ICBA Hosts Project Meeting and Workshop on the Irrigation Sub-Saharan Africa Project

Dubai – The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) hosted the sixth monthly progress meeting of the project: “Integrated Crop and Seed Production Systems under Water/Irrigation Management in Sub-Saharan Africa” from 8-12 September, which was openned by Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, Director General of ICBA. The project is being implemented in Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. 

All countries with the exception of Mali participated in the meeting, during which the progress of project activities were reviewed against the agreed work plans. The group also spent time developing concepts and ideas for formulating new project proposal initiatives with an aim to expand project activities.

Dr. Nurul Akhand, Irrigation Management Scientist at ICBA and the project coordinator said that the meeting was coupled with a training workshop to enhance the capacity of the participating institutions. The workshop focused on identifying gaps in the project activities based on the experience gained during the implementation of the project during the past one and half years, and to develop a comprehensive action plan for demonstration activities in farmers field. Dr. Akhand added that with the upcoming dry season, the field level demonstrations on small-scale irrigation technologies along with crop diversification would begin in all project countries. It is expected that such demonstrations will positively affect the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers and will ultimately improve the livelihoods of the farmers.