Climate change has negatively affected wheat and maize yields both regionally and globally. Since the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, several periods of rapid food and cereal price increases following climate extremes in key producing regions indicate a sensitivity of current markets to climate extremes, among other factors. Food insecurity and the breakdown of food systems linked to warming, result in the loss of rural livelihoods and income due to insufficient access to drinking and irrigation water and reduced agricultural productivity.
Without adaptation, any local temperature increase in excess of about 1°C above preindustrial is projected to have negative effects on yields for the major crops (wheat, rice, and maize) in both tropical and temperate regions. These impacts will occur in the context of rising crop demand, which is projected to increase by about 14 percent per decade until 2050.
Agricultural strategy in Egypt favors increasing land reclamation to allow more agricultural lands in desert area. This drive is hampered by the scarcity of water and the salinization of underground water that will need treatment. Another challenge is the availability of power to lift water from the wells and distribute it to farms. Egypt already suffers from shortage of petrol and gas to generate electricity. Also the cost of extending the power network from the inhabited areas of the Nile valley is considerably high. The solution was to introduce solar energy to generate electricity and operate the farming systems. The need of electric power for irrigation is only during day time where the radiation is strong enough almost all year round, which makes the operation cost effective.
As part of the scheme, 12,000 acre farm was established for jojoba. Olives were cultivated in other areas covering 20,000 acres. Photovoltaic solar panels were used to produce electricity for pumping the underground water, installed by trained local technicians.
Due to the harsh conditions of the desert in this region, the plants suffered damages from wind and sand storms. But with several trials and errors, simple low cost protection measures allowed the system to operate properly, and water is now being pumped from the depth of 80 meters. The concentration of salts ranging between 3000 to 5000 ppm was suitable for both jojoba and olive. More work is planned to treat brackish water using solar energy.
Various projects followed to utilize solar pumping for agriculture. In March 2015 Sekem Energy operated its first solar pumping system at its farm in Wahat, generating total power of 60 kW, as phase 1 of other similar plants. The system combines the solar technology with efficient irrigation technologies to optimize the use of water produced.
It is now time to move from pilot projects to wide spread utilization of solar technology in agriculture.
Dr. Ayman Abou Hadid is director of Climate Change Information Center and Renewable Energy (CCICRE), and former minister of agriculture and land reclamation, Egypt.