Update, Conclusions, and Recommendations for Conventional Water Resources and Agriculture in Egypt

Abstract

Water resources in Egypt are limited. The Nile River is the main water resource. Agriculture is the main water consumer of water resources. It consumes about 80–85% of all available water resources. The rapid growth of the population and the expected impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture threaten current and future food security in Egypt. Policymakers and expertise give important attention to these challenges where so many efforts were done long time ago (and still doing) to enhance delivery and on-farm water use efficiencies. Egyptian policymakers pay special attention on the agricultural sector for its importance in ensuring food security to the rapidly growing population through the vital activities. These activities include (but not limited to) better utilization of agricultural resources, using drainage water reuse, reusing of treated wastewater, improving water use efficiency, managing groundwater resources, and developing a horizontal expansion area through reclaiming new lands. In addition, many irrigation improvement projects were conducted to increase water productivity. This chapter focuses on conventional water resources and sustainability of agricultural environment in Egypt that was documented during the book project. This chapter summarizes the critical conventional water resource challenges (in terms of conclusions and recommendations) of the existing main agri-food system and offering perceptions resulting from the cases in the volume. In addition, certain update and findings from a few recently published research work related to the conventional water resources covered themes are presented.