vegetative plant cover and

improved soil productivity, leading the way for expansion

and scale-up in similar agroecosystems.

These examples from Iraq and Jordan demonstate the power

of the integrated agrosystems approach which has been the

cornerstone of ICARDA’s research philosophy to address the

challenges facing dry areas including the serious effects of

climate change. We earnestly believe that this approach holds

the key to bringing out the underutilized potential of the

drylands. But science and technology alone cannot succeed

without continuous investments in agricultural research and

development and the support of an enabling policy environ-

ment. New and strong partnerships also assist in combating

desertification since it is obviously beyond the scope and

capacity of any one institution or country to cope with this.

Therefore, in the cases mentioned above, both the Jordanian

and Iraqi governments were involved as full partners from

the beginning of the research process where both the coun-

tries adopted the technologies to launch large development

interventions to combat land degradation and desertifica-

tion. It is through partnerships, alliances and collaborative

efforts such as the United Nations Convention to Combat

Desertification, the Consultative Group for International

Agricultural Research, the Global Dry Land Alliance and

others that governments in dry areas are supported in plan-

ning for and envisioning prosperous dryland communities

with higher incomes, better access to food, improved nutrition

and health and increased capacity to manage natural resources

in equitable, sustainable and innovative ways.

Water harvesting technology in the Jordanian Badia has reduced soil erosion, enhanced the collection of water and boosted vegetative cover

Images: ICARDA

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