Water Management in Mideast Focus of USAID-University Partnership
Increased food production and improved water management in the Middle East and North Africa are the focus of a new partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the University of Nebraska.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Water-Managemen...
“We look forward to deepening our partnership with the University of Nebraska as we help to build scientific and research capabilities throughout the world,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said at a ceremony with university President James Milliken marking the signing of an agreement between the agency and the university.
Milliken said he was “delighted that the University of Nebraska has this unique opportunity to partner with USAID to address one of our most important shared concerns: the need to feed a rapidly growing global population with a limited amount of water.” IPP Digital reports.
Through collaborative research, education and outreach programs, USAID and the university will focus on irrigation, groundwater management, rain-fed agriculture, and drought risk assessment and mitigation — areas important for global food security.
Shah and Milliken were joined at the signing ceremony by Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska; Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska; Roberto Lenton, the new executive director of the University of Nebraska’s Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute; Mara Rudman, assistant administrator for USAID’s Middle East bureau; and John Wilson, director of the Office of Technical Services for USAID’s Middle East and Asia bureaus.
“The University of Nebraska’s Water for Food Institute is invested in exciting world-class research that may lead to advances in farming technology of immense global impact,” Fortenberry said.
Nelson said the partnership between USAID and the university “has the potential to have a lasting impact in a part of the world where water scarcity causes dangerous tensions between countries and severe suffering among people.”
The partnership will support the Middle East North Africa Network of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA NWC), according to USAID. The network consists of 20 centers in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. MENA NWC also includes the University of Nebraska and four other U.S. universities and two international agriculture research centers.
The network links technical institutions across the Middle East and North Africa with each other and counterpart U.S. institutions to address water challenges confronting the region. MENA NWC helps build the regional capacity to improve water planning and management, expand water supply, manage demand, and dramatically increase its efficient and productive use.
Milliken said he was “delighted that the University of Nebraska has this unique opportunity to partner with USAID to address one of our most important shared concerns: the need to feed a rapidly growing global population with a limited amount of water.” IPP Digital reports.
Through collaborative research, education and outreach programs, USAID and the university will focus on irrigation, groundwater management, rain-fed agriculture, and drought risk assessment and mitigation — areas important for global food security.
Shah and Milliken were joined at the signing ceremony by Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska; Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska; Roberto Lenton, the new executive director of the University of Nebraska’s Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute; Mara Rudman, assistant administrator for USAID’s Middle East bureau; and John Wilson, director of the Office of Technical Services for USAID’s Middle East and Asia bureaus.
“The University of Nebraska’s Water for Food Institute is invested in exciting world-class research that may lead to advances in farming technology of immense global impact,” Fortenberry said.
Nelson said the partnership between USAID and the university “has the potential to have a lasting impact in a part of the world where water scarcity causes dangerous tensions between countries and severe suffering among people.”
The partnership will support the Middle East North Africa Network of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA NWC), according to USAID. The network consists of 20 centers in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. MENA NWC also includes the University of Nebraska and four other U.S. universities and two international agriculture research centers.
The network links technical institutions across the Middle East and North Africa with each other and counterpart U.S. institutions to address water challenges confronting the region. MENA NWC helps build the regional capacity to improve water planning and management, expand water supply, manage demand, and dramatically increase its efficient and productive use.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Water-Managemen...