Exploring Climate-Smart Agriculture Approaches, Practices, and Technologies (CSA-PAT) in Jordan

Focus on Water-Agriculture Nexus

In the joint research project between TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences and GJU - German Jordanian University, we will address the interconnectivity between the two nexus components: Water and Food (WF). Specifically, we focus on the water nexus in relation to the agriculture sector, using the term ‘Water-Agriculture (WA) nexus’. Research centered on WA nexus strongly emphasizes on water conservation methods in modern agriculture. Limitation in irrigation water resources in Jordan requires moving towards increased resource use efficiency, demand management, and more sustainable consumption patterns. Hence, our research addresses the WA nexus in Jordan through applying climate- smart agriculture (CSA) approaches, practices, and technologies (CSA-PAT) that focus on water-efficient agriculture, in efforts to reduce WA nexus trade-offs and maximize its synergies.

Climate-Smart Agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture is a newly evolving approach in relation to ‘sustainable agriculture’. It aims at increasing agricultural productivity simultaneously with increasing resource use efficiency (including land and water) in an environmentally and socially sustainable way while

• enhancing livelihoods
• ensuring water and food security
• strengthening farmers’ adaptation and resilience to CC and their efforts mitigating its negative impacts and
• reducing GHG emissions.

It includes various types of interventions associated with scientific technologies, indigenous technical knowledge, institutional and policy innovations, and information and communication technologies.

The Jordan Climate Smart Agriculture Action Plan 2021 by the World Bank, in alignment with the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Action Plan of Jordan by the Ministry of Environment, acknowledges the need to apply CSA to enhance irrigation efficiency and water productivity.

Within the focus of our research on water-efficient agriculture, we address two packages prioritized by the CSA action plan:

1. upgrading irrigation water productivity by modernizing systems, shifting to high-value cash crops, and applying smart agriculture and

2. expanding and upgrading protected vegetable production through advanced hydroponic and greenhouse agribusiness models and technologies, and improved marketing options.

Best-fit model(s) of Climate-Smart Agriculture Approaches, Practices, and Technologies

The main purpose of this research is to create economically-viable, socially-inclusive, socially acceptable, and water-efficient agriculture production systems in Jordan, in efforts to reduce WA nexus trade-offs and maximize its synergies, and enhance the national water and food security.

With this purpose, it aims mainly at identifying best-fit model(s) of CSA-PAT for Jordan (under the aforementioned two packages) that

• maximize efficient use and productivity of agricultural water
• supply increased quantity and quality of crops
• maximize domestic market opportunities
• offer employment opportunities for farmers (particularly the vulnerable groups) to enhance their livelihoods
• strengthen farmers’ adaptation and resilience to CC
• are socially acceptable and
• have low socioeconomic and environmental risks

Specific Project Objectives

• Exploring internationally practiced successful case studies, mainly from Germany, in applying different kinds of CSA-PAT (models)
• Conducting situation analyses of the local settings, enabling conditions, and contexts under which the explored CSA-PAT (models) would be implemented in Jordan
• Assessing needs, challenges, and opportunities for models’ implementation in Jordan
• Prioritizing CSA-PAT (models) found potentially relevant to, and applicable in, the Jordanian contexts