Bioversity International

• A wealth of diversity under threat
• Agricultural traditions endure
• Water scarcity
• Salinity
• Desertification
• Opportunities and collaboration

The region has very diverse topography, climate and soil. It covers the fertile valleys of the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile, the high mountains of the Atlas, Himalaya and Tien Shan, and the deserts of the Sahara, Arabia and Central Asia. Erratic and low rainfall, harsh and extensive deserts and limited water resources characterize the climate and the environment of much of the region.

The region is divided into four large sub-regions:

• Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
• West Asia: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Authority of Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Turkey.
• North Africa: Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco.
• The Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman Bahrain.

Although arable land is very limited, due to the presence of large deserts and arid zones, the biodiversity in the region is great.

The region covers three of Vavilov's centres of origin of cultivated crops (near Eastern, Central Asian and Mediterranean centres). It is a centre of diversity for a number of globally important crop plants, including cereals (wheat, oat, barley and rye), food legumes (chickpea, lentil, pea and faba bean), vegetables (lettuce, turnip, cabbage, radish, onion, garlic, carrot, artichoke and mustard), fruit trees (fig, almond, apricot, pistachio, pomegranate, plum, pear, grape and olive), forage plants (alfalfa, berseem, vetch and medics), spices and condiments (cumin, fennel, mint and oregano) and hundreds of ornamental and medicinal plants.

Landraces of the crops originally domesticated in the region still grow there, particularly in isolated and marginal areas such as mountains and desert oases.

However, as agriculture develops, many are being replaced by new high-yielding varieties, particularly for major crops. Overgrazing and urbanization are destroying natural habitats and threatening the wild relatives of cultivated plants.

Although very diverse, the region has similarities that bring together countries as distant as Morocco and Uzbekistan. These similarities can be clearly seen in the presence of common genepools, and cultural and historical backgrounds, but are also present in the types of problem that challenge the life of people across the whole region.

To top

Traditional agricultural systems are still a major feature of the region despite the fast growth of modern agricultural production systems. Dry farming systems are constrained by an erratic and low rainfall while scarce water resources limit the potential for irrigated agriculture. For this reason, the potential for expanding the area under agricultural production is limited in most countries.

The agricultural sector accounts for an overwhelming majority of the economic activity of many of the countries. However, few countries in the region are self-sufficient in major agricultural products, although some are significant world producers. Turkey is the world's eighth largest wheat producer and sixth largest producer of barley and cotton, and Iran is the eighth largest producer of citrus.

The informal seed sector is still dominant in most countries of the region. Farmers select, store and treat their own seed, although there is now increasing participation of private-sector companies in these activities.

Rain-fed farming supports the cultivation of cereals and food and feed legumes, while irrigated agriculture is used for industrial crops such as cotton and sugar beet. Fruit trees and nuts are abundant and very diversified in both dry-land and irrigated farming.

Wheat and barley are the main annual rain-fed crops although sorghum is important especially in the Arabian Peninsula, as are irrigated broad bean and cotton in Egypt.

Food legumes-faba beans, chickpeas and lentils-are common in crop rotations and, where irrigation is possible, potatoes, summer crops, such as melons, oilseeds and sugar beet are gaining importance. Rain-fed perennials include olive, almond, fig, pistachio and fodder trees.

Crop and livestock productivity is generally low in rain-fed production systems. Combined with high population growth, especially in the Near East and North African countries, this is leading to increasing food deficits and, thus, increased reliance on imports. This is exerting tremendous pressure on most governments of the region to increase food production to maintain acceptable levels of food security.

Another major feature of the region is the emergence of the newly independent states in Central Asia. These countries are moving from highly centralized economies, the legacy of the Soviet era, towards market-driven economies. The on-going efforts to privatize largescale state farms have been beset by enormous problems that have contributed to a significant decline in crop productivity and food production. About one third of the population in these states is now living below the poverty line.

To top

Although water is a renewable resource, its supply is limited and it is not likely that sufficient water resources will be found to meet the increase in demand for water for food production. The amount of water available to agriculture is declining because of increasing population and greater incidence of drought in recent years. With decreasing rainfall, water inflow has decreased, resulting in less water in reservoirs. Groundwater levels have also decreased as a result of overdraft above recharge capacity, which has depleted both water quantity and quality. This decrease is increasing competition for water among agricultural, industrial and domestic users, which is in turn causing tension between rural and urban areas and eventually threatens food security.

