FAO Launches Project to Improve Iran’s Agro Efficiency

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations started the implementation of a Technical Cooperation Program to enhance the resilience of Iranian rural communities and agricultural systems against the effects of extreme climatic events in collaboration with Iran’s Agriculture Ministry.
Funded by FAO, the project is focused on improving the knowledge and capacities of Iranian stakeholders for soil and water management in four target provinces: Golestan, Khuzestan, Lorestan and Sistan-Baluchestan. The organization lends its expertise to Iranian parties to strengthen the national disaster risk management systems and mechanisms, Mehr News Agency reported. 
In this regard, FAO organized an inception workshop, bringing together different stakeholders of the project, including experts from the MAJ Department of Water and Soil, the Energy Ministry, Iran Meteorological Organization, Forests, Rangeland and Watershed Management Organization, MAJ’s Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, provincial officials and local communities, to establish an operational national agriculture monitoring system to take steps for the implementation of the project. 
Participants discussed the project's implementation requirements and challenges, and the progress made so far in the inception phase. The experts also examined shared inputs for provincial-level strategies for climate-resilient soil and water management, and disaster risk management. 
Mentioning the extensive damages caused by the 2019 floods to the country, FAO’s representative to Iran, Gerold Bodeker, in his opening remarks at the event emphasized that “the project strengthens stakeholders’ capacities in climate-risk informed soil and water management, flood-risk management systems and mechanisms, and water and soil resources rehabilitation measures to address and mitigate the damages and losses to the agriculture sector caused by floods”. 
“All these activities are aimed at reducing risks and enhancing the resilience of stakeholders, enabling them to cope with future extreme events and consequently improving food and nutrition security of flood-affected agricultural communities in the target provinces,” he added. 
By promoting enabling policies for climate change action, FAO provides support to strengthen member-country capacities to plan, implement and report on climate change adaptation and mitigation, and build the resilience of agriculture sector.
FAO also plans to equip Iranian experts with the requisite knowledge and skills to implement the advanced approach of Real Water Savings in the agriculture sector.

Empowering Role

As part of its multilateral project to support Iran in reducing agriculture water consumption in Lake Urmia basin, FAO equips Iranian experts with the requisite knowledge and skills to implement the advanced approach of REWAS in the agriculture sector, enabling them to estimate real water savings and water productivity in the Urmia Lake basin, and evaluate the impact of field-scale crop-water interventions on basin-scale water savings, more accurately. 
The REWAS tool is developed to undertake a quick impact assessment of detailed field-scale experiments (either by models or pilot plots) on basin-scale potential water savings. REWAS is based on proven concepts of water accounting, water productivity and the appropriate water terminology.
Like many other Asian nations and due to projected population growth, economic development and associated water demands, Iran is expecting to experience growing water scarcity over the following years. 
In these circumstances, and considering a growing body of evidence revealing that many of the traditional water-saving technologies are ineffective, FAO and the Urmia Lake Restoration Program link arms, providing an e-learning opportunity for Iranian officers and researchers from the agriculture and energy ministries, ULRP and a number of academic institutions, on using REWAS. 
This training enables Iranian experts to estimate real water savings and water productivity in the Urmia Lake basin, and evaluate the impact of field-scale crop-water interventions on basin-scale water savings, more accurately.
The e-learning program is provided by FutureWater Research and Consulting Organization under FAO Water Scarcity Initiative for Asia and the Pacific. 
“REWAS provides decision-makers with an insight of water flows at the farm, irrigation system and basin scale. It leads to a higher awareness of the factors involved in achieving real water savings and improving the water productivity of agricultural sector,” said Jonna van Opstal, water productivity expert at FutureWater, who also led this virtual training. 
“REWAS is using the concept of ‘following the water’. In this approach, drainage, runoff and percolation to the groundwater are no longer considered as ‘losses’, because downstream users often use these recoverable waters. This concept resolves a paradox in the water sector where more efficient technologies are expected to reduce water demands, but in reality, lead to higher water consumption and exacerbating the water scarcity problems.” 
As per this expert, adopting such an approach can stop the false belief that high-tech irrigation methods (e.g. drip irrigation) save high amounts of water. It likewise supports the development of better water governance, which can regulate the expansion of unsustainable irrigated areas by evaluating real water savings.
FAO, as the lead UN agency in promoting climate-smart agricultural and sustainable rural development, supports its member countries in developing and implementing policies, measures and practices that help address the risks and threats posed to the agriculture sector and rural communities.