Facilitating wider adoption of existing and promising new technologies in the low rainfall areas
1997
Haddad, N. (ICARDA, Amman (Jordan))
Research activities addressing the problems associated with low rainfall areas in the West Asia and North Africa countries have only started in recent years. These efforts were strengthened by the establishment of ICARDA in the region in 1977, more long term multi-disciplinay research work was set and promising results were achieved. Several technologies have been identified to improve the productivity of barley-livestock based farming system to increase the yield and maintain the resources. Moreover, technologies for rangeland and marginal land rehabilitation seem to be promising but need more adaptive research for verification and adoption. Adoption rate of technologies in low rainfall areas is in general low, differs by technology, cropping system and target group of land user. However, several technical and policy constraints limit their wider adoption. Some of these constraints are: the common property issue in the rangeland and disputes on land ownership. The need for lifting feed subsidies and replacing them by a government support program for farmers and herders in drought years. The unavailability of improved seed; the unavailability of inputs, at reasonable price; the need for credit, and the weak extension system. On the technical side, the constraints include: the need of breeding for more drought tolerant varieties and species, diversification of cropping system to include fruit trees, water harvesting techniques and better crop-livestock integration. Govermnents and donors should put more investment in low rainfall areas for research and development and should consider the social and the environmental benefits as part of the return from their investment in these areas.
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