This decrease in available water has harmed the economies of a number of countries in the region in recent years. There are signs in most of the countries of unsustainable water use, including falling water tables, shrinking lakes, and the drying up of rivers and streams. West Asia and North Africa in particular have the highest percentage of water withdrawal when compared to the renewable water, at approximately 70 percent in 1995. This is expected to reach 90 percent by 2025. This region has also experienced more frequent, intermittent and consecutive dry weather in recent years.

As water resources become scarce, a number of initiatives in the region are tackling the rising problem of water scarcity. Managing the limited amount of water available for agriculture is dependent upon better farming practices and an enhanced understanding of the genetic diversity for water-use efficiency among crop genotypes. Better deployment of this genetic diversity is vital in areas prone to water scarcity. Bioversity's work focuses on the genetic option by exploring the potential of intra-specific diversity to characterize species that have comparative advantages in terms of water demand leading to less water use.

 

To top

One of the key challenges facing improving agricultural productivity in the region is salinity. Water management that focus more on supply rather than managing demand, together with other factors, such as overgrazing and desertification has resulted in a significant salinization of arable and range lands in large parts of the region, especially in the Central Asia, the Gulf and West Asia sub-regions.

For instance, 50 percent of arable lands in Uzbekistan are affected by salinity. The continual drying of the Aral Sea in Central Asia is creating of vast salt belts known as the "Aralkum desert". Salty winds from the dried parts of the Aral Sea blow onto farmers' fields salinating the water and soil. In Syria, salinity affects 30 percent of the Euphrates basin, resulting in the formation of natural salt flats named 'Sabkhats'.

However, such saline areas usually sustain some species, especially shrubs, forages and rangeland species.  Some examples are Atriplex halimus, A. leucoclata , A. leoropus, Prosopis serphrenian, Alhogi mauraoum, Salicorina herbacea, Calidium capsicum and Haloxylon appleum. These forage and rangeland plant species are uniquely adapted to salinity salt content and tolerate high foliar salt concentrations as well as severe drought and desertification conditions.

For more details on salinity, go to the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA).

To top

The region is characterized by its vast deserts amounting to almost 60 percent of its land area. Deserts are expanding onto productive lands, such as semi-arid and arid forests, rangelands and small holders subsistence agriculture systems. Severe and frequent drought cycles as well as overgrazing, salinity and soil erosion have caused increased poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, mass migration, conflicts over scarce resources and losses in  biological and cultural diversity.

Small holders' subsistence agriculture is especially vulnerable to desertification since they inhabit marginal ecosystems. Desertification is now one of the key challenges to the very survival of entire local communities and ethnic groups in the region.

Research is needed to:

• document the full cost of dry land degradation including the loss of ecological goods and services and quantify the benefit that could accrue form sustainable rehabilitation and development of the degraded lands;
• improve water resource management, especially water use efficiency in crop and species diversity
• explore dry land policy options and their impact, including land tenure issues, farmer decision making and other incentives and;
• empower small holders' communities to derive benefits from their biodiversity assets in order to increase their income, improving their food security and health.

To top

With regards to scientific and technical progress in the region a number of trends and opportunities have occurred, namely, the adoption of new technologies, particularly biotechnology and information and communication technology, privatization of state-owned enterprises and trade liberalization, a greater role of development agencies in agricultural and rural economies, and an increased international collaboration through the eco-regional approach and South-to-South programs.

Most plant breeding, as well as conservation and characterization of plant and animal genetic resources is done by government institutions, with some assistance from regional and international agricultural research centres, such as the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and International Potato Center (CIP), as will as Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD).

Agricultural research and development institutions of The Arab League, namely ACSAD and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Organization of Islamic Conference (COMSTECH-OIC), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative are the principal intergovernmental bodies for international and regional collaboration in the region.

Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) and the Research Forum for Central Asia and the Caucasus co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) and ICARDA are now the major regional agricultural research and development networks in the region. They play an important role for the region within the Global Forum for Agricultural Research.

Most countries do not yet have a systematic and coordinated national plant genetic resources program with an action plan and national strategy. Non governmental organizations are active mainly in biodiversity conservation and do not take a key role in plant genetic resources activities in most countries.

To top