Meeting the Challenge of Water Scarcity
for Agriculture in the Dry Areas

The dry areas by definition have scarcity of water. The level of scarcity in several parts of the dry areas in the developing world is going to get further accentuated because of global warming. Although agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water in the dry areas, the relative availability of water for agriculture is going to decline because of the increasing demands from other sectors in response to growing urbanization and industrial development. Agriculture, however, would continue to be a major source of livelihoods for a majority of the population in the dry areas. For developing sustainable agriculture in these areas it is of paramount importance not only to increase the availability of water  for crop use, for example by improved water harvesting and conservation technologies and by developing methods for utilizing marginal quality water, but also to improve water-use efficiency in the production system by developing improved cultivars and crop management techniques.

This session would therefore include papers to cover following areas:

1. Water harvesting and conservation techniques for improving availability of water for agriculture in the dry areas
2. Safe use of marginal quality water – drainage water, brackish water, sea water, treated sewage effluent – for crop production including agro-forestry
3. Agronomic techniques and crop modeling for improving water-use efficiency both under rainfed and irrigated conditions
4. Developing drought tolerant and more water-use efficient cultivars of field crops to get more ‘crop per drop’
5. Managing rangelands for sustainable improvement in fodder production under limited availability of water
6. Use of protected agriculture for improved water- and nutrient-use efficiency

Please send your abstracts and questions to Prof.  Dr.  Mohan C. Saxena
 

Please note that the
deadline for submitting your abstract is October 15 , 2006

Convenor(s):

Prof.  Dr.  Mohan C. Saxena

Assistant Director General
ICARDA
Arid Land Research Center
Tottori University
1390 Hamasaka, Tottori 680-0001
Japan
phone: + 81-857-21-7251
fax: + 81-857-29-6199
cell:  + 81-90-6435-7507
email:

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Call for Abstracts  

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