Assessing the impacts of changing water availability on agricultural production in selected Arab countries

In order to assess the impact of climate change on agricultural production in the Arab region, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), as part of its implementation of the Regional Project on "Promoting Food and Water Security through Cooperation and Capacity Development in the Arab Region" funded by the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA), commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - the Regional Office for Arab States and in collaboration with the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands (ACSAD) to implement the first component of this project which seeks to assess agricultural production in the Arab region, as a result of changing water availability through the use of reliable climate forecasts and hydrological parameters at the regional and national levels. In this respect training workshops and technical backstopping were provided to the participating countries on the use of AquaCrop model.

National teams from the Arab countries participating in the project, subsequently prepared national reports to assess the agricultural production of a certain number of crops in specific areas under the influence of climate change, which can be obtained from the outputs of the Regional Initiative for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Socio-Economic Vulnerability in the Arab Region (RICCAR), implemented by ESCWA funded by SIDA. These national reports include proposals and recommendations to adapt to water availability variations as a result of climate change. Nine countries had participated in the implementation of a report on the first component: Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan,