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Earth observation (EO) techniques have significantly evolved over time, covering a wide range of applications in different domains. The scope of this study is to review the research conducted on EO in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa (EMMENA) region and to identify the main knowledge gaps. We searched through the Web of Science database for papers published between 2018 and 2022 for EO studies in the EMMENA. We categorized the papers in the following thematic areas: atmosphere, water, agriculture, land, disaster risk reduction (DRR), cultural heritage, energy, marine safety and security (MSS), and big Earth data (BED); 6647 papers were found with the highest number of publications in the thematic areas of BED (27%) and land (22%). Most of the EMMENA countries are surrounded by sea, yet there was a very small number of studies on MSS (0.9% of total number of papers). This study detected a gap in fundamental research in the BED thematic area. Other future needs identified by this study are the limited availability of very high-resolution and near-real-time remote sensing data, the lack of harmonized methodologies and the need for further development of models, algorithms, early warning systems, and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of zooarchaeological data for the principal livestock (i.e., cattle, sheep, goats and pigs) reveals regional and cultural variability in how animals were manipulated, marketed, bred, and utilized over the course of antiquity. This paper focuses upon those developments, as reconstructed through zooarchaeological frequency and morphometric data for the period from c. 1000 BCE to c. 700 CE. Regionally, North Africa encompasses a vast territory, from Egypt, in the East, to Mauretania, in the West. Ecologically, there are variations within each of these zones. Culturally, moreover, these regions witnessed the introduction and influence of different social and economic agents and factors over the timeframe under investigation. This paper examines patterns in these components in a broad synthetic manner, using zooarchaeological data across the entire expanse of Roman North Africa—from Egypt to Mauretania. Focus centers upon the nature and degree of size and shape changes within the principal livestock, modifications that were in part influenced by aspects such as the scale and pattern in trade, dietary appeal for animal products (notably fatty meats), market demands, ecological adaptations, as well as economic and cultural contact among areas. Key similarities and differences in faunal patterns, across time and space within ancient North Africa, and the links these share with changes in animal husbandry schemes are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Date fruits are the most common fruit in the Middle East and North Africa. There are a wide variety of dates with different types, colors, shapes, tastes, and nutritional values. Classifying, identifying, and recognizing dates would play a crucial role in the agriculture, commercial, food, and health sectors. Nevertheless, there is no or limited work to collect a reliable dataset for many classes. In this paper, we collected the dataset of date fruits by picturing dates from primary environments: farms and shops (e.g., online or local markets). The combined dataset is unique due to the multiplicity of items. To our knowledge, no dataset contains the same number of classes from natural environments. The collected dataset has 27 classes with 3228 images. The experimental results presented are based on five stages. The first stage applied traditional machine learning algorithms for measuring the accuracy of features based on pixel intensity and color distribution. The second stage applied a deep transfer learning (TL) model to select the best model accuracy of date classification. In the third stage, the feature extraction part of the model was fine-tuned by applying different retrained points to select the best retraining point. In the fourth stage, the fully connected layer of the model was fine-tuned to achieve the best classification configurations of the model. In the fifth stage, regularization was applied to the classification layer of the best-selected model from the fourth stage, where the validation accuracy reached 97.21% and the best test accuracy was 95.21%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the most water-scarce region in the world. Recent research suggests that agroecology could be a basis for sustainable agriculture. We assess the spread of agroecology in the region and explore the prospect of self-organization among farming communities as an indicator for self-determination of the farming system. The focus is on Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. We present empirical data and propose an analytical framework for capturing the conditions for self-organizing arrangements in a transition to agroecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With decreasing aquifer levels, increasing groundwater pollution, inequitable access, and generally poor management outcomes, better groundwater governance has been put forward as a recipe to address these challenges worldwide. Existing recommendations focus on improved legal frameworks, monitoring and control of access and abstraction through permits or formal rights. In addition, decentralized water management, enforcement of regulations, and supply‐side technological solutions are seen as cornerstone components of good groundwater governance systems. However, until now, these approaches have generally failed to reconcile the fundamental dynamics and properties of groundwater as a natural resource and of governance as a social and political phenomenon. This has caused a disregard for local to planetary boundaries, power dynamics, and intra‐ and intergenerational inequalities in access to benefits from groundwater. As the current general notion of good groundwater governance is limited, solutions put forward are also partial and do not encompass the wider challenges affecting groundwater governance, in effect replacing sustainable management goals and policy for governance as a process. This paper takes a particular look at the Middle East and North Africa and agricultural groundwater use for irrigation to constructively redefine groundwater governance and fully address the multilayered and multifaceted core challenges of groundwater governance. Equally, the paper puts forward a new conceptual thinking that will help support the effective development of governance‐based solutions to achieve sustainable, socially acceptable, resilient and equitable resource use. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Planning WaterHuman Water > Water Governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional tillage coupled with monocropping and limited recycling of crop residues along with increased pressure from human and livestock population has led to the degradation of the soil, water resources, and the environment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Conservation Agriculture (CA) considered as "climate-smart" agriculture, strives to achieve acceptable profits along with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving and regenerating soils and protecting the environment. The objectives of this paper are to review and synthesize available findings on CA, its past trends, current opportunities and challenges, evidence on potential benefits from its adaptation, to discuss its future outlook, and to make relevant recommendations for interventions and novel research needs for its wider diffusion in the region. In MENA, major research on CA has been mainly conducted in Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, and Syria, while Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt embarked CA research fairly recently. About 25-40% out of the 53 million hectares total arable land is estimated to be suitable for CA in the region. In recent years a growing number of studies carried under a range of climatic, soil, management and cropping conditions in many countries of MENA reported several benefits including higher and more stable yields and profits, reduced risks of crop loss, labor requirements, soil erosion, and improved soil moisture and quality under CA system. Despite its benefits, adoption of CA in MENA is still very low for various reasons including: lack of affordable and well-adapted seeders, the complexity of the CA system which posed a major challenge for mostly uneducated farmers to comprehend, ill-conceived policies that promote cereal intensification hence inadvertently promote monocropping, tradeoffs between residue retention and livestock feed, lack of adequate policy and institutional framework and incentives to enhance farmers' adoption, and the private sector's active involvement in the dissemination of CA. The wider acceptance of CA requires the development of affordable and versatile no-till seeder alongside the implementation of integrated crop management practices. CA-based bundled agronomic management practices must be tailored to the biophysical and socio-economic environment. Finally, effective strategies for upscaling CA in MENA has to be developed by taking into consideration the unique features of the region. Despite the daunting past adoption trends and current challenges, we predict a bright future for CA in the region due to several factors including: rising energy prices and wage rates, the emergence of younger and more educated farmers, the advent of climate change, the increasing awareness on the degradation of land and water resources among farmers and policy makers, changes in dietary preferences subsequently increasing trends in demand and prices of legumes are expected to increase the desirability of CA and enhance its wider diffusion in MENA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic affected agri-food systems worldwide. However, while the impacts differed from one country/region to another, the scholarly literature seems to focus on developed countries in the Global North. Consequently, this review scrutinizes the literature on the pandemic's impacts in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. A search on the Web of Science in March 2023 generated 334 documents, of which 151 were eligible for inclusion in the systematic review. According to the bibliometric analysis, the most active nations are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. In general, the coverage of studies is better in the Gulf region than in the less developed countries of North Africa and those suffering from wars (cf. Libya, Syria, and Yemen). Studies generally focus on crop production and the downstream food chain (cf. distribution and consumption). While the pandemic influenced every pillar of food security, this research concentrates on access and utilization. Meanwhile, the lion's share of the literature deals with the pandemic's socio-economic effects, especially those linked to food (in)security and health. The pandemic, which laid bare the agri-food system vulnerabilities, should be seized to foster the transition towards more resilient agri-food systems in the NENA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for water accounting and for the management of irrigated agriculture from farm to region. We describe here a collaborative initiative aimed at establishing a prototype ET network in six countries of North Africa and the Near East (NENA region). The network utilizes a low-cost and open-source system, termed the CORDOVA-ET, consisting of a base station and sensing nodes to collect the weather data needed to determine the reference and actual ET (ETo and ETa). Here, we describe the network-deployment processes, system architecture, data-collection methodology, quality-control procedures, and some of the ET results obtained so far during a four-year period, starting in 2018. The network has been developed as an iterative and collaborative process, where training and capacity building have been the main drivers. The feedback and experiences gathered from the users have helped improve the different versions of the prototypes and enhance their assembly, deployment, reliability, and ease of operation. At the same time, the involvement in the construction, maintenance, and data analysis has also provided valuable insight into calculating ET from energy-balance methods. The network operated during six cropping seasons and the results were mixed, while data integrity (hourly and daily) varied from 95 to 23% depending on the country and season. Validation of the ET estimates was performed using the ECMWF ERA5 dataset as an independent reference. The energy-balance algorithm implemented in the system to determine the ETa was validated using the OpenCropLib Python library. While the results of the data validation demonstrated the reliability and accuracy of the CORDOVA-ET system, network operations required significant support and special motivation on the part of the users. It is concluded that collaboration among users, together with the support services and participation of different stakeholders interested in agricultural water management, would be essential elements to ensure the sustainability of the ET network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Anomaly hotSpots of Agricultural Production (ASAP) Decision Support System was launched operationally in 2017 for providing timely early warning information on agricultural production based on Earth Observation and agro-climatic data in an open and easy to use online platform. Over the last three years, the system has seen several methodological improvements related to the input indicators and to system functionalities. These include: an improved dataset of rainfall estimates for Africa; a new satellite indicator of biomass optimised for near-real-time monitoring; an indicator of crop and rangeland water stress derived from a water balance accounting scheme; the inclusion of seasonal precipitation forecasts; national and sub-national crop calendars adapted to ASAP phenology; and a new interface for the visualisation and analysis of high spatial resolution Sentinel and Landsat data. In parallel to these technical improvements, stakeholders and users uptake was consolidated through the set up of regionally adapted versions of the ASAP system for Eastern Africa in partnership with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), for North Africa with the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS), and through the collaboration with the Angolan National Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics (INAMET), that used the ASAP system to inform about agricultural drought. Finally, ASAP indicators have been used as inputs for quantitative crop yield forecasting with machine learning at the province level for Algeria's 2021 and 2022 winter crop seasons that were affected by drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following two papers result from a meeting held in the Society's House on 23 February 1989. The first paper provides an overview of the present levels of, and estimated potential for, irrigation agriculture in Africa south of the Sahara. The important contribution of small-scale schemes to the total irrigation area and their favourable economic costs and returns when compared with larger-scale schemes is clearly demonstrated. The examples provided in the second paper indicate the variation of purposes for which large-scale irrigation projects are used, and provide details of the economic impact and returns from some such projects in Southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This paper uses panel cointegration techniques and Granger causality tests to investigate the dynamic causal links between per capita renewable energy consumption, agricultural value added (AVA), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, and real gross domestic product (GDP) for a panel of five North Africa countries spanning the period 1980–2011. In the short-run, Granger causality tests show the existence of bidirectional causality between CO 2 emissions and agriculture; a unidirectional causality running from agriculture to GDP, from GDP to renewable energy consumption, and from renewable energy consumption to agriculture. In the long-run, there is bidirectional causality between agriculture and CO 2 emissions; a unidirectional causality running from renewable energy to agriculture and to emissions, and from output to agriculture and to emissions. Long-run parameter estimates show that an increase in GDP or in renewable energy consumption (including combustible and waste) increases CO 2 emissions, whereas an increase in agricultural value added reduces CO 2 emissions. As policy recommendation, North African authorities should encourage renewable energy consumption, and especially clean renewable energy such as solar or wind, as this improves agricultural production and help to combat global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finite element method (FEM) is commonly used to study the soil cutting process with tillage tools. This paper illustrates the use of FEM to model interaction of a mouldboard plough used in northern Africa. A Drucker–Prager elasto-plastic model was used to simulate the material behavior of a sandy loam soil. The mouldboard was considered as a discrete rigid body with a reference point at the tip, at which the three orthogonal force components (vertical, lateral, and draught) were calculated. The effects of the mouldboard depth of cut, speed of operation, cutting angle ( α ) and the lifting angle ( β ) on the tillage forces were investigated in this study. Results showed that draught force increased with a second order polynomial function with depth, whereas the vertical and lateral forces had a linear relationships with depth. Moreover, these forces increased linearly with speed. For the effect of the cutting angles, results showed that the draught force increased linearly with the cutting and the lifting angles. The vertical force decreased linearly with these angles. Whereas, the lateral force decreased with a polynomial trend with the cutting angle and increased linearly with the lifting angle. It was found that the minimal energy consumption can be achieved by a combination of a working depth of 150 mm, a speed of 1 m/s, low lifting angle (25°), and cutting angle (from 30° to 45°). This combination also resulted in a good soil inversion. It can be concluded that FEM can be used to understand the effect of mouldboard design and operational conditions on tillage forces, energy requirements, and quality of soil inversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Tiers Monde is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the impact of post-dependency theory and industrialization on agriculture in Tunisia, North Africa.

Copyright of Hydrogeology Journal is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Irrigating crops with reclaimed water from sewage treatment plants can contribute to the conservation and augmentation of the water resources in arid regions. Many countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from serious water shortages. Three field studies were conducted during the period 2010-2011 to assess yield components and chemical constituents of wheat, cowpea and maize crops grown in rotation with reclaimed water for irrigation in comparison with desalinated and groundwater. The reclaimed water irrigation increased wheat plant height (cm), chlorophyll, leaf area (cm), leaf length (cm), grain yield (t ha) and the water productivity (kg grain m). It improved all cowpea growth parameters under study except the dry forage yield. Nitrogen was also higher under reclaimed water irrigation in wheat tissue, cowpea pods and maize cobs. Reclaimed water had no effect on the element concentrations in wheat, cowpea and maize except for nickel concentration in wheat plants, and Sodium and Manganese concentrations in maize plants. Using reclaimed water for irrigation increased the yield parameters of wheat, cowpea and maize. However, all the studied element concentrations in wheat, cowpea and maize were within the normal limits after irrigation by reclaimed water. It can be concluded that reclaimed water usage will have significant positive impacts on yield and water productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 15 years, the Système Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT)-VEGETATION (VGT) program reached the end of its life in May 2014 and was replaced by the Project for On-Board Autonomy-Vegetation (PROBA-V) mission. Exploiting the period of overlap between instruments, this study compares the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of two instruments from the point of view of the user interested in operational crop monitoring. The comparison is performed for Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, where NDVI is used to derive anomaly maps, temporal profiles, and cereal yield forecasts. A relevant scatter due to unexplained unsystematic variability exists between anomaly values. A mismatch between anomaly classes is observed for 20%–30% of the crop area. However, when the NDVI is averaged over cropland and administrative units to derive temporal profiles, the two data sources show a high agreement. Results for yield estimation comparison indicate an overall high agreement, and both the (null) hypotheses that the model predictions and the root mean square error (RMSE) in yield estimation are not different, when using PROBA-V instead of SPOT-VGT, cannot be rejected in all cases for Morocco and Algeria. On the contrary, in Tunisia, where RMSE is lower using PROBA-V, the hypothesis of no difference in RMSE is rejected. These findings therefore indicate that yield estimation performances are not affected (Morocco and Algeria) or improved (Tunisia) by the source transition. Finally, despite the same nominal spatial resolution, the different spatial quality of the sensors was found to have an effect on yield estimation in areas characterized by sharp transitions between cropland and desert. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Originating from multivariate statistics, random matrix theory (RMT) is used in order to test whether the elements of an empirical correlation coefficient matrix are noise dominated or contain true information. In this article, an attempt is made to apply the properties of RMT in macroeconomic time series data, by investigating the degree of convergence in agricultural labour productivity growth among a set of 32 European and Middle East and North Africa countries. Once the distribution of the eigenvalues of the empirical correlation matrix is found to differ from that of a pure random matrix, data are further analysed by means of hierarchical clustering techniques which allow for the creation of data clusters with common properties. This two-step procedure is an alternate means for club convergence tests, while some sensitivity analysis tests indicate an acceptable level of robustness of the proposed methodology even in small sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest of governments, international organizations, NGOs and the general public has recently been aroused by studies considering the use of existing agricultural technology, the use of innovations in such technology and the production of agricultural goods. The attention received by such studies has grown as a result of an unprecedented wave of trade liberalization in the world (involving bilateral, regional and multilateral trade-integration processes), coupled with concerns over food security, high rates of population growth and the use of limited and frequently degraded natural resources. In this context, the Malmquist Index, used to measure agricultural productivity, is a powerful tool, providing insights into whether or not a country is approaching what may be termed 'best practice' by using and disseminating existing technology (efficiency change), and/or by innovating technology (technical change). Using the Malmquist Index on a sample of 12 countries within West Asia and North Africa (WANA) indicated that, between 1961 and 1997, Turkey, Tunisia, Syria and Algeria (in that order) were the 'most productive' countries. Following them, in terms of agricultural productivity, were Iran, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, while Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen and Ethiopia were the 'least productive' countries of the 12 considered. Recurring negative results, with respect to both technical change and efficiency change, in Ethiopia, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen, suggest that governments and national and international organizations and research institutions should make greater efforts to strengthen agricultural research and extension services if food security and competitiveness are to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries' future stand in the world's economy depends to a large extent on the potentials of their agriculture to perform in a free trade world. European Union (EU) is the largest market for agricultural products of MENA countries, though new outlets and new partnerships can expand the market of their products. Enhancing agriculture's potentials safeguards the economy's general expansion and impede the flee of MENA countries' huge labour reserves to the developed world. In this work, introducing a few possible trade reforms, a general equilibrium model is employed to assess the impacts upon region's export potentials and welfare changes. Selecting certain distinct scenarios from a wide spectrum of anticipated trade reforms, and feeding them into the model, insights on the direction of the expected changes and rough estimates of accrued benefits can be extracted. The model results suggest that the region might benefit the most under special provisions for developing countries in a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement, while in the case of EU-Med agreement, agricultural trade will benefit MENA countries and can induce economic growth through the expansion of agricultural exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory approaches are an increasingly prominent technique for designing agricultural strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. However, they are frequently criticised for either not involving enough stakeholders or limiting the scope of their participation. This article concludes from a study of the situation in West Africa that a lack of broad-based participation in these strategies is not a major problem; rather, the real challenge lies in transforming the outcomes of participatory processes into policies that can be feasibly implemented. It highlights why an emphasis on participation can sometimes result in disappointment amongst stakeholders and discusses a range of measures to help overcome this dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]