d4.1 and d5.1: summary report of sirrimed stakeholders ... · pantano de la cierva irrigation...

SIRRIMED grant agreement nº 245159

SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME THEME 2: Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food

Collaborative Project – SICA (Mediterranean Partner Countries)

SIRRIMED Sustainable use of irrigation water

in the Mediterranean Region

Grant agreement: 245159

Start date: 01/07/2010 End date: 31/12/2013 (42 months)

D4.1 and D5.1: Summary Report of SIRRIMED Stakeholders Meetings (1st year)

Lead Beneficiary: UPCT

Dissemination Level

PU = Public PP = Restricted to other programme participants (including the EC Services). RE = Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the EC Services). CO = Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the EC Services).

Nature: R = Report, P = Prototype, D = Demonstrator, O = Other

Revision [Code] Organization Date & Visa

Due date of the deliverable

Written by UPCT 14 july 2011

Checked by UPCT 21 July 2011

Validated by UPCT 21 July 2011 01/07/2011

Revision Date Changes description

[Code1]

[i.e. Draft]

[Code3]


1. SUMMARY

Several stakeholders meetings were hold during the 1st year of the Sirrimed project. The

objectives of these meetings were the following:

- to present to the stakeholders the context, objectives and applications that will be

developed in the frame of SIRRIMED, with special focus on the experiments and

validation tests requiring the participation and collaboration of the stakeholders

- to identify the main management issues to be targeted and reach an overall

agreement on the methodology and means to be used in the field tests.

- to select the different pilot farms and pilot-districts where the experiments,

benchmarking activities and validation tests will be carried out, and to get the

agreement of the selected stakeholders about their participation to the benchmarking

activities and validation tests

- to define the protocols for the implementation of the activities, installation of sensors

and data loggers, and recollection of data.

The SIRRIMED project has been very positively valuated by the different stakeholders that

participated in the meetings (farmers, technical staff of irrigators association and

management officers of regional water agencies). Practically all of them agreed to bring their

contribution to the research teams. This contribution will be mainly of two types.

- for the pilot-farms (growers), giving free access to the irrigation units for the field

surveys and benchmarking activities, and providing the required information on the

irrigation strategy (scheduling, amount of water, energy consumption) and farm

outputs (yield)

- for irrigation districts and water agencies, share their data, measurements and other

information sources, with open access to their historical data base.

Overall, the stakeholders meetings have been very useful to both the SIRRIMED teams and

stakeholders. The formers have collected valuable information on the issues considered by

stakeholders as relevant to irrigation water management at the different scales. The latter

appreciated the efforts made by the research teams to explain and clarify the objectives of

the project, and to account for their suggestions in the planning of the field activities. The

synthesis of the meetings is given in the next section.


2 -SYNTHESIS OF THE MEETINGS

2.1. MINUTES OF MEETINGS HELD IN THE SEGURA BASIN (UPCT, SPAIN)

2.1.1. SIRRIMED Meeting with Stakeholders at Mula (Murcia, Spain)

The UPCT-SIRRIMED team organised a stakeholder meeting with the managers of several

irrigation districts. The aim of this meeting was twofold. The first aim was to present the

objectives and activities of the project to the stakeholders and to get their agreement and

collaboration in the benchmarking and evaluation of the district information system. The

second was the collection of information by UPCT on the technical, technological, economics

and governance characteristics of the irrigation districts in the Mula River Basin. The

irrigation districts represented in the meeting were:

Pantano de la Cierva Irrigation Community. This community covers 1990 ha using mainly

surface water from the Mula River and from the Tajo-Segura canal. They are also using

groundwater by pumping water from two wells located upstream of the irrigation district.

Purísima de Yechar Irrigation Community. This community was represented by its president

Luis Felipe Ramirez Sanches. The irrigated area is 750 ha and the water used is exclusively

from the Tajo-Segura canal.

Presa de los Chopos Irrigation Community. This community was represented by its

president, Fausto Lopez Herrera. It is a very small district (26 ha) using surface water with

high salinity problems.

In a first step, the stakeholders presented the characteristics of their irrigation district, and

how they are managing the irrigation water as well as the problems they are faced. In a

second stage, the UPCT team presented the SIRRIMED project. It was followed by a

discussion on the effective contribution of the farmers and district managers in the evaluation

of the SIRRIMED district information system. At the end of the meeting, the participants

responded to a questionnaire about the interest of deficit irrigation strategies and information

systems for irrigation management. All stakeholders confirmed that they were really

favourable to contribute in the project. District managers agreed to share the data they have

on district water and energy consumption. One farmer agreed to collaborate as pilot-farm for

benchmarking and evaluation of the information system.

