Cairo, Egypt - A training program on the "Planning and Design of Modern Irrigation Systems" was held for 17 trainees from the Ministries of Irrigation and Agriculture from December 24 to January 4 as part of the training activities of the Japanese Project for Enhancement of Agricultural Productivity in cooperation with FAO-Egypt and the Regional Training Center for Water Resources and Irrigation “RCTWS”.

The project aims to increase the efficiency of water use by smallholder farmers by at least 20 percent, increase crop yields by between ten and 20 percent, and increase household income by at least 20 percent.

This is among the several efforts and activities of the project to ensure that the technologies and practices that will be adopted by farmers following participation in the demonstration sites and FFSs are likely to be sustainable as the demonstration plots, farmers’ fields and FBSs also include a detailed assessment of the financial, social, environmental, and other values associated with tested technologies and best practices.

The Project focuses on widely publicizing the results obtained from the demonstration activities and encourage other farmers to adopt those and other appropriate innovative and improved irrigation technologies and CSWM practices validated. The impact of the Project at the technical level centers on:

• The increased technical capacity of small farmers’ groups, FFS participants, FBS beneficiaries and value chain actors resulting from experimentation and adoption of LUC approaches, modern irrigation technologies and CSWM practices, development of agri-business skills and adherence to GAP and GHP principles.
• The increased capacity of public and private sector agricultural support services to work with smallholder men and women farmers and female FBS beneficiaries and provide, among others, more effective demand-driven and market-led agricultural extension, and business support services.
• The increased visibility of local public and private sector agricultural support services in supporting FFSs and FBSs in a participatory manner (through PPCPs) will increase confidence and trust between communities, government representatives and the private sector.