The 5th BPWA was presented to the African Regional Working Group (AFRWG) by President Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab on the occasion of the 73rd IEC Meeting and 24th ICID Congress held at Adelaide, Australia, October 2022. The performance of a workbody is adjudged based upon a set of criteria and its contribution towards the mandate and mission of ICID.

The Award was presented to Vice President Hon. Dr. Eng. Mohamed A. Shehata Wahba  (Egypt), Chairman, AFRWG.

1.1. Hybrid Irrigation Method

The innovative method provides a hybrid between surface and pressurised irrigation methods to overcome the disadvantages of both methods. The hybrid irrigation method can be defined as the group of application techniques where water is applied and distributed over the soil surface, same as in surface irrigation but one or more of the main components of micro-irrigation or sprinkler irrigation methods is introduced (e.g. mainlines, sub-mainlines, or manifolds). The hybrid irrigation methods enable a significant degree of management and increase application efficiency. Depending on the systems used, the efficiency of this method can be as high as that of sprinkler irrigation systems.

1.2. Hybrid Irrigation Systems

Pressurised irrigation systems are closed conduit systems, whereas surface irrigation systems are open flow systems, so hybrid irrigation systems are semi-closed conduit systems. Therefore, eight irrigation systems could be classified as hybrid irrigation, such as the multiple-inlet irrigation system, multioutlet hybrid irrigation system, Simulated Low Energy Precision Application (Simulated LEPA), low-head bubbler, micro flood, perforated pipes irrigation system, gated pipes irrigation system, and Multiset irrigation system.

1.3. The Multioutlet Hybrid Irrigation System

The multioutlet hybrid irrigation system is a semi-closed conduit system accomplished by flowing water under pressure over the soil surface through outlets as in surface irrigation using the main components of the pressurised irrigation methods (mainlines, sub-mainlines, and manifolds) without lateral lines and distributors (drippers, bubbles, sprinklers, etc.); each lateral line and its distributors are replaced by an outlet for irrigating a certain plot. The outlets are devices that release water from high-head pipelines into basins, borders, strips, or furrows (i.e., in the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system, the outlets consist of a riser pipe and one or more valves to control the flow). The outlets should release into fields without causing erosion. They may include alfalfa or orchard valves, various types of hydrants, etc.

The multioutlet hybrid irrigation system may achieve high distribution efficiency, equal to that of pressurised irrigation systems, by using the main components of its networks. Also, it may reach a high application efficiency by decreasing advance time. The multioutlet hybrid irrigation system theory and applications will be presented in detail in the following sections.

Water Saving through the Innovation

The multioutlet hybrid irrigation system maximises the water distribution efficiency to equal the performance of pressurised irrigation systems by using a network of pipelines that decrease water losses by eliminating evaporation, deep percolation, surface run-off, and seepage, as occurs under normal conditions of surface irrigation using earthen ditches. Moreover, application efficiