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>Adaptation to climate change in desertified lands of the marginal regions in Egypt through sustainable crop and livestock diversification systems
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Adaptation to climate change in desertified lands of the marginal regions in Egypt through sustainable crop and livestock diversification systems
Environmental degradation resulting from current climate changes, including prolonged drought, land degradation, desertification, and loss of biodiversity, is presenting enormous challenges to achieve food security and eradication of poverty in the marginal regions(about 90% of the total area) of Egypt. In addition to the natural constraints of high temperature, wind erosion, sand dune movement, and recurrent drought, such regions are subjected to improper land and water management. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge, technologies, and experiences to match with the current severe climatic changes. There is a great need for establishing sustainable integrated ecosystem rehabilitation and management programs to overcome such problems in the marginal areas, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula due to its strategic and social importance. A series of research and development programs have been conducted in 2006 to improve the livelihoods of smallholders through enhancing the efficient management and utilization of local resources that can cope with the drastic changes of climate in the Sinai Peninsula. An integrated livestock/salt-tolerant fodder crop system was introduced, in 2010 by the project teamwork of Desert Research center, Egypt, to many smallholders in the South Sinai region, where studies were conducted at both the general research and individual farmer levels. The most important results were:(1) adoption of the most salt-tolerant genotypes of three forage crops: pearl millet(Pennisetum glaucum L.), sorghum(Sorghum bicolor), and Sudan grass(Sorghum sudanense(Piper) Stapf.); two cereal crops(triticale and barley); and two oil crops: safflower(Carthamus tinctorius) and Brassica(Mustard). Alfalfa(Medicago sativa L. and Medicago arborium), cowpeas(Vigna sinensis L.), fodder beets(Beta vulgaris L.), clumping desert bunchgrass(Panicum turgedum), ryegrass(Lolium perenne) Ray grass, forage shrubs(Kochia indica, Atriplex nummularia, Sesbania sesban L.), and Acacia cyanophila, Leucaena leucocephala, Porsopis cheilanses, and Prosopis jioflora were also evaluated;(2) active participation of farmers in development of management strategies to improve irrigation water use efficiency, forage production, and livestock production; and(3) economic evaluation at the farmer level, which showed that feeding livestock salt-tolerant fodders produced an increase of about 60% in milk production and 80% in meat production, and reduced feed costs by about 40%. Accordingly, a 70% increase of family income was achieved. It is concluded that better utilization of fragile ecosystem resources and growing salt-tolerant fodder crops may contribute to the development of marginal areas and enhance the living standards of local people through providing high-quality livestock feed materials and producing economical animal products.
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