ICARDA/FAO SUCCESSFUL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION MEASUREMENT WEBINARS

Dec 08 2021

The webinar series was part of the FAO-funded NENA Regional ETNet Project led by ICARDA and national partners from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. 

Although Earth is 70 percent water, fresh water is exceptionally scarce, making up just 3 percent of the world’s water reserve. Two-thirds of global freshwater is locked away in frozen glaciers or inaccessible to humans. Over 75% of the accessible freshwater is presently used for agriculture. At the current consumption rate, along with the impact of climatic changes, two-thirds of the world’s population could face water shortages in just three years, especially in dry regions like Central and West Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa (CWANA).  

When water is primarily used for food production, several aspects should be addressed including evapotranspiration rates, precipitation, and intensities.  

In order to share global information about water use, and especially in CWANA, last September, ICARDA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a bi-weekly webinar series over three months on the measurement of evapotranspiration led by global experts and attracting over 1,700 international and regional participants.  

The webinars covered several evapotranspiration measurement themes including the time and space scale of measurement applications and analyzing their accuracy and suitability for use in arid and semi-arid environments.  

Each webinar included a 90-minute lecture and Q&A sessions by international and regional experts focusing on state-of-the-art methods for measuring crop evapotranspiration, each method’s specific problems for correct application in the region to adapt to climate change, and the increasing scarcity of freshwater for sustainable agriculture.  

For more information, you may contact Dr. Vinay Nangia, Research Team Leader – Soil, Water, and Agronomy, and coordinated this webinar series.