The UPCT participants were F. Alcón, N. Arcas, A. Baille, V. Mártinez and M.D. de Miguel

(UPCT professors) and a student (E. Nicolás). The later will be in charge of the collection of

the data of the irrigation districts and at the pilot-farm.

2.1.2 - Meeting with the managers of the Campo de Cartagena Irrigation

Association (Cartagena, Spain)

A meeting was hold on 3 March 2011 in Cartagena between members of the UPCT team (A.

Baille, V. Mártinez) on one hand, and the Secretary and Technical Director of the Campo de


Cartagena Irrigation Scheme (Comunidad de Regantes del Campo de Cartagena, CRCC) on

the other hand.

The participants were:

UPCT: A. Baille, V. Martínez, and E. Nicolas (student who will be on charge of the

data collection).

CRCC: M. Madrid (General Manager) and M. Soto (Technical Director).

The aims of this meeting were to present the SIRRIMED project activities and to get the

agreement and collaboration of the water use association in the evaluation of the District

Information System (DIS).

The discussion topics were:

Present the SIRRIMED-DIS structure and main targets, and its potential applications

for district management.

Analyse the possible contribution of district managers in the evaluation of the District

information system.

Select a group of farmers belonging to the Campo de Cartagena Water Use

Association with interest to participate in the evaluation of the information system.

Listing current water management issues to be solved in the Campo de Cartagena

area (limited water supply, uncertainty in allotments, water pricing, problems due to

algae growth in channels and water reservoirs, etc.).

The main conclusions were:

CRCC managers confirmed that they were really favourable to contribute in the

project sharing the data they have on district water and energy consumption.

As a result, a second meeting was planned (March 17 of 2011) for getting involved

farmers belonging to the CRCC Water Use Association (see below).

A cooperation agreement between UPCT and CCRC will be officially established to

precise the terms of the R&D activities and exchange of data and tools between the

two parts.

2.1.3 - Meeting with Farmers of the Campo de Cartagena for selecting the

UPCT-pilot-farms

The meeting was held at UPCT on March 17 of 2011. UPCT participants were A. Baille, V.

Martínez, MM. Gonzalez-Real and B. Martin. There were five farmers in the meeting

representing eight pilot-farms:

M. Roca, J.A. Navarro, J. Domingo. Farmland “Roca”.

F. Ortuño. Farmland “La Cerezuela”.

A. Galindo. Farmland “Galindo”.

The first part of the meeting was devoted to present the objectives and activities of the

SIRRIMED project to the farmers. In the second part, it was discussed on the participation of


the stakeholders in testing and evaluating the SIRRIMED district information system. All

stakeholders had a positive perception of the project and were favourable to collaborate in

the project, accepting to act as evaluators for benchmarking and evaluating the interest of

the information system at the farm level.

The table below describes the crop and surface in each pilot-farm, 5 of them with citrus and 3

with winter horticultural crops.

Crops Surface (ha) Place

orange (navel powell) 18 Casa Mulero

orange (navelate) 30 Villa Antonia

orange/lemon (verna/lanelate) 150 Los palomares

orange (fortune) 20 Galindo

orange (fortune) 65 Cerezuela

horticultural crops (lettuce-potato) 50 Fontes

horticultural crops (celery-lettuce) 15 El albujon

horticultural crops (lettuce-lettuce-barley) 18 La Gori

It was decided that UPCT will perform a continuous monitoring of soil water status in the

pilot-farms (soil moisture content measurements by means of capacitive sensors connected

to a data logger) and to carry out periodic measurements of water and energy consumption

by means of portable equipment (portable ultrasound flow meter and electrical network

analyzer). The later will allow obtaining on-farm data for indicators such as irrigation water

efficiency and energy use efficiency in irrigation.

It was also agreed to hold regular meetings with pilot-farmers (Jun 2011-Jun 2012, monthly

for citrus and weekly for horticultural crops) in order to gather the farm information presented

in an extensive questionnaire.


Geographical localization of the pilot farms in the Campo de Cartagena Irrigation District

2.2. MINUTES OF MEETINGS HELD AT THE CER IRRIGATIION SCHEME (CER, ITALY)

2.2.1. Minutes from Stakeholders meeting, CER, Bologna (IT) 25 Nov. 2010.

- Aims

To present the Sirrimed project and the WP3’s Benchmarking activities. Introduce

benchmarking criteria, purposes and limits. To get involved the main water stakeholders in

the project.

- Participants

The list of participants is reported in the file “CER Sirrimed Stakeholders Attendance register

2010-11.pdf”, uploaded in the Sirrimed web site)

The Farmer’s Organization APO-CONERPO gave its availability to participate (contact

person: G. Reggidori), but their representative cannot attend to the meeting.

- Discussion


Illustrate the Sirrimed’s structure and main targets


Creating a group of stakeholders involving as far it’s possible representatives of all

the actors of the "irrigated agriculture" chain (Water resource management, Policy

makers, Farmer’s Associations and Syndacates)

Start a participatory process of consultation with stakeholders

Discussions was facilitated showing slides (see the file “Sirrimed meeting 251110.pdf”,

uploaded in the Sirrimed web site)

- Conclusions

All the participants are willing to take part of the WP3 Benchmarking activity and to support

the Sirrimed project as far will be possible.

In order to harmonise the priority setting exercise CER proposed to write a Questionnaire,

which draft in English was presented. All the participants agreed. The Questionnaire will be

presented and discussed during the next meeting.

2.2.2. Minutes from Stakeholders meeting, CER, Bologna (IT) 08 Feb. 2011.

- Aims

To present the Questionnaire as agreed in the previous meeting (25/11/2010). To discuss

benchmarking criteria, purposes and limits. To get involved the main water stakeholders in

the project.

- Participants

The list of participants is reported in the attached file “CER Sirrimed Stakeholders

Attendance register 2010-11.pdf”, uploaded in the Sirrimed web site.

The Farmer’s Organization APO-CONERPO gave its availability to participate (contact

person: G. Reggidori), but their representative cannot attend to the meeting.

- Discussion


Benchmarking meaning and potential for the stakeholder’s organisations

Gather the pressing stakeholder’s needs and informations about the state of the art

through the Questionnaire

Discussions was facilitated showing slides (file “Sirrimed meeting 080211.pdf”, uploaded in

the Sirrimed web site)

- Conclusions

All the participants took actively part to the discussion. The Questionnaire was presented and

discussed (see the attached file “SIRRIMED Stakeholders - IT.doc”). All the participants

agreed to fill up the Questionnaire, even though some of them raised the issue of

confidentiality and of the uncontrolled use of the data provided. Participants agreed to

disseminate only aggregate data, without any indication of the data source. The results of the

Questionnaire analysis will be presented and discussed during the next meeting.


2.3. MINUTES OF MEETINGS HELD AT THE NUBARIA IRRIGATION SCHEME (NUBARIA, EGYPT)

2.3.1. Minutes of the 1st Stakeholders meeting hold at Nubaria, June 2011

The NRC- team organised a stakeholder meeting on 3 June 2011 with the managers of

several irrigation departments. The aim of this meeting was twofold. The first aim was to

present the objectives and activities of the SIRRIMED project to the stakeholders and to get

their agreement and collaboration in evaluation of the irrigation system. The second was the

collection of information by NRC on the technical, technological, economics and governance

characteristics of the irrigation systems in the Nubaria territory. The stakeholders

represented in the meeting were:

El-Nasr General Administration of Irrigation, Central Directorate of Irrigation and

Water Resources of Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. The role of Central

Directorate of Irrigation and Water Resources is providing irrigation water to canals

and maintenance of canals at all levels in Nubaria.

Nubaria Irrigation Advisory Service Department, General Directorate of Irrigation

Advisory Service of West Delta, Central Directorate of Irrigation Advisory Service

(CDIAS) of Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. This Irrigation Advisory

Service Department plays a vital role in capacity building of board of Water user

associations in the region.

El-Rash El-Gharbia Water Board. El-Rash El-Gharbia Water Board is a water user

association serves about 22,000 acres.

In a first step, the stakeholders presented the characteristics of their irrigation systems, and

how they are managing the irrigation water as well as the problems they are faced. In a

second stage, the NRC team presented the SIRRIMED project. It was followed by a

discussion on the effective contribution of the farmers and managers in the evaluation of the

SIRRIMED information system. At the end of the meeting, the participants responded to a

questionnaire about the interest of deficit irrigation strategies and information systems for

irrigation management. All stakeholders confirmed that they were really favourable to

contribute in the project. Nubaria territory managers agreed to share the data they have on

water and energy consumption.

The NRC participants were M. Salem, I. El-Metwally, R. Ali and M. Abdelhamid (NRC

professors) and a PDF (A. Ramadan). The later is in charge of the collection of the data of

the irrigation system at the pilot-farm.


2.3.2. Minutes of the stakeholder meeting with the managers of the Central Directorate of Irrigation and Water Resources (Nubaria, Egypt)

This stakeholder meeting was held on 13 June 2011 in Nubaria between members of the

NRC team (M. Abdelhamid, R. Ali and M. Salem) on one hand, and manager of El-Nasr

General Administration of Irrigation (A. Farid) on the other hand.


NRC: M. Abdelhamid, M. Salem and A. Ramadan (PDF who will be on charge of the

data collection).

EGAI: A. Farid (El-Nasr General Administration of Irrigation).


agreement in the evaluation of the SIRRIMED information system.


