Egypt faces a complex challenge: using water more sparingly without further salinizing agricultural land. Angel de Miguel Garcia, researcher in water management and agriculture at Wageningen University & Research, stresses the need for smart irrigation, drainage, and local data. Rogier van Opstal, senior specialist and manager at Nectaerra, emphasizes healthy soils and regenerative farming. Solutions such as soil monitoring, regenerative cultivation and improved irrigation practices show how Egyptian field experience and Dutch expertise can be combined in practice.
Beeld: © Nectaerra
Okra cultivation with drip irrigation of brackish groundwater. The salt accumulation is visible.
In agriculture, saving water is not always straightforward. Too little irrigation can create a new problem: salt accumulating in the soil. For Angel de Miguel Garcia, a researcher in water management and agriculture at Wageningen University & Research, this means that water management and salinity management in Egypt cannot be viewed separately. ‘Because rainfall is insufficient to flush salts from agricultural soils, irrigation and drainage systems play a critical role in preventing salt accumulation and maintaining soil health,’ he says.
Angel de Miguel Garcia, researcher in water management and agriculture at Wageningen University & Research
Balancing irrigation efficiency
Egypt depends on irrigation to make agriculture possible. In the Nile Delta in particular, surface irrigation and subsurface drainage have historically played an important role in removing excess water and salt. De Miguel Garcia: ‘Efforts to save water or expand irrigated areas must always be assessed for their impact on soil quality and salinization.’ Modern irrigation techniques can bring substantial benefits, but De Miguel Garcia stresses that they need to be designed with salinity in mind. ‘Improving irrigation efficiency, for example through drip irrigation, can significantly reduce water use and increase crop productivity,’ he says. ‘However, applying less water also reduces the leaching of salts, which may lead to their gradual accumulation in the root zone if no additional measures are taken.’
In practice, this means irrigation strategies sometimes need a deliberate leaching component. ‘Sometimes it is necessary to apply extra water at set intervals specifically to flush salts from the soil,’ De Miguel Garcia says. This may lower field-level efficiency in the short term, but it can be essential to maintaining productivity over time. ‘The way forward is therefore not to focus solely on maximizing irrigation efficiency at all costs, but to balance water savings with effective salinity management.’
Beeld: © Nectaerra
Rogier van Opstal, senior specialist and manager at Nectaerra
Healthy soil as the first line of defense
Rogier van Opstal, senior specialist and manager at Nectaerra, approaches the same problem from the perspective of soil. In his view, addressing salinization does not begin with a single technical solution or a salt-tolerant crop, but with the health of the agricultural system itself. ‘For me, the core lies in regenerative agriculture: a way of farming that uses soil life, biodiversity, and natural processes to make the agricultural system more resilient, he says. ‘On the one hand, you need to think about saving water. On the other hand, healthy soil loses less water. Rainfall and irrigation water are used more efficiently. Plants in healthy soil also need less water to grow.’
Healthy soil retains water better and makes it more efficiently available to plants. As a result, less irrigation is needed and pressure on freshwater resources decreases. ‘Even where salinization is already present, soil health remains decisive,’ according to Van Opstal. ‘A plant in soil with healthy soil life is better able to withstand the effects of salinization,’ he says.
Van Opstal adds a critical note about the often-mentioned solution of salt-tolerant crops. These can help maintain production in some circumstances, but they do not address the root cause of the problem. ‘That does not prevent salinization from getting worse,’ he says. ‘It is often expensive and unaffordable for many farmers. Ultimately, soil health is decisive.’
Drip irrigation in the Nile Delta, Egypt
Salinization as a landscape and data challenge
Both perspectives converge in one central message: salinization is not a standalone technical problem. It is the result of the way water, soil, crops, landscape, and the economy are interconnected. De Miguel Garcia: ‘Salts can accumulate for different reasons and at different scales.’ Van Opstal recognizes this from his practical experience. ‘Every area has its own salinization background. Sometimes the salt is in the rocks or in the soil layers themselves. So, there are different mechanisms.’
According to Van Opstal, salinization should not only be addressed within individual fields, but also through broader choices about landscape design and land use. ‘At the macro level, you need to think about water, soil management, and landscape design,’ he says. ‘That may also mean questioning whether certain crops belong in certain places. If you have to invest excessive effort or water to keep ditches fresh, you can ask whether those crops should be grown there at all, or whether another form of land use would make more sense.’
That calls for area-based measures. De Miguel Garcia points to the importance of measurements, field research, groundwater studies, models, and geospatial techniques to better understand where salinization occurs and how the problem develops. ‘Research helps improve our understanding of where these different types of salinity processes occur and how they evolve over time,’ he says.
Sometimes a farmer can already achieve a great deal through better field management. In other cases, interventions are needed at the level of an irrigation district, region, or national policy, for example around water allocation, drainage infrastructure, water reuse, or land use. Van Opstal also emphasizes that research and data are indispensable: ‘You look at water quality, pH, and the degree of salinization, among others’
‘Addressing salinization begins with the health of the agricultural system itself’
From knowledge to workable farm practices
According to De Miguel Garcia, the greatest challenge is not only collecting new knowledge. ‘The real question is how existing knowledge can be translated into solutions that work in a specific location. ‘The main mechanisms behind salinization in Egypt are generally well understood,’ he says. ‘However, knowing the causes is not the same as knowing which strategy is most effective, feasible, and economically viable in a particular location.’
That is why more is needed than isolated research findings. Scientific knowledge must be combined with field pilots, monitoring networks, predictive models, and conversations with stakeholders. ‘The challenge is therefore to move from general knowledge to site-specific and tailor-made recommendations while keeping an integrated approach in mind,’ says De Miguel Garcia.
Van Opstal makes that translation concrete from the perspective of farmers. Many farmers have little financial room to make major changes. Moreover, they often focus on the current or next crop, while the consequences of excessive water use only become visible later. ‘In Egypt, the short term also rules,’ he says. ‘Why would you use water more sparingly now if, for this crop, you think extra irrigation will help the plants grow better? The fact that this may bring saltier water back a year or three years later is not in the DNA of the average farmer.’
In addition, water in Egypt is kept relatively inexpensive, since water itself is not priced, only pumping it is. As a result, there often is no direct incentive to irrigate more sparingly. According to Van Opstal, a structural approach therefore also requires different economic incentives. ‘An important condition for the future is that water gets a fairer price. In addition, farmers who grow crops in a healthier, more ecological way and apply better soil management should also receive a healthier price for their crops.’
Beeld: © Nectaerra
Smallholder farmers training
Simple solutions instead of expensive technology
Many measures do not have to start with expensive technology. The foundation is often found in farming practices themselves: less soil disturbance, crop rotation, cover crops, better soil structure, more organic matter, and more biodiversity.
Biodiversity plays a central role in this. ‘You can plant more diversely, use trees and shrubs, and combine crops that root at different depths,’ Van Opstal says. ‘As a result, you lose less water and create more shade and humidity. That greatly increases water efficiency, without immediately needing drainage or other technology.’
He continues to say that diversity is not only good for the soil, but also for farmers’ income. An agricultural system that is less dependent on a single crop is better able to withstand diseases, pests, and market fluctuations.
De Miguel Garcia also argues for an integrated approach in which water, soil, and the ecosystem are considered together. Models can help provide a better picture of the long-term effects of different measures. He cites SWAP (Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant) for example, a model that simulates transport of water, solutes and heat in unsaturated or saturated soils. In combination with field measurements from pilots, it can help compare strategies for irrigation modernization and salinity management.
Integrating existing knowledge into practical guidance and policies
Egypt already has several ambitious policy frameworks, such as the Irrigation 2.0 agenda, the National Water Resources Plan 2037, and the Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy 2030. According to De Miguel Garcia, the next step is for investments in irrigation modernization, water reuse, groundwater development, and agricultural expansion to systematically take salinization into account. ‘The challenge is not only to generate new knowledge, but also to integrate existing knowledge into practical guidance and policies that support salinity management from the farm level to the regional and national levels.’
A concrete example is the DHI initiative in which Nectaerra is working in Egypt. DHI stands for Demonstration Projects, Feasibility Studies, and Investment Preparation Projects: a Dutch scheme that supports companies in investigating whether a product, service, or approach can work technically and commercially abroad. Within that initiative, Nectaerra combines regenerative cultivation practices with organic fertilizers, foliar fertilizers, and crop enhancers.
‘The challenge is also to integrate existing knowledge into practice’
According to Van Opstal, cooperation with Dutch public parties also plays a role in this step. The Netherlands Agricultural Network (LAN) team at the Dutch Embassy in Cairo has been particularly supportive of projects in Egypt, including those involving regenerative agriculture and the DHI initiative. Precisely because public parties, companies, and farmers intersect there, knowledge about water, soil, and business models can be translated into practice more quickly.
For Van Opstal, the initiative must prove itself both ecologically and commercially. ‘We need to show at a commercial scale that higher yields and lower costs can go hand in hand with healthier soil, stronger microbiology and more efficient water use,’ he says. ‘Ultimately, the goal is to build soil health to the point where farmers need fewer and fewer external inputs.’
DHI kick-off with Dakahlia, Daltex farms and Agricultural Counselor for Egypt/Jordan Tycho Vermeulen (who is giving a presentation) Inspection of grape cultivation for DHI demo at Daltex, Egypt
For more information
Read more about the insights of the LAN team in Cairo and the knowledge company Delphy on solutions for salinity in Egypt here (part one).
If you would like reach out to the LAN team about salinity in Egypt, you can contact them via:
- E-mail: kai-lvvn@minbuza.nl
- LinkedIn: Netherlands Agricultural Network in Egypt