September 24th, 2014

Sustainable Agriculture for Poverty Reduction in

Marginal Environments

International Center for Biosaline AgricultureDubai, United Arab Emirates

www.biosaline.org

ICBA – Agriculture for Tomorrow

To work in partnership to deliver agricultural and water scarcity solutions in marginal environments

To be the global Center of Excellence for innovative agriculture in saline and marginal environments

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Strategic Objectives

ICBAMission

Reflecting our long-term

perspective

Strategic Outcomes

10 year time horizon.The context within which our

own strategy must fit.

Strategic Objectives

10 year time horizon.The objectives against which

we align our efforts

ICBAVision

• Increased Food and Nutritional Security

• More Resilient Environment and Income

• Improved Water Security

1. Improve generation and dissemination of knowledge (knowledge hub)

2. Expand food and bioenergy solutions3. Facilitate competitive agri-business

enterprises

4. Increase and enrich partnerships

ICBA Strategy 2013-23

• Innovation

• Partnership

• Impact

Solve today and tomorrow’s problems in marginal environments

Increasing global population, degradation and depletion of natural resources, and the impact of climate change - require innovative thinking about sustainable management of both high potential areas as well as marginal environments.

Why Marginal Environments are important?

Arable land & Land Degradation...Arable Land in %

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Projected change in water stress by year 2030 in high emissions scenario

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Geographical Targeted Regions

GCC ~ MENA ~ Africa ~ Central Asia ~ South & Southeast Asia ~ Latin America

Introduction of saline tolerant Forages in Ethiopia

Potentially cultivable land is 70 m.haCurrently cultivated is 15 m.haSalt affected is 11 m.ha

Second largest country in Africa region for livestock

Key Technologies and Products

Irrigation technologies and

management

Use of alternative water

Land management technologies

OMICs

Best management practices

Modelling, remote sensing,

databasesAlternative crops

Hydroponics and Aqua-ponics

Research Innovations

• Assessment of natural resources

• Climate change impacts and management

• Crop productivity and diversification

• Aquaculture and bioenergy• Policies for resilience

Crop Diversification & Production

Alternative cropsNew salt-, heat -and drought-tolerant crops (e.g. sorghum and Pearl Millet)…. are productive in marginal environments

Managing Salinity in MENA and CAC Regions

Model Farm Approach

For sustaining agriculture in marginal environment

Testing new technologies and crops

Dissemination and knowledge hub platform

Seed ProductionSeed production is a challenge in marginal areas for:

1. Demand by farmers2. Non-availability of non-

conventional crops and forages

3. ICBA has introduced seed production for all of its R4D projects for scaling-up

1. Yemen (60 ha)2. Egypt (250 ha)3. Syria (120 ha)4. Oman (2 large

farms)5. CAC (100 ha)

System Approach for better management

Evaluation, introduction and adaptation of salt-, heat- and drought-tolerant system

Promoting best management practices

Sub-surface irrigation – can reduce water use by 20% compared with surface irrigation

Dual purpose food-feed crops and shrub-tree crops

Forage-Livestock Integration

On-farm production, processing and utilization is the key for economical sustainability

Technology IncubationStrategic Alliances

Knowledge Transfer Capacity Building

Enabling Innovations

ICBA, Dubai, UAE

A unique Center of Excellence looking at Agriculture for

Tomorrow www.biosaline.org