Present the SIRRIMED-IS structure and main targets, and its potential applications

for irrigation management.

Analyse the possible contribution of irrigation managers in the evaluation of the

SIRRIMED information system.

The main conclusions were that EGAI manager confirmed that they were really favourable to

contribute in the project sharing the data they have on irrigation water and energy

consumption.

2.3.3 - Meeting with the managers of Central Directorate of Irrigation Advisory Service (CDIAS) of Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources (Nubaria, Egypt)

The meeting was held on 13 June 2011 in Nubaria between members of the NRC team (M.

Abdelhamid, R. Ali and M. Salem) on one hand, and members of Noubaria Irrigation

Advisory Service Department (M. Al-Halaby, Vice Dean of General Directorate of Irrigation

Advisory Service of West Delta (GDIAS) on the other hand.


NRC: M. Abdelhamid, M. Salem, R. Ali and A. Ramadan (PDF who will be on charge

of the data collection).

GDIAS: M. Al-Halaby (Vice Dean of General Directorate of Irrigation Advisory Service

of West Delta).


agreement and collaboration of the water use association in the evaluation of the SIRRIMED

information system.



Present the SIRRIMED-IS structure and main targets, and its potential applications

for irrigation management.

Analyse the possible contribution of irrigation managers in the evaluation of the

SIRRIMED information system.

The main conclusions were that managers confirmed that they were really favourable to

contribute in the project sharing the data they have on irrigation water and energy

consumption.

2.3.4 - Meeting with the chairman of El-Rash El-Gharbia Water Board (EIC

member) (Water User Association)

The meeting was held at AlShagaa village (Nubaria) between members of the NRC team (M.

Abdelhamid, R. Ali and M. Salem) on one hand, and chairman of El-Rash El-Gharbia Water

Board on the other hand.


NRC: M. Abdelhamid, M. Salem and A. Ramadan (PDF who will be on charge of the

data collection).

El-Rash El-Gharbia Water Board: (A. AL-Haddad and G.M.Gad, chairman and board

member of El-Rash El-Gharbia Water Board, respectively).

2.3.5. Meetings with Farmers for selecting the pilot-farms at Nubaria (Egypt)

The meeting was held at AlShagaa village on June 13 of 2011. Participants from NRC were

M. Abdelhamid, R. Ali and M. Salem on one hand and chairman of El-Rash El-Gharbia Water

Board and farmers on the other hand.

There were five farmers in the meeting:

A. AL-Haddad “Alshagaa”

G.M. Gad “Alshagaa”

A. Abbas “Alshagaa”

M. Ibrahim “Alshagaa”

K. Mohamed “Alshagaa”

The first part of the meeting was devoted to present the objectives and activities of the

SIRRIMED project to the farmers. In the second part, it was discussed on the participation of

the stakeholders in testing and evaluating the SIRRIMED information system. All

stakeholders had a positive perception of the project and were favourable to collaborate in

the project, accepting to act as evaluators for evaluating the interest of the information

system at the farm level.

It was also agreed to hold regular meetings with pilot-farmers (Dec. 2011- April 2012,

monthly for wheat) in order to gather the farm information presented in an extensive

questionnaire.


2.4. MINUTES OF MEETINGS HELD AT THE KARLA LAKE SCHEME (CERETETH, GREECE)

2.4.1. Program and participants

The first Greek stakeholders meeting of the SIRRIMED Project was organized by

CERETETH in Volos on the 15th of January 2011. Six months after that first information

event for the stakeholders, a second Meeting took place, in order to provide them with

updated information about the Project’s achievements and results so far. The Stakeholders

that participated at the meeting are presented in

Table 1.

The members of the CERETETH team presented to the stakeholders the purpose, objectives

and achievements of the SIRRIMED project so far. Four presentations were made by the

CERETETH Team:

- General Project Presentation (Objectives, Work Packages, Partnership)

-. WP1: Key on-farm irrigation techniques to save water

(Objectives of WP1, CERETETH tasks, Results of the experimentation with new irrigation

techniques in pilot farms in Magnesia district)

-. WP3: District characterization and benchmarking

(Objectives and Tasks of WP3, Benchmarking Indicators, first results of the field research)


-. WP4 & WP5: District Information System (DIS) for irrigation management (Objectives

and Tasks of WP4, Links to the other WPs, Information Systems for Water Use)

After the presentations, the stakeholders had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss

on the themes presented.

2.4.2. The main topics of the discussion

- The exploitation of the results of the Project for the optimization of water use for

irrigation at local, regional and national level.

- The economic, environmental and social benefits of the new water governance

schemes proposed by the project.

- The benefits of the irrigated agriculture benchmarking to the farmers, local

communities, region, country.

- The existing water governance structures and their weaknesses.

- The results of the field research with the use of questionnaires with farmers and

stakeholders.

- The selection criteria and desiderate characteristics for benchmarking indicators.

- The dissemination of project results at local, regional and national level.

2.4.3. Main conclusions of the meeting

1. CERETETH team members agreed with the local authorities (Management Body of Eco-

development Lake Karla Area, Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Larisa, Local

Organisation for Land Reclamation of Lake Karla and Pinios River) to continue their

cooperation, in order to collect the remaining information-data from farmers. The local

authorities agreed to continue informing their members and help CERETETH have direct

contact with local farmers in order to have more representative results. The Local

Organisations have already provided their help for the accomplishment of the first part of the

field research, with farmers that provided information for the benefits of applying to their

farming practices, innovative technologies and techniques driven by sustainable

management principle. The local authorities will also contribute to the selection criteria and

desired characteristics for benchmarking indicators.

2. The Local Organisation for Land Reclamation (TOEB) of Lake Karla and TOEB of Pinios

River will inform CERETETH about the hydrological characteristics of the specific area.

3. The Technical Chamber of Greece (ΤΕΕ) agreed to undertake the dissemination of the

project results through its regular publications.

4. The representative of the Water Directorate of Volos Municipality posed a question about

the use of recycled water from sewage treatment plants for irrigation. The Water Directorate

of Larisa Municipality informed the participants that for Larisa Municipality a project is being


developed for the use of recycled sewage treatment water for the irrigation of urban parks,

but it a costly investment. The CERETETH Team will look into this option as well within the

Project, although it is not amongst its main objectives and tasks.

5. The representative of the Water Directorate of Larisa Municipality mentioned an

educational programme applied at schools in Larisa, which had good results for saving water

at households and highlighted the importance of education in water use. He also talk about

the issue of farmers paying for irrigation water, which was solved only with the transfer of

responsibility from the Municipality to the Water Directorate and the enforcement of water

regulations.

6. The Water Directorate of Larisa Municipality suggested that CERETETH should work

closely with the Local Organisations for Land Reclamation and the Municipalities, in order to

transfer the innovative techniques developed within the Project to the local farmers.

7. The Local Organisation for Land Reclamation (TOEB) of Pinios River highlighted the

deficit of proper water governance structures at Local, Regional and National level and

proposed the composition of 2nd-tier Organisations and Committees for each watershed for

the administrative management, with the participation of Municipalities, scientists and

stakeholders. The Management Body of Ecodevelopment for Lake Karla Area supported the

proposal of the TOEB and highlighted the issue of lack of national intervention for the

institutional establishment of the Body.

8. The representative of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Larisa proposed the

organisation of Information Events in all capital cities of Thessaly Region, so that the results

of the project are widely disseminated.

9. Stakeholders and CERETETH members agreed to have bilateral discussions on a monthly

basis, in order to: i) work towards gathering and treatment of the results, ii) contribute to the

selection criteria and characteristics for benchmarking indicators, iii) disseminate the project

results.

2.5. MINUTES OF MEETINGS HELD AT PLAINE DE LA CRAU (INRA, FRANCE)

Several formal and informal meetings were organized dealing with the issues related to water

use management, crop production and environment protection in the Crau area. Indeed, the

Crau plain is characterised by complex relations between traditional agricultural activities

(hay production, grazing sheep...), water use (irrigation of the grassland producing hay, being

the main contributor to aquifer recharge) and ecosystem protection (depending on sheep

grazing, irrigated hay production and water level in the aquifer): see Delivrables 4.2 - 5.2.


The meetings were either organized directly in the frame of Sirrimed work or in the frame of

various other initiatives, the Sirrimed program being presented on these occasions. We also

participated to several official French administration and institution meeting in which

stakeholders requirements were discussed; indeed, during the last year two significant

initiatives related to the governance of water resource use and distribution have been on-

going, which aims at establishing (i) an “aquifer contract” (‘contrat de nappe’) and (ii) a

“canals contract” (‘contrat de canal’) which are two operational administrative tools for

programming (i) management of aquifer water and (ii) management of water delivery from

the Durance river between the various institutions and local administrations (however these

contracts have no juridical implications).

The main objectives of the meetings were to present the Sirrimed project, to identify

stakeholder requirements that can be addressed in the frame of Sirrimed, to identify

information exchange between stakeholders and INRA and to discuss the implementation of

experimental protocols.

The main stakeholders (and water users) that were involved in questioning the issues related

to Sirrimed project are listed below:

Water authorities

Syndicat Mixte d’Etude et de Gestion de la Nappe Phréatique de la Crau (SYMCRAU):

water Authority for the development of the management of the Crau aquifer (France);

also in charge of organizing the aquifer contract proposal.

