Iranian, FAO Experts Cooperate to Reduce Agricultural Water Consumption
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations seeks to equip Iranian experts with the requisite knowledge and skills to implement the advanced approach of Real Water Savings (REWAS) in the agriculture sector.
The eLearning program is provided by FutureWater research and consulting organization under the FAO Water Scarcity Initiative for Asia and the Pacific.
“REWAS provides the decision-makers with an insight of water flows at the farm, irrigation system, and basin scale,” said Jonna van Opstal, Water Productivity Expert at FutureWater, who also led this virtual training.
“REWAS is using the concept of ‘following the water.’ In this approach, drainage, runoff, and percolation to the groundwater are no longer considered as ‘losses,’ because downstream users often use these recoverable waters. This concept resolves a paradox in the water sector where more efficient technologies are expected to reduce water demands, but in reality, lead to higher water consumption and exacerbating the water scarcity problems,” added van Opstal.
As per this expert, adopting such an approach can stop the false belief that high-tech irrigation methods (e.g. drip irrigation) save high amounts of water. It likewise supports the development of better water governance, which can regulate the expansion of unsustainable irrigated areas by evaluating real water savings.
