Date and Time: 17 June 2021 at 16:30 hours (IST)
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab, President ICID & Fellow Principal Hydrologist & Water Resources Management Specialist, UK Centre for Hydrology (UK CEH)

The continuous increase in world population requires a parallel increase in food production. This represent a formidable challenge as the land and water resources are limited.  Better and efficient management of water, land and crops is the key to meet such challenge. The webinar will attempt to address a number of approaches and cover the following aspects:

1. Increasing water supplies (rainfall harvesting & use of non-conventional water resources)
2. Suitable and more water use efficient irrigation systems and strategies.
3. Suitable crops including less water consuming and non-conventional crops.
4. Suitable land management to save water (conservation tillage, mulching, precision farming…)
5. Water saving through the accurate estimation of crop irrigation requirement
6. Use of models as management tools to save water and assess the impact of climate change on irrigation requirement, growth season length and yield.

PRESENTATION: Webinar on Suitable water, crops and land management for water stressed regions by Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab, President, ICID

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab, President ICID

Dr. Ragab (born in 1949) obtained his BSc. in Soil and Water Sciences (1970), MSc. in Irrigation (1974), and Ph.D, in Rural Engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium (1982). Presently, he is serving as the Principal Hydrologist and Water Resources Management Specialist at UK Centre for Hydrology, Wallingford. As an editor at the Journal of Agricultural Science, he contributes to Cambridge University Press (2013-present). He is also serving as an Adjunct Professor at Soil and Water Sciences Dept., University of Alexandria, Egypt since 2006.

He has more than 40 years of experience in irrigation, drainage, catchments hydrology, remote sensing application in hydrology, integrated water management, climate change impact on water resources, soilwater-plant- atmosphere relations, rainfall harvesting, use of poor-quality water (saline/brackish, treated wastewater) for crop production, organic farming and urban hydrology.

Dr. Ragab is also associated with many professional organizations which include: British Society of Soil Science Society, Irrigants Europe - IE, and European Soil and Land Use Management. He has contributed to 122 selected publications, excluding reports, and developed models like IHMS, SALTMED 2019, and HYDROMED and has also received global awards and recognitions for his commendable work in the irrigation and drainage sector, including Egypt State Recognition and Merit Award for Scientific Achievements, The Baron’s 500: Leaders for the New Century, ICID Award of Excellence (2002, 2012, 2013, 2014) and Best Paper Award 2018.

Dr. Ragab has actively contributed to the ICID activities as the Vice President of ICID from 2010-2013 and has also served as the Chairman of the British National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID-UK) (2007- 2011) and headed many ICID working groups.