http://www.fao.org/pastoralist-knowledge-hub/pastoralist-networks/regional-networks/north-africa-and-the-near-east/en/ The work of the Sustainable Development Center for Matrouh Resources (SDCMR) in Egypt was presented at the Meeting of North African and West Asian Pastoralists that took place from 14-15 January 2016 in Hammamet, Tunisia. ©FAO: www.fao.org

1. 1
Desert Research Center
Sustainable Development Center for
Matrouh Resources (SDCMR)
Ministry of Agriculture and Land ReclamationMinistry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
Dr. Hamdi abdel-Aziz Salem
Director of SDCMR
E. mail: Hamdi_DRC@yahoo.com

2. Matrouh GovernorateMatrouh Governorate
‫مرسى‬
Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea

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The North West Coast and its inland desert
suffer from a fragile socio-economic structure, with a
modest contribution to the country's GDP not
exceeding 0.7%, although covering over 16% of
Egypt’s geographic area
it is disadvantaged with being one of the poorest 10
governorates in Egypt,.

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5. 5
SDCMR was established in 1994 until the end of 2002 as a project with total
budget of 29.4 million USD financed by the Government of Egypt, a World
Bank (IDA) credit, and contributions from its beneficiaries .

6. 6
• To conserve the natural resource base (water, land and vegetation),
implementing programmes for sustainable natural resource
management: and
• To alleviate poverty and improve the livelihood of the local Bedouin
population, providing support to improve resource management
practices, and for agricultural production improvement and socio-
economic development.
-

7. 7
It is a development project with a strong
adaptive research and technology base, serves the
area extends 320 km along the NWC from Ras El-
Hekma in the East to El-Salloum on the Libyan
border in the West and 60 km on average inland.

8. 8
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for 70% of its Bedouin population.
Crops (barley), horticulture (mainly fig and olive), and livestock (mainly sheep and
goats and some camels) are the main agricultural activities but crop yields are low
and highly variable.

9. 9
The main water source for all uses i.e. precipitation, is low and erratic –
the annual long-term average is around 140 mm on the coast and up to
20 km inland, but declines drastically thereafter.

10. Main Constraints

11. I- Water Resources
• Limitation
• Low Rainfall
• Low water use efficiency
• Shortage of water harvesting Technology

12. II- Plant Resources
12
• Deterioration of plant cover
• Over grazing
• Fire wooding
• Traditional practices
• Low rangeland Management

14. III- Soil Resources
• Erosion
• Low Fertility
• Low Productivity
• Salinity

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Drought
Effect

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Distribution of Local Communities in the of SDCMR

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Giving LCs greater responsibility for planning,
managing, implementing and evaluation of their activities
Participatory
Approach

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Analysis of LC
problems
Proposed
solves
Community
Action PlanLC Annual plan
Annual M&E

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Community
Action Plan
and Budget
Implementation
Monitoring
Evaluation
Problems
analysis
Solutions

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AchievementsAchievements

22. Water Harvesting
and Wadies
Development
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Long term objectives:
- Protect, conserve and improve land resources for sustained production.
- Protect and enhance water resources, moderate peak run-off rate and reduce soil
erosion, increase role of supplemental irrigation and conserve rainwater for crops
and thus mitigate drought.
Short time objectives:
- Rainwater/ sheet flow harvesting and storage in sub-surface shallow reservoirs
for domestic, animal and supplemental/ drip irrigation needs through construction
of new cisterns and reservoirs and rehabilitation of existing Roman cisterns.
- Soil-water storage enhancement and stream-erosion control by the construction
of dykes across the channels and in plain areas.
Soil conservation through vegetation improvement/ reseeding and tree belt
plantation.
Objectives Review for water harvesting and
watershed management.

24. Water harvesting systems
1- Floodwater harvesting within streambed
2- Macro-catchment (Ex-situ) water
harvesting system
3- Micro-catchment (In situ) water
harvesting system

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Before
development
1-Floodwater harvesting within streambed

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Earth small dykes to slow-down of run-off water
In the down stream of Wadi

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Preparation to cemented dyke structure
Collect hard stones
After

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Flooding in wadi bottom Cisterns in watershed area

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Olive trees
Cemented dykes

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W
adi Development
Cemented dyke
Narrow spill way
Wide Spill way
Delta of wadi

31. • Prior to the implementation process, a number of needs assessment meetings were
held by the DRC technical staff with Wadi local community, to get their feedback
before proceeding with the project.
• The outcomes of the meetings were the following:
• Farmers’ inability to finance the implementation of appropriate interventions to the
Wadi development.
• Poor community management capacity, including inadequate knowledge of scarce
resources conservation and lack of post-implementation maintenance skills.
• Lack of necessary technologies and expertise, particularly for arid zone watershed
hydraulics, dynamic interaction of water, soil and vegetation and wind-induced
erosion and conservation.
•