Association Syndicale Autorisée (ASA) des Arrosants de la Crau : main irrigation district

management association in La Crau area ; also in charge of the canal contract

proposition.

Crop production authority

Comité du Foin de Crau: main farmer association in the area for the production of Crau

hay (Certified Origin Product Label) which is the main irrigated crop in ‘La Crau’ area ;

also in charge of the management of Natura 2000 regulation.

Farmers

Domaine du Merle: Hay and sheep production farm; also hosting an Agricultural School

and an Experimental Domain

Mas de Suffren: Hay production farm

Mas de l’Aqueduc: Hay production farm


Authority for environment protection

CEEP (Conservatoire-Etudes des Ecosystèmes de Provence) in charge of the

management and the enforcement of protection measures over the dry steppe

ecosystem, specific to the Crau area

It is worth noticing that most of the main authority managers (for agricultural production and

water management) have implication in several of these authorities and are generally

farmers themselves. Some are also involved in the local political authorities.

Main meetings related to Sirrimed issues and main topics adressed:

- Syndicat du foin de Crau, Saint-Martin de Crau, 17/02/2010

(management of irrigated hay production, enforcement of AOC regulation, relation to

environmental issues, use of remote sensing information for monitoring agricultural

practices in hay production, impact of climate change and increase in water shortage

periods...)

- Aquifer contract, Fos sur Mer, 20/05/2010

(diagnostic of aquifer vulnerability, water balance of the aquifer, monitoring of the aquifer

level and quality, impact of land use change and modification of irrigation management

on the aquifer level...)

- Domaine de Suffren, Entressen, 10/11/2010

(irrigation practices, hay production, monitoring of water use and crop practices...)

- Coucil of the Users of Domaine du Merle, Salon de Provence, 20/01/2011

(presentation of the Sirrimed project to all the stakeholders and the farmers...)

- Canal contract, Arles, 18/02/2011

(management and governance of water distribution, monitoring of water use, monitoring

of land use and surface of irrigated area...)

- Domaine de l’Aqueduc, Saint-Martin de Crau, 20/04/2011

(irrigation practices, hay production, monitoring of water use and crop practices...)

Synthesis of meeting discussions

The main concerns expressed by stakeholders relate to the sustainability of crop production

and of the aquifer level. Indeed,

(i) the aquifer is the main, or only, source of domestic water for most of the cities in the

area (also source of water for the main industries),

(ii) the level of aquifer recharge is directly related to the excess in irrigation water through

the traditional irrigation activities (which consist in the border irrigation of grassland

producing AOC hay...)

(iii) the contamination of the aquifer by sea water intrusion at the south of the area seems

to be dependant of the level of aquifer recharge


(iv) the concurrence for land between traditionally irrigated grassland and other use such

as urban and industrial use of land, as well as replacement by other crop types, in

particular orchards and greenhouses which have a negative impact on aquifer

recharge and possibly on water quality (however, the level of diffuse pollution from

agriculture is low in the area)

(v) the future evolution of water availability from the Durance river which is the main

source of irrigation water; agricultural uses are in concurrence with electricity

production, recreational uses and maintenance of river flow, which can lead to water

restrictions in period of drought; this concern is also strengthened by the predicted

change in rainfall distribution

(vi) the protection of ecosystems in the area is linked to the maintenance of the traditional

agricultural activities (irrigated grassland and sheep husbandry); the inclusion of

biodiversity issues in the regulation of crop production and water management is well

shared by all the authorities...

In the frame of these concerns, the main requirements that could be addressed in the frame

of Sirrimed concern:

(i) the development and the implementation of systems for monitoring the use of water

(at the district and at the watershed scale) and the aquifer level; at the moment there

is a lot of unknowns and uncertainties in the amount of water used by irrigation, in the

contribution of irrigation water to aquifer recharge (annual estimation between 110

Mhm3 and 160 Mhm3 depending on the study), water losses from the distribution

system, amount of withdrawals (in particular agricultural withdrawals)...

(ii) the evaluation of land use, the evaluation of acreage of irrigated area, the localisation

of areas contributing to aquifer recharge, the localisation of water withdrawals

(iii) the development of tools for evaluating the sensitivity of aquifer level together with

crop production, and salinisation risk from sea water intrusion

a. to change in land use (replacement of traditionally irrigated area by land use not

contributing to aquifer recharge: urbanized surface, fallow land, crop irrigated

using micro-irrigation systems...)

b. to modifications of water availability from the distribution network (in particular in

situation of water shortage)

c. to the development of water saving measure at the field or the farm level to face

increase in the price of water

d. to change in climate (higher return time of drought events...)

