Expanding the Irrigated Areas in the MENA and Central Asia: Challenges or Opportunities?

Abstract

Middle Eastern, North African countries (MENA), and Central Asian countries are considered the countries most facing water and food scarcity. The current water exploitation indicates that a few countries are overexploiting their water resources and using the fossil water available. This study reviews each country’s renewable water resources volume and evaluates the resources available to expand the agricultural area. Different scenarios are considered, using both irrigated and rainfed farming options, for concluding the most sustainable farming method in each country. Different scenarios are considered using irrigated and rainfed farming options to recommend the most sustainable farming method for each country. Results show that the countries in the MENA and Central Asia can be divided into three main categories: (1) Countries whose expansion of agricultural area can only be applied by using fossil water resources (Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan); (2) Countries where the agricultural area can be expanded to a certain limit, by sustainably using both irrigated and rainfed farming (Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Palestine, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, and Yemen); (3) Countries that have enough renewable water resources to farm all their agricultural area (Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, and Kyrgyzstan). However, the aim of this study and its results are only to assess the renewable water resources available to sustain the increased agricultural water demand by setting aside other agricultural factors that constrain the sector.