In an agriculture in constant evolution, irrigation needs to adapt to new, more stringent requirements: the supply of water within large irrigated systems needs to be much more reliable and flexible than in the past.

In this context and as a part of FAO’s mandate to assist its member countries to increase and sustain agricultural Production and Water conservation, FAO is organizing a training on Crop Water Requirements in Al Hofuf , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The training, that will take place from 8th till 12th of September, aims to train local irrigation practitioners on the use of FAO Crop Water Model to determine irrigation requirements for crops and scheduling an efficient irrigation system at the farms.

The Crop Water Model has so far contributed in an efficient utilisation of the available water for crop production, and an effective control of the timing and distribution of water through estimating crop water requirements and preparing irrigation schedules.

CROPWAT is a decision support tool developed by FAO, which has been instrumental in the development of a globally accepted methodology for the prediction of crop water requirements. CROPWAT is a computer program for the calculation of crop water requirements and irrigation requirements based on soil, climate and crop data. In addition, the program allows the development of irrigation schedules for different management conditions and the calculation of scheme water supply for varying crop patterns. CROPWAT can also be used to evaluate farmers’ irrigation practices and to estimate crop performance under both rained and irrigated conditions.