الدكتور Talal Darwish
Water accounting and water productivity, impact of natural hazards on agricultural sector, management of irrigation using saline water and salt tolerant forage crops, Agroecology.
Dr Talal Darwish, born on April 10, 1950, Studied agriculture and soil science at the Friendship University (RDN) and Dockouchaev Soil Institute in Moscow. Graduated from Moscow Friendship University in 1979 as Ph D holder in Soil Science. From February 1980, Researcher at the National Council for Scientific Research. In 1996 was promoted to Senior Researcher and in 2006 was promoted to the position Director of Research CNRS and appointed as Director of the Center for Remote Sensing CNRS until April 10, 2014. Since 1994, started teaching soil science, soil fertility and soil environmental problems at the Lebanese University. Supervised more than fifty Master and Ph D students. Since 1980, worked on several soil related research projects funded by the CNRS, LARI, and MoA of Lebanon, ACSAD, FAO, BGR and EU. Starting from 1997, research covered mapping of soil contamination, improving the monitoring of land degradation in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Involved in several national and international committees and projects, funded by CNRS Lebanon, bilateral Lebanon-France and Lebanon-Italy programs, EU, FAO, IAEA, UNDP, WB and GEF. Collaborated with researchers from CNRS, the American University of Beirut, Lebanese University, University Saint Joseph and Holy Spirit University of Kaslik.
The main author, coordinator and principal investigator of the project: production of the soil map of Lebanon at detailed scale 1:50,000. The main author of 27 Lebanese soil maps and explanatory book which were printed in 2005 and 2006. Compiled the soil database of Lebanon. Provided the MoA project “National Action Program to Combat Desertification” with the soil information and produced the map on soil vulnerability to desertification. Supported the CDR Land Use Planning Project ‘SDATL” with the national land capability map, which was used as the basis for soil agricultural potential and land vocation.
Member of Intergovernmental Technical Panned on Soils “ITPS” (2016-June 2018), managed the GEF/WB Project on water resources (2011-2015) and the EU LOCAL-SATS Project (2014-2015) on the use of GIS in decision making and local governance. Between 2017 and 2020 was involved in IHE-Delft, Netherlands-FAO project on water accounting and water productivity in agriculture. Beside participating in writing and submitting these proposals, organized and facilitated the kick-off meetings, trainings and closing workshops of these three projects. Within the ongoing SIDA-FAO Project, in 2017 coordinated the analysis and formation of the National Multidisciplinary Experts Committee on Sustainable Use of Water.
Several consultations were carried out between 2006 and 2017 for the ESCWA LDD in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, FAO land tenure and land degradation in Lebanon, FAO salinity project in Iraq, Syria and Iran, FAO agroecology project, ESCWA food security and land degradation project. Lately, acted as FAO-GSP part time Regional Consultant in Soil Information (2021-2022). In 2022-2023 acted as regional expert at FAO to compile a regional report on the integrated land use planning effect on sustainable food systems in the MENA region. Currently acting as Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of China-Lebanon Joint Laboratory of Modern Agriculture and Water Management.
I have published 84 papers in refereed journals, 26 chapters in books and 94 refereed proceedings on soil mapping, soil salinity, soil pollution, efficiency of fertilizer and water application, management of water resources in view of CC, water scarcity and drought, land degradation and desertification.
الدكتور Talal Darwish
Introducing salt tolerant crops to the coastal Lebanese area
Seawater intrusion into coastal areas threaten agricultural biodiversity and reduces the selection of cultivable cash crops. The Lebanese coastal area is affected by groundwater salinity resulting from the reduction of surrounding recharge zone caused by urban expansion and seawater intrusion into coastal aquifer largely used for irrigation of greenhouse and open field vegetable and fruit crops. To overcome this situation and fill the gaps in food production, salt tolerant millet (Pennisetum Glaucum) and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) were introduced for the first time in 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 by the IAEA-FAO joint project: RAS-5072- Developing Effective Practices to Combat Desertification. We tested the performance of these crops for biomass production using different level of saline irrigation water (2-4-8-12 dSm-1 for forage millet and 6, 9, 12 and 15 dSm-1 for okra). Results showed the possibility of irrigating both crops on the widely spread sandy loam soil without economic and environmental losses using water with ECw equivalent to 8 and 12 dS m-1, respectively. Millet provided higher dry matter and showed good ability for N recovery and applied fertilizers N uptake irrespective of the level of salinity. Okra provided high yield under high water salinity level reaching 12 dS m-1 while maintaining optimal canopy temperature and chlorophyll content. He paper on okra performance under salinity stress is under review. We attached the published article on millet. Results indicate good potential for disseminating the cropping of forage millet and okra on the salinity affected coastal areas of drylands to secure a cover summer crop, support food production and biodiversity, provide additional source of feed crops and reduce the import of forage and meat in the country.