Green Transition for Sustainable Agriculture in MENA

The agricultural sector is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions with around 34% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, climate change impacts, biodiversity loss, and the overconsumption of natural resources threaten the sustainability of the agriculture sector and increases its negative environmental impacts. Hence, ICARDS with partners will organize this technical session on green transition in the agriculture sector in dry areas. The session is to showcase their efforts in minimizing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing water pollution, limiting use of synthetic fertilizers, optimizing water and energy use, and minimizing waste are crucial. ICARDA and partners will present sustainable practices for coupling solar energy with irrigation pumping and desalination, organic farming, and improved land management and crop diversification. This session is to raise the audience, understanding advantages of and bottlenecks facing the scalability of green transition in agriculture in MENA with a focus on enhancing agricultural water productivity, and optimizing the use of resources considering water-energy-food nexus. It is also to introduce ready-adapted irrigation and farming approaches that ICARDA, and partners can offer the global dry areas for maximizing the green energy reliability in the agriculture sector as well as the best practices, success stories, and evidence.