Indigenous people have been very smart and creational using scarce water resources. For instance, In Africa they have been using the buried clay pot irrigation (pitcher irrigation) even for field crops with very water use sufficiency. In Yemen, they use spit irrigation through water harvest, convey to agricultural fields and merging the clay soil surrounded by earth wall of 1 m elevation. Then water is conveyed to lower plots within the watershed. After water fully absorbed by the soil, farmers get two yields first with short rooted crop and second with deep rooting plant. I Syria and Lebanon, some farmers use alternate irrigation of rows with drip irrigation applying alternate deficit irrigation to save water. Agricultural research institutions can support these native practices by providing good productivity, drought resistant, seeds. With the development of biosaline agriculture, farmers in Gulf countries increasingly and successfully use salt tolerant feed and food crops and irrigate with seawater.
Dr. Talal Darwish