Agriculture Development Strategies (ADS) and Crop Water Requirement (CWR) in the CSA

In order to address the concerns of irrigable land expansion, soil quality, crop selection and water resource availability, several future ADS options are suggested. In this context, current

lands are 12,615 donums (Chapter 3). Accordingly, total irrigable lands are 15,805 donums.

The new suggested extension areas are divided into three sub-area zones: Zone 1 with 4,000 donums area, Zone 2 with 3,750 donums area, and Zone 3 with 4,865 donums. To deal with this case, the following scenarios were suggested:

1- ADS1op1: This scenario suggests the current irrigated land and its expansion to irrigate and cultivate part or all irrigable lands (12,615 donums) with palm date trees. This scenario needs 13.34 Mm³/a as CWR. This scenario is important as the crop is highly salinity-resistant, which means inability to use available brackish and saline water. Monthly mean of water requirement is shown in figure (5.2). The maximum water consumption mean occurs during the hot months starting in May and until the end of July after which temperatures start to decrease and weather begins to change gradually. In cold weather the mean of water

Figure 5.2: ADS1op1: (Date Palm) Monthly Crop Water Requirement Mean (CWR)

2- ADS1op2, this scenario suggests planting Zone 1 (4,000 donums) with palm date and the other two zones (8,615 donums) with grapes. Palm dates need 4.12Mm³/a and grapes need 6.32Mm³/a. Total water requirements, including leaching requirement for soil salinity and crop resistivity, are 12.5 Mm³/a. Likewise ADS1 has the same CWR. However, economic and market considerations may encourage this kind of scenario. Figure 5.3 shows the CWR monthly mean monthly for grapes in addition to palm dates. Clearly, grape water consumption is less than palm date. This underlies the next scenario suggestion.

Figure 5.3: ADS1op2,Monthly Crop Water Requirement (CWR) Mean

0

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

Date Palms Grapes Banana

3- ADS1op3: This scenario, Figure 5.4, suggests planting zone 1(4,000dunum) with palm date and zone 2 with green house vegetables and medical herbs. Both cover 2,000 and 1,750 donums respectively.

Figure 5.4: ADS1 op3, Monthly CWR Mean in the CSA

In Zone 3 about 3,000 donums should be planted with grapes and 1,865 donums with regular vegetables. According to this scenario, about 11.78 Mm³/a are required. Note that regular vegetables have two-season crop cycle. Whether it is vegetables or grapes, fresh water will be supplied for irrigation. LR in Zone 2 and 3 is 0.3, which means an additional 2.3 Mm³/a. In this case total CWR is 12.08 Mm³/a.

ADS2 op1 includes 3,750 donums of banana in Zone 2 and 4,000 dunom of palm date in zone 1 in addition to 4,865 donums of grape in Zone 3. This scenario aims to revive the cultivation of bananas as banana crop is profitable and economical. In this scenario CWR includes

0

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

Date Palms Grapes

Vegetables Green house Regular vegetables Medical herbs

leaching requirement of 12.82 Mm³/a for irrigating the total area. Figure (5-5) shows the monthly WCR mean. Grapes in this scenario are not irrigated during winter months contrary to other plants, i.e. palm dates and banana, which have continuous irrigation process throughout the year.

ADSIII op1: In this scenario, hydroponic agriculture in green house, a new agriculture

approach and technology, is suggested. This kind of cultivation technique needs no soil. It is a water controlled system with special kind of composting organic fertilizers including some additives like minerals, using pipe networking system, or some closed flat plates (tanks).

This system saves 50% of consumed water by intensive agriculture in green house

technology. Its productivity is 4 to 10 times compared with regular vegetables cultivation.

Figure (5.6) show this agriculture technique in Al-Arroub Agriculture College in 2014.

Figure 5.6: Hydroponic agriculture Al-Arroub College

with several kinds of vegetables including lettuce and tomato. In this scenario, 2,000s donums will be planted by vegetables by the hydroponic green house and 1750 also by medical herbs in Zone 2, against 4,000 donums in Zone 1 to be planted by palm date and 4865 donums in Zone3 suggested for grapes planting. In this scenario CWR is 12.04 Mm³/a. (Figure 5.7) shows monthly CWR mean relevant to ADS5.

Figure 5.7: ADSIII op1, monthly CWR Mean in the CSA including hydroponic technology.

Table (5.2) illustrates all five suggested scenarios in the irrigable lands in case of irrigated lands expansion into three zones of the irrigable lands in the CSA. Results of water demand for extending irrigated lands into the five suggested scenarios range between 11.89 Mm³/a in ADS 5 as minimum water demand and 14.02 Mm³/a as maximum water demand in ADS 3.

Table 5.2: Suggested Agriculture Development Scenarios (ADS) probability into three zones

ADS extension to 15,805 donums. All these ADS values are not optimal values-beyond the scope of this study to optimize all these scenarios. These ADS’s give preliminary indications for

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

Date Palms Grapes Medical herbs

Hydroponic Green house

future water needs in case of linking them with different suggested water strategies. Figure (5.8) shows CWR of all suggested scenarios including the current situation in the CSA.

Figure 5.8: CWR of all suggested scenarios in addition to current CWR in the CSA 5.4 Water Management Strategies in the CSA

Back to water budget analysis in Chapter 4 and Water Crop Requirements in Chapter 3, several water management strategies could be suggested due to availability of water in the CSA and also with regards to water potential in light of current and future demands. The

Figure 5.9: Water Budget and mean monthly CWR in 2013 in the CSA.

16.33

15.45

17.08

15.82

14.89

13.5 14 14.5 15 15.5 16 16.5 17 17.5

ADS1 ADS2 ADS3 ADS4 ADS5 Total CWR +current

irrigation

Current water budget; Figure 5.9, water deficit in summer months and September, even though the total surplus is 2.42 Mm³/a, and available water is 5.5 Mm³/a and CWR is 3.09 Mm³. Therefore, concerning this current situation and with water surplus quantity, there is deficit in summer months of about -0.32 Mm³/a. Deficit is usually caused by drought impact on the Spring in June which reduces received water. In addition, the water table level of shallow aquifer wells declines causing cancelation of summer season vegetables cultivation.

The irrigated area also decreased from 4,000 donums to 3,150 donums. Based on current water budget, on average every 1,000 donums need about one million cubic meters for irrigation in the CSA of different kinds of crops. In this context, and concerning the suggested five ADS for the next 15 years, huge quantities of irrigation water should be provided to meet the ADS requirements. Therefore, several IWRM strategies should be planned and linked with these ADS in the CSA for the Decision Support System (DSS) in terms of sustainable development under consideration of Socio-economic and environment concerns.

In this research, IWRM strategies and water management strategies could be developed due to water resources (both available and potential). The suggested water strategies (WS) include the following:

The first water Strategy (WSI) depends on the present current situation according to irrigated agriculture and available water in the CSA. CWR is 3Mm³/a for irrigation of 4,474 donums for two seasons of vegetables planting and mean available water with minimum loss (fresh from spring and storm water, brackish) is 8.81 Mm³/a. 6.89Mm³/a come from the spring as fresh water, and 1.14Mm³/a of brackish water come from shallow well aquifer and 0.9 MCM/a come also as fresh water from storm water. The actual consumption of this available water for agricultural sector is 5.53 mcm. Table 5.3 modified from Table 4.12 explains available water and current untapped water in addition to water surplus in different water resources in the CSA. It also shows water resources outside CSA in case of water import as an option according to water resources analysis in section 4.4.

Table 5.3 Part 1: Available water from different resources and CUWR in the CSA.

Source of Water WP Water Availability Water

Surpluses CUWR

Table 5.3 Part 2: Available water from different resources and CUWR in the CSA.

The second suggested Water Strategy (WSII) includes available water in the CSA in addition to Managing Aquifer Recharge (MAR) and Storage and Recovery of Aquifer (SRA) in the CSA. This strategy concerns irrigated lands expansion to about 8,000 donums. This is based on ADS2 op1.

The following explanation gives answer to the question if MAR should participate in promised solution using ground water model in the CSA.

5.5 Managing Aquifer Recharge (MAR) and Ground Water Model System