Al-Minya – Egypt - Water is life. Water is food. Water is your responsibility. The main theme of the #EveryDropCounts awareness raising campaign, and the focus of the awareness workshop where more than 135 male and female farmers from different villages in Al-Minya governorate participated. The workshop aimed to introduce different water issues and modern irrigation methods; as well as introduced approaches for food loss and waste reduction, as well as water waste reduction.

Introducing water issues and modern irrigation methods and reducing food loss and waste.

78 female farmers and housewives, and 57 male farmers participated in the #EveryDropCounts farmer awareness workshop which included a variety of awareness used to raise awareness on different water issues, promote national projects related to irrigation and the transition to modern irrigation systems, and detail approaches to reduce food and water loss and waste. This campaign is crucial, as the per capita share of fresh water resources in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region, which is among the lowest in the world, is expected to decline by more than 50 percent by 2050.

This awareness day, which was held in the conference hall of the Agricultural Extension Center in Al-Minya, was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the Land and Water Institute, and Life Vision Foundation.

The workshop was attended by Ismail Abdel-Badi’ Radwan, Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture in Al-Minya, Dr. Mohamed Mohsen El-Khouly, Director of the Institute of Land, Water and Environment at the Agricultural Research Center, Dr. Moamen El-Sharqawi, Head of the Central Department of Water Direction, a number of officials from the two ministries, and FAO officials.

This workshop is within the framework of the regional project ‘Implementing the 2030 Agenda to reduce water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in NENA countries’. This project is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.