ICBA at COP27

Date: 8 November

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm (Egypt time)

The event will discuss the opportunity to reflect on the complexity of the global drylands and capitalize on the expertise of speakers and distinguished career to address our options for a water and food secure future. Further details are in the attached Concept Note.

Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Location: Green Zone at MHESR Green Innovation Pavilion, Booth Y58

Innovation Agriculture: Vertical Farming in Urban Areas

In urban agriculture, vertical farming is an innovative approach to produce high quantities of nutritious and quality fresh food all year round, without relying on skilled labour, favourable weather, high soil fertility, or high water use.

Each country found its own practical approach to vertical farming. In Germany and the United Arab Emirates, vertical farms are being created in container farms and plant factories on a large scale with often fully automated systems, which are constantly subject to optimization.

The project “Vertical Farming” is a project of AGYA Alumnae Dr. Henda Mahmoudi, International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, UAE, and Dr. Salma Balazadeh (@SalmaBalazadeh), Leiden University, Netherlands, in cooperation with AGYA members Dr. Sonja Buxbaum-Conradi, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, Germany, and Prof. Dr. Nageh Allam (@nka108), American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Dr Henda will be as well present at the AGYA’s exhibition booth in the Green Zone at MHESR Green Innovation Pavilion: Let Science Talk, Hall 2! You can join for more details about the subject.

Date: Friday, 11 November 2022

Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location: AUC Pavilion – Green Zone

There is a growing awareness that Nature-based solutions (NbS) can be an effective approach to tackling the combined challenges of climate change, nature loss, and human wellbeing.  The discussion will highlight the importance of NBS to increase communities’ resilience to climate change and the keys for NBS projects success and sustainability as well as identify the main barriers to design and implement NBS projects, and how to increase investments and private sector uptake for Nature-based Solutions.

Date: Saturday, 12 November 2022

Time: 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Location: IsDB Pavilion

The discussion aims to:

• (i) Highlighting the importance of building the resilience of smallholder farming in addressing poverty and food insecurity challenges (SDGs 1 & 2);
• (ii) Deepening the understanding around challenges facing smallholder farmers to be climate resilient;
• (iii) Exchanging best practices on building resilient smallholder farming and food systems; and
• (iv) Discussing current efforts and future aspirations of the global community in supporting smallholder farmers in their climate adaptation journey.

Event Live Stream

Date: Saturday, 12 November 2022

Time: 11:00 am – 11:15 am

Location: Virtual

ICBA will be sharing their experience on climate-smart agriculture in Africa.

Event Live Stream

Date: Saturday, 12 November 2022

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Location: Virtual

The webinar will present AWLA fellowship programme and highlight its role in building the capacity of women in leadership and research skills in agriculture related- fields, with a particular focus on food, nutrition and water security in the MENA region. Moreover, success stories will be presented by AWLA fellow graduates. The event will discuss as well the potential of replicating AWLA programme in other countries. 

To attend click here.

Date: Monday, 14 November 2022

Time: 09:00 am – 09:45 am

Location: UAE Pavilion

The MENA region, hardly hit by climate change, happens to be one of the regions with the highest youth population. The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai, acknowledges the role that youth can play in fighting climate change and has therefore established ICBA’s Youth Engagement Society (ICBA YES) to be a catalyst for innovative solutions to global food security, agricultural productivity and sustainability in marginal and saline environments. 

The event will present this initiative which aims to inspire youth to connect locally and internationally to make innovative impact on biodiversity, agripreneurship and climate change.  

Students from Zayed University in the UAE and from the American University of Cairo (AUC) in Egypt, among others, will be invited to share with us their proposed solutions in overcoming climate change-induced challenges with a focus on marginal environments. 

Sessions will be live-streamed here.

Date: Monday, 14 November 2022

Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Location: AUC Pavilion

ICBA and CARES will be presenting their research which can be a publication/report/ article related to water productivity/ conservation/reuse/ efficiency in agriculture.

Session will be live-streamed here.

Date: Monday, 14 November 2022

Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Location: Food and Agriculture Pavilion

The food, energy and water nexus is at the heart of climate action and sustainable development. In this session, panellists from governments, business and research, with UN agencies, will share perspectives on integrated resource planning and management for sustainable climate-resilient development. 

Overall messages: TBD 

• Policy: what are the implications of policies and planning across sectors? (Jordan / Caribbean) 
• Investment / private sector / implementation [private sector] 
  • What sorts of investments are needed to support the synergetic use of resources across sectors? 
• Synergies and trade-offs (supply – demand; nexus; socio-economic; productivity; resources) 
  • How can we effectively manage demand, so that fewer resources are wasted?

Date: Monday, 14 November 2022

Time: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Location: IsDB Pavilion

Objectives:  

• Improving agricultural water productivity and irrigation efficiency under marginal conditions 
• Increasing irrigation water accessibility for smallholder farmers to practice biosaline agriculture 
• Exposing audience on innovations in earth observations for better management of scarce water resources 
• Identifying efficient solutions for agriculture in biosaline environment  
• Showcasing examples on stress-tolerant crops  

Content: 

• Discussing methods and approaches for increasing the yield per water used, the constraints and limitations under marginal environment, new innovations that suits the poor soil and water quality 
• Highlighting the accessibility to surface and groundwater sources and the potential for using solar panels to ease the allocation of irrigation water  
• Presenting the presence of open access earth observation data and how they can be hydrologically connected to prepare water balances of field scale, irrigation schemes and river basins. Water balances from earlier work in the Middle East will be demonstrated including international river basins that facilitates a transparent water allocation and evaluating the benefits (economic, ecosystems, societal) from consumptive use 
• Presenting some case studies from ICBA on biosaline agriculture 
• Highlighting the importance of building the capacity of farmers to better adapt and mitigate climate change

Session will be livestreamed here.

Date: Monday, 14 November 2022

Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location: COP 27, AUC Pavilion, Green Zone

The MENA region, hardly hit by climate change, happens to be one of the regions with the highest youth population. The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai, acknowledges the role that youth can play in fighting climate change and has therefore established ICBA’s Youth Engagement Society (ICBA YES) to be a catalyst for innovative solutions to global food security, agricultural productivity and sustainability in marginal and saline environments. 

The event will present this initiative which aims to inspire youth to connect locally and internationally to make innovative impact on biodiversity, agripreneurship and climate change.  

Youth will be invited to share with us their proposed solutions in overcoming climate change-induced challenges with a focus on marginal environments. 

Date: Tuesday, 15 November 2022

Time: 9:00 am – 9:45 am

Location: UAE Pavilion

Climate change undermine the stability of food systems particularly in marginal environments. The consequences are threatening food security and diet quality. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the fragility of food systems and revealed the need for countries to sustainably boost their local food production. ICBA has launched the project from “Desert Farm to Fork” to highlight that value chains can be developed from stress-tolerant crops that are also nutritious. ICBA will share its experience in transferring saline and stress-tolerant crops from the research station to farm and finally to table. Nevertheless, case studies on the development of climate-resilient crops and adapting them to local cuisines will be presented.

Sessions will be live-streamed here.

Date: Tuesday, 15 November 2022

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Location: AUC Pavilion – Green Zone

Panel discussion on potential and realistic strategies in mitigating and adapting to climate change in the agricultural sector.

Session will be live-streamed here.

Date: Tuesday, 15 November 2022

Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location: Food and Agriculture Pavilion

The food, energy, and water nexus are at the heart of climate action and sustainable development. In this session, panelists from governments, businesses, and research, with UN agencies, will share perspectives on integrated resource planning and management for sustainable climate-resilient development.

The session will be livestreamed here.