Fourth Nile Basin Development Forum 6-7 October 2014, Nairobi, Kenya

Building Sustainable Transboundary Cooperation in a Complex River Basin

Younis Gismalla1, Yasir Mohamed1, Gijs Simons2,4, Maurits Voogt2, Bharat Sharma3, Giriraj amarnath3, Vladimir Smakhtin3 1The Hydraulics Research Center (HRC), Sudan; 2eLEAF Competence Center, the Netherlands, 3 International Water Management Institute (IWMI); 4Future Water, the Netherlands.

Towards a remote sensing based operational DSS for agricultural water and

crop management in the Gash Delta - Sudan

Introductiono Water scarcity & food security are the

important issues for the growing population in the arid and semi‐arid zones.

o Low productivity and Need for better water resources

o Insufficient information, and missed opportunity of using modern information and communication technology

o Farmers can benefit from new technology to receive direct and actionable advisories on weather, water and crop to improve productivity and the livelihoods

o Experience from literature on application of smart ICT in developed countries

Smart ICT for weather and water information and advice to smallholders in Africao 3 years project, funded by IFAD

o Pilot tested in Egypt, Ethiopia, (Mali), Sudan

o Implemented by IWMI (Lead), eLEAF, DLV plant, HRC (local partner-Sudan)

o Pilot in Gash in Sudan

o Information remotely sensed (satellite images)

o Processed information sent to individual farmers via SMS, web portal services

o Other stakeholders, extension, irrigation eng. , field inspectors, ..

Goal:

• Empower smallholder farmers, and community and public institutions in Africa to make informed decisions in managing their land and water resources better with the help from ICT-based technologies integrating weather, water and crop related information and advice.

Objective:

• To develop, test and pilot innovative approaches providing needed information; develop capacity of stakeholders to make good use of it; define priorities for data provision; and increase interest in agricultural and ICT-service provision industry for its wider uptake.

Remotely sensed satellite information

Topic Contribution Ethiopia

Sudan Mali Egypt

Weather Temperature , rainfall, RH, wind speed, reference ET

y y y

Hydrology River flow yCrop growth

Biomass production, yield, Nitrogen, Leaf Area Index

y y y y

Agricultural Water Manage.

Crop water stress, crop water use, water productivity, soil moisture, irrigation advise

y y y y

Flood Inundation extent

Daily/weekly spatial surface water extent for Gash delta/mesga blocks; flood early warning

Y

oTools developed based on User Needs Assessment

oHigh-resolution satellite images from DMC and Landsat 8, supplemented by NPP VIIRS surface temperature

o SEBAL algorithm calculates Et and biomass production of crop

oFor floods a HEC-HMS model coverts rainfall estimates in the catchment into flows at Sudan boarder

Methodology

Overview of the Smart ICT system design

o The Gash seasonal river flows July- Octobero Originates in Eretria/Ethiopia, cat. 21,000 m2.o River length is 121 km from border to Gash

Die.o Annual is 650 Mm3/yr, (200 - 1200 Mm3/yr)o Flashy floodso High floods cause massive damages to Scheme

and Kassala Town (e.g., 2003)o It forms an inland Gash Deltao The Gash spate irrigation schemeo Best soil - Class 1 soilo Cotton was the main crop < 1992>sorghumo The arable 120,000 F cropped 56,000 Fo Gash land divided into basins (4000 F) 25

squares (160 F) 16 plots (10 F)o The GAS composed of 6 blocks, 7 canals

Smart ICT in the Gash Scheme

o60 farmers were selectedo 36 spate, 9 rainfed, 15 groundwateroFarmers’ fields fixed using GPSoUNA conducted among the farmerso75% preferred receiving information via SMSo Two capacity building workshopo9 parameters Crop Growth, Moisture & Mineralso2 parameters on flood inundation/Gash flows oWeekly SMS sent to individual farmers on crop growth, crop water use efficiency, oOn demand SMS for irrigation advice

Farmers sending SMSto ICT during training

Printscreen of the MyFields overview page of the FieldLook website

ResultsFarmers make informed decisions on crop and water managementDecisions on when to irrigate & how much water to applyThe impacts of these decisions are:

− decreased labour and pumping costs, −Savings in the limited groundwater, and− better planning for agricultural operations.

Early decisions on food security can be made based on crop yield estimates

y = 0.0059x - 52.435R² = 0.752

050

100150200250300350400

0 20000 40000 60000Y

ield

(S

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Biomass production (Kg)

00.511.522.533.5

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4/7

/20

13

18-0

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12/9

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Biomass production (Kg/ha/week)Biomass water use efficiency (Kg/m2)

Decisions on crop health Farmers/insurance companies

Decisions on soil suitability for specific crops

Impacts of water shortage on crop yield

Very valuable data for research

0

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Conclusions and recommendations

Remote sensing can play a pivotal role in decisions regarding agricultural water management; flood forecasting and planning

Successful application of ‘fieldlook’ information in real time decision making in the Gash;

Further analysis of the collected information will help promoting the decision making in agricultural water and crop management.

Limitations such as farmers’ illiteracy, limited electricity coverage in the field were overcome;

There is a high potential for using the tool in decision making in the future at different stakeholder levels.

It is recommended to pilot test the tool in Gezira Scheme