32. Activity Activity Description/ Expected Outputs Unit
Soil and sheet flow conservation - Construction of cemented dykes m3
- Land levelling Fed
- Design of civil works (co-funded by DRC)
Orchard plantation - Plantation of orchards and field crops Seedling
Water harvesting and storage - Construction of cisterns m3
- Construction of shallow reservoirs m3
Training and capacity building - Training programs and capacity building activities
Adaptive research
- Research study on wadi’s soils profiles and stored water
analysis, construction machinery, equipment and vehicles
maintenance
Technical assistance
- Design and installation of management mechanisms and
providing the necessary follow up and support actions

34. ‫وادي الصفا‬

36. ‫وادي الحوشة‬

37. ‫وادي الخروبة‬

38. •‫أمطار‬
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39.  Reduce of water erosion in 4000 feddans
02/02/16 Dr. Hamdi abdel-Aziz

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Poor women HH
hand digging to start cistern construction
First hall
2- Macro-catchment (Ex-situ) water harvesting system

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Cistern
excavation
Opining hall

43. 43
Cistern for WH
Excavation
products
Cover
Run-off way to cistern

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Run-off water
direction into
cistern

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Method of Reservoir construction
In case of soft soil without
hard rocky layers
Stone wall
Run-off way into reservoir
Soft soil
Green
House

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Increasing experiencesIncreasing experiences
in Construction ofin Construction of
ReservoirsReservoirs

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48. 48
Water harvesting construction
achieved by the project
WH Activity Amount Capacity m3
Cisterns 8590 1245550
R C conservation 351 89522
Reservoirs 313 44045
Stone dikes 4928 121884
Cemented dikes 181 18106
Earthen dikes 81 22908
1542015m3

49. 49
3- Micro-catchment (In situ) water harvesting system
Planting pits
Semicircular bunds

50. 50
Ridge-Furrow Water Harvesting System

51. Range land management
51

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240grazing units were cultivated by indigenous
and introduced fodder shrubs , 12000 fed

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Reseedingtorehabilitatedeterioratedareas

54. Demi-lunes water harvesting system to produce fodder shrubs

55. Production of fodder shrubs seedlings

56. Reseeding native range plants

57. Rangeland plants Herbarium

58. Native plant seeds collection

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Fodder shrubs planted with project support
Approach/Activity
Shrubs
planted Area Beneficiaries
Million % Fed % No. %
1. Small areas and windbreaks 4.38 60 9570 52 3190 85
2. Fenced large areas (SRMA) 2.50 35 6250 34 250 8
3. Intercropping on barley plots 0.39 5 2500 14 330 9
Total 7.27 100 18320 100 3770 100
Rangeland improvement activities by SDCMR
Activity
Hekma Matrouh Negila
Barrani
East
Barrani
West Total
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Shrubs (million) 1.55 21 1.37 19 1.28 18 1.69 23 1.38 19 7.27 100
Reseeding (fed) 430 24 330 18 300 17 410 23 330 18 1800 100

60. Improvement of field
crops Production

61. 1- Barley Breeding Program
(ICARDA)

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N.MOSELHY New adapted varieties of barley

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FAT FIT
FET
LS

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Line 9 Line 13
Selection of
New Varieties

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Quila 1
Large
scale

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ِAdaptive research
Demonstration
fields to
Disseminate of
New Varieties
Field day

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2- Global wheat improvement
program (CIMMYT)

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Evaluation of 50 drought tolerant wheat genotypes

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3- Demonstration field of new
crops (MARSADEV)

70. 70
Quinoa or quinua
(Chenopodium quinoa Willd.)
Native to the Andes Mountains
 Referred to as a "pseudocereal
Quinoa
Highly nutritious food (13.8% of crude
protein)
 Is used to make flour, soup, breakfast
cereal, and alcohol

71. 71
Quinoa in press

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Hydroponics forage production

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74. Improvement of
Horticulture Farming
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Training and extension service

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Improve post harvest of olive

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Water Use Efficiency

78. 78
Integrated Pest
Management

79. 79
Olive moth infestation

80. 80
Trichogramma egg
parasitoid
To achieve clean
combat of olive moth

81. 81
Olive mothOlive moth

82. 82
May Jun
e
July Aug
.
Sep Oct Nov Dec
Mass collection of B. oleae adult stage
“Trap installing”
4 holes
Cotton cord
Trap following up:
* Per week, empty the trap catches and re-fill
it.
* Per month, remove all contents of the trap
(water & attractant) and put new.
Trap catches

83. Combating process
(injection) 83
Red Palm Weevil

84. Improvement of Small Ruminant
Production
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Barqi Rams
Reproduction

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Health Care

87. Gender activities
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Literacy of 6000
Bedouin girls

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Supporting Women by some Income GeneratingSupporting Women by some Income Generating
ActivitiesActivities
‫مجتمعية‬ ‫وحدة‬

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Assist the women to
obtain formal
Identification Card

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Increasing women scales in Hand Crafts activity to raise her income

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Wool hand crafts inside women house

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W
ool industry

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Products of LCs
from hand crafts

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Carpet
‫الكلي‬‫الكلي‬
‫م‬‫م‬
GoplanGoplan
‫الصوف‬ ‫بطاطين‬

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‫التدريب‬

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N.
Thanks