(iv) the evaluation of new irrigation modalities: changes in irrigation techniques, changes

in water rounds, changes in regulation of water distribution at the district level

(v) the definition of the localisation of new water withdrawals


The meetings also end up with decision on the development of collaborations between INRA

and stakeholders and farmers on

(i) exchanges of information (water monitoring data, agricultural practices and

production data, existing geographical information...)

(ii) the production of land use maps from remote sensing

(iii) the development of aquifer modelling for the analysis of future scenarios of land use

and drought occurrence and the analysis of recharge conditions in relation to

irrigation level

(iv) the implementation of a crop production (grassland) model for analysing the evolution

of production and to evaluate the contribution of irrigation to aquifer recharge

(v) the co-organisation of data acquisition campaigns for the monitoring of the aquifer

level

(vi) the setting of measurements system in some farms or ecosystems (network of

evapotranspiration measurement stations, network of leaf area index automatic

sensors...)

A new meeting is forecasted for the end of the winter period in order to inform stakeholders

on the progress of the work, for further analysis of their requirements and the definition of

protocols and scenarios for the analysis of aquifer response to various forcing (climate, land

use, level of use of irrigation...)

2.6. MINUTES OF MEETINGS HELD AT AGADIR (IAVH, MOROCCO)

Contact persons: Mohamed El-Otmani ([email protected]) and Abdellatif El-Fadl

([email protected])

During the first year of the project, stakeholder meetings within the SIRRIMED project

had taken several options: either as meetings on water use attended by the IAV Morocco

contact persons within SIRRIMED or as individual interviews on water use, water

governance etc. with producers, farm managers, cooperative members, water user

association members, administration agents, water managing agencies and services,

legislators etc.

Table 1 gives names and affiliations of individuals met as a group during a meeting

organized by AGROTECH Association where water economy and efficient use was

discussed and technologies used for irrigation management were presented and discussed.

During this meeting, visits were made to the IAV-Complexe Horticole d’Agadir citrus and

tomato experimental plots where irrigation management technologies are used (Figure 1).

The objectives of the SIRRIMED tomato project were presented to the group. This same

group visited AMENSOUSS Company (the stakeholder in charge of the public-private water

management project of the El Guerdane district) and management of the resource supply

and that of the demand were presented by the Director of the company. Profs. ElFadl and

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


ElOtmani and the three students had attended the meeting. Figure 2 gives a view of

attendance.

Besides the contact persons [i.e.; Prof. A. El-Fadl (project coordinator) and M. El-

Otmani (WP2 leader)], Prof. M.C. Benismail was also involved with questionnaire

preparation, student advising for data collection and summarizing etc. Three students were

fully involved in the research. In fact, their research project for their Masters thesis was part

of the SIRRIMED project. A sample of about 50 farms was taken and visits to these farms

were organized to see how water is being handled and discuss with growers and various

local water use stakeholders aspects of water economy and governance. Table 1 gives the

list of the persons met in farms, packinghouses, governmental offices, etc. that were visited.

The data gathered from these visits, meetings and interviews, and from the tomato

research plot are being summarized and analyzed. The results will be presented for the next

Deliverable.

Table 1. List of stakeholders with whom interviews were conducted regarding water use,

water pricing and water management and governance in the Souss valley of southern

Morocco

Name Title/ responsibility Affiliation Telephone, Email

JEBHA Youssef

Président

Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0661281628., E- mail : [email protected]

SABRI Hicham Ingénieur (Service technique)

Coopérative ZAOUIA Tel : 0661444547

OUABDLAKRIM Said

Service technique Coopérative ZAOUIA Tel : 0661281613

AMAJAOUD Said Service technique Coopérative ZAOUIA Tel : 0661349625

KAMADOU Youssef

Service technique Coopérative ZAOUIA Tel : 0660133890

ELBAAIZ Brahim gérant Ferme ELBAAIZ /Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0661701698

ELAAMARI Abdelaziz

Technicien Ferme AIT HESSI/ Coopérative ZOUIA

Tel : 0672062336

ELALAOUI Mustapha

Technicien Ferme ESSAADA/Coopérative

ZAOUIA

Tel : 0662863177

AIT LHAJ Abderahmane AITWAHMANE

Omar

propriétaire Ferme LOUBNA/Coopérative

ZAOUIA

Tel : 0661383609

Tel : O678622242

ALLAL Hassan BILAL Mohammed

Directeur technique Gérant

Ferme JNAN ALFAYD/Coopérative

ZAOUIA

Tel : 0673450065 Tel : 0661356590

DIBA Hassan

ELALAOUI

Propriétaire

Technicien

Ferme DIBA V/ Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0661387668

Tel : 0667400719


mohammed

BOUKDIL Miloud Gérant Ferme ZIRAR/ Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0661612963

AKROUD Ismail AKROUD Mustapha

Gérant Ferme DAR SALEH/Coopérative

ZAOUIA

Tel : 0662121389 Tel : 0661093376

ARIB Abdelkarim Technicien DZAIR II / Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0664322324

RACHID Salahdine Gérant Ferme RL/ SKS Tel : 0626482682

ZAGOUR Omar Gérant Ferme ZAGOUR/Groupe

KABBAGE

Tel : 0661208067

YAZIDI Adbeljalil Technicien DIBA II/ Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0673131538

SOGRATI mly Mbarek

Gérant ESSALAM/Coopérative ZAOUIA

Tel : 0666937564

ELHABIB Comptable du verger DAGMAS/ Groupe MASKIFA

Tel : 0661110061

LAMRABIT FADL Gérant Ferme BENKHAYER/Groupe

MASKIFA

Tel : 0661110046

SAADLALLAH Abdelhadi

Gérant Ferme HANA/Groupe COPAG

Tel : 0666465491

MAMAS Mohammed

Responsable irrigation/ Fertigation

Ferme AFRIAD/COPAG

Tel : 0673544019

ELFENNANE Hicham

Directeur technique Domaine KABBAGE Tel : 0661073704

OUBAHA Adil Directeur technique ZBIRAT BERRIGA/ groupe KABBAGE

Tel : 0618160311

LAASLI Mohammed

Gérant MACHRAA LKHIR/ SKS

Tel : 0667916941

NSSER Lhabib Gérant Domaine NSSER Tel : 0671480203

SOUDANI Ismail Responsable irrigation/fertigation

Domaine AABIDI SLIMANE/ SKS

Tel : 0666045739

RADI Hassan Encadrement technique

Producteurs certifiés SKS

Tel : 0661332988

KRICH Mohammed

Propriétaire Derme KRICH Tel : 0674100100

NACHAT Hassan Encadrement technique

Producteurs non certifiés

SKS

Tel : 0661280804

ELAARF Omar Propriétaire Tel : 0666926170

RBAITI Omar Propriétaire Tel : 0668725945


GHAZOUAN Mohammed

président L’AUEA TAHOUZINT Tel : 0661204749

JAMAL Amine Encadrement technique

Coopérative COPAG Tel : 0669590371

BELAMAALAM Mbarek

Station FADL Tel : 0668584212

KERANE Mustapha

Directeur Station FADL Tel : 0661163992

ZIALI Rachid Propriétaire Ferme ESSAADA Tel : 0661212053

Mr. Baroud Responsable service equipement

ORMVA/SM Tel : 06678405477

Mr. Bahri Service Amenagement hydroagricole

ORMVA/SM Tel: 0678405477

Mr. Bellouch Directeur interimaire ORMVA/SM Tel: 0678405475

Mm. Fatima Responsable planification

ABHSM Tel: 0528842551

Mr. Aslich ABHSM Tel: 0528842551

Mr. Hamsa Technicien ABHSM Tel: 0528842551

Mr. Makroum Directeur Amensouss Tel : 0661692306


Figure 1. Visit of water use stakeholders to IAV-Complexe Horticole d’Agadir SIRRIMED tomato plot (left) and citrus research plot (right). Prof. ElFadl is explaining the objectives of both plots in relation to irrigation management and water economy

Figure 2. Stakeholder meeting organized by Agrotech Association to AMENSOUSS company involved in managing the resource according to demand


ANNEXES

Files uploaded in the Sirrimed web site (www.sirrimed.org):

“CER Sirrimed Stakeholders Attendance register 2010-11.pdf”.

“Sirrimed meeting 251110.pdf”

“CER Sirrimed Stakeholders Attendance register 2010-11.pdf”

“Sirrimed meeting 080211.pdf”,

“SIRRIMED Stakeholders meeting 19.7.2011-CERETETH.pdf”

SIRRIMED Stakeholder meeting at Volos, Greece

http://www.sirrimed.org/


SIRRIMED Stakeholder meeting at Alshagaa, Egypt

SIRRIMED Stakeholder meeting at Noubaria, Egypt


MEETING ORGANIZED BY AGROTECH ASSOCIATION IN THE SOUSS REGION

AmenSouss is the enterprise in charge of water management in the Guerdane District. It is a private company managing water coming from the Aoulouz dam on the Souss river. It sells water to the growers and can provide up to 4000 m3/ha/year.

The meeting was attended by various persons in the production, training, consulting, Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, District organizations etc. SIRRIMED was represented by Professors A. El-Fadl and M. El-Otmani who took part in the discussions and participated in the visits to the field to learn about how AmenSouss works and its relation with various partners etc.

The photographs show the Director of AmenSouss presenting the water management practice in the Guerdane District of the Souss valley of Southern Morocco

d4.1 and d5.1: summary report of sirrimed stakeholders ... · pantano de la cierva irrigation...

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