Egypt is situated in the North East of Africa and includes parts of Asia (Sinai Peninsula). Egypt is a country of tremendous land resources but limited water resources. The gross area of Egypt is about one million km2 while the area of cultivated land is hardly exceeding 31,500 km2 or only 3.15% of the gross area. The population is concentrated on almost 5% of the gross area only, in the narrow strip, which borders the river Nile in the upper and middle part of the country and in the Nile Delta in the lower part.
The population of Egypt increased dramatically from 8 million in 1898 to about 65 million at present. It is expected that the population will reach 100 million by the year 2025. Due to this huge increase the per capita share of land fell from 0.28 ha in 1898 to 0.05 ha in 1999. Not only the per capita share of land is going down; the per capita share of water is also falling sharply. Now, this share is already below the so-called “water-poverty” line of about 1,000 m3 per capita per year. The annual availability of water per capita is at present 850 m3. It will be even further reduced to an expected amount of 555 m3 by 2025. Expansion of irrigated agriculture has to be predominantly realized by increasing the water use efficiency. In Egypt, the dominant irrigation method is surface irrigation. It covers approximately 85% of the irrigated areas. The rest lies under modern irrigation systems (sprinkler 12.5 % and drip 2.5 %). Surface irrigation methods (gravity methods) are generally characterized by low efficiency. One opportunity to increase productivity of Nile water is to capture more of the drainage outflow and to convert it into a productive use. However, initial estimates based on downstream environmental outflow requirements show only 4 to 5 billion m3 can be captured with conservation efforts. Only well conceived projects to increase efficiency on a local level may achieve slight increases in the depleted fraction when these reduce drainage discharge to the sea. Surge flow is a practical tool to conserve that water. It is a technique in furrow irrigation that can contribute to improved application efficiencies and distribution uniformity with diminished water and sediment losses.
This MSc thesis presents a research proposal to select some ways for water saving under Egyptian conditions. Literature reviews show that surge flow irrigation may save water and increase crop production and therefor it might be a promising method in Egypt. However, there are many limitations in surge flow irrigation that need more investigation, especially in short fields. These limitations are:
- its application is limited to land, which is suitable for surface irrigation;
- the variability of surge flow effects on compacted and uncompacted furrows may still exist in a reduced form. Moreover, the relationships between stream size and length of furrow and cycle time need more investigations;
- more information is needed to establish the best management practices, including the optimum combination of inflow rates, cycle times, and number of surges;
- appropriate slope configurations to minimize runoff and deep percolation.
Surge flow irrigation method might be recommended for Egypt for several reasons, which are
- the application of surge flow irrigation is limited to land, which is suitable for surface irrigation. This means that 85% of the cultivated area in Egypt is potentially suitable for surge flow irrigation;
- surge flow irrigation can be used in furrows or in borders, so it is suitable for the most important crops in Egypt, as these crops are cultivated in furrows except wheat, which is cultivated in borders or basins;
- the expenses are less than for sprinkler or drip irrigation. Meanwhile, its net return is the highest in comparison to six other irrigation systems, namely medium pressure center-pivot (MPCP), low pressure center-pivot (LPCP), low, drift nozzle center-pivot (LDN), low energy precision application center-pivot (LEPA), furrow flood (FF), surge flow (SF), and subsurface drip (SD);
- surge flow is an effective method to get higher crop yield production;
- surge flow saves water in an effective way.
From this study follows that, this topic should be extensively investigated in a Ph.D. Research. The main objectives of the research, will be to formulate those measures, which improve surface irrigation methods on farm scale, increase water saving and increase field crop production by applying surge flow irrigation under conditions that prevail in Egypt.