The National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), hosted an International Round-table including Partners from Tunisia, Italy, Spain, Palestine, Jordan and Tunisia within MENAWARA project, funded by the ENI CBC MED Program, to share experiences on non-conventional water re-use in agriculture.

In this occasion public officers and farmers, who actively participated to the round table, exchanged with their peers during the field visits, showcasing successful technologies and techniques implemented by NARC.

Dr. Nizar Haddad, the Director General of NARC confirmed NARC endeavor to find successful solutions to many challenges facing the agricultural sector, especially those related to water, climate and environment, affirming that NARC is dedicating all its potentials and expertise for the support of farmers and the agricultural sector as well.

Haddad reiterated his pride in partnering with friend countries to unite national and regional efforts to find solutions to water challenges; in light of the decline of the share of water allocated to agriculture by 1% per year. He stated that the project will enable farmers to use modern technology in sub-surface irrigation by employing innovation in the agricultural sector, which will have a positive impact on water efficiency and reduce evaporation.

The Coordinator of the MENAWARA Project from the Desertification Research Centre of the Sassari University, Dr. Alberto Carletti paid tribute to the leading role of NARC of attracting competencies and experts from several countries to discuss the challenges facing water, particularly in non-conventional waters, by creating interlinkages between farmers and decision makers and the tangible example is the very enriching experience of MENAWARA.

On the other hand, Dr. Naem Mazahrih, the National Coordinator of MANAWARA Project, showed the very promising results in terms of irrigation efficiency and productivity obtained in the demo fields. He said also that the international workshop will be marked by the launch of (MEDWAYCAP) exhibition, as well as, the launch of the innovation camp for designs of concrete solutions that meet the challenges of water scarcity using non-conventional water.

Dr. Roula Khadra, International Officer, and Senior Researcher at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM-Bari) commended the fruitful cooperation between the Institute and NARC enabling research, capacity building, and development activities, for more productive and sustainable agriculture.

Researcher Giovanna Dragonetti from CIHEAM-Bari, presented the scientific results from the living labs in Beit Dajan, Palestine, endorsed by the results from the demo site of NARC, demonstrating the added value of the established collaboration and the positive impacts of the irrigation methodologies and approaches on the agricultural communities and the environment.