Historical and Current Perspectives of AKST | 55

Besides drought management, agricultural risk management policies in CWANA include programs to improve crop management and animal production techniques, crop and animal protection programs, irrigation facility and water management programs, price support programs (in particular guaranteed purchase prices for grains) and to improve input subsidy programs that have decreased substantially in recent years and to develop credit and insurance systems and safety net programs. These measures and development programs are unequally implemented in the region and substantial progress is needed in risk management policies.

In animal protection, risk management differs among North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, due to their different epidemiological situations. In Central Asia, diagnostic capacities for epidemics remain limited. Cattle are the main target of preventive vaccination, which is used more to prevent economic loss from disease than to prevent the spread of the infection. Turkey and Iran also vaccinate small ruminants in specific areas to prevent diseases being introduced from neighboring countries. In North Africa, risk management is more focused on emergency preparedness and limiting the diffusion of the disease when it is diagnosed. Effective control from quarantine and mass vaccination are used. Vaccination campaigns target cattle in Algeria and Morocco and both cattle and sheep in Tunisia. Still, animal diseases seriously affect the livestock production potential. Eliminating the diseases would require implementing focused pest and disease control operations, lacking in several countries.

Another important policy area to reduce agricultural market risks is food safety and quality. In several countries of the region, initiatives have been taken to reform and improve food control systems: development of a national strategy for food control (Morocco, Tunisia), implementation and development of food legislation complying with international requirements (Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Sudan and United Arab Emirates) and review and update of food standards and regulations (Iran, Sudan and Syria). Some countries have harmonized their food standards with Codex, and Tunisia has introduced quality assurance systems. Despite the effort made by several countries to improve food control systems and to harmonize national food regulations with international standards, often with FAO support, further progress needs to be made to increase the efficiency of food safety systems, first in order to meet national public health requirements (for locally produced and imported products) and second to meet the food quality and safety requirements of export markets.

What is thus at stake for most countries of the CWANA region is the design and implementation of a comprehensive and proactive risk policy, which would include and coordinate the following elements:

  • Establishment of drought early warning systems
  • Development of crop insurance schemes, now available in only a few countries
  • Increased public investment in public works, water management and agricultural research and extension
  • Implementation of policies that protect the environment and discourage cultivation of marginal land
 
  • Reinforcement of marketing systems and promotion of farmer organizations
  • Development of new and improved food safety systems to comply with food safety standards in export markets

2.2.5.4 Drought risk management in CWANA

Drought is a recurrent phenomenon across CWANA countries. It has a severe effect on the populations and weighs heavily on all economic activities, particularly agriculture. Drought has a negative influence on aquatic and land ecosystems and on the quantity and quality of underground and surface water because of salinization. Regional and international organizations are putting in place various strategies to combat drought. The strategies may be divided into two groups:

  • Improvement of countries' hydraulic equipment to collect and store water, rural water and soil water conservation development programs and range improvement schemes
  • Reinforcement of institutions to integrate the risks of "drought" into economic planning, give rural zones the means to resist drought and start emergency programs as soon as a drought is detected

Hydraulic equipment and the fight against drought. During the 1970s and 1980s, significant efforts were made in the entire region to construct large dams (see section 2.1.4). In some countries, such as Tunisia, recent preference has been for small and medium hydraulic works (Albergel and Regeb, 1997), creating an agricultural revolution. The threeyear drought in Tunisia, from 1993 to 1995, was overcome without rationing water to agriculture, towns, tourism or industry because the hydraulic infrastructure was well proportioned for the country's needs.

On the contrary, Afghanistan faces a food crisis each time there is inadequate rainfall during the winter or during the months of April and May. FAO assesses that 6.5 million people are seasonally or chronically food insecure in this country because of the lack of adequate hydraulic infrastructure. In 1999 to 2000, Afghanistan was hit by a serious drought as a consequence of low rainfall and snow melt over the winter. Central and southeastern Afghanistan was the worst affected, with the drought reaching crisis in some places when the population resorted to eating wild grasses and roots and drought deaths were reported (Marsden, 2000).

The Achilles heel of reservoirs in drought management is the high evaporation rate and, in particular, the sediments that come in the dams each year. It is estimated that in Morocco, 9 109 m3 of water evaporate every year, or 33% of the 30 109 m3 of rainfall. In Tunisia, large dams have an average volume loss of 25 million m3 per year, or about 2%. For small dams, the volume lost is 5% (Boufaroua et al., 2000). By 2020, many countries in CWANA will have to manage an after period, already a problem in Algeria. To reduce the silting up of dams and the loss of agricultural land, countries have launched water and soil conservation policies.

Today, storing water in aquifers seems the best method for combating dry intervals. It protects water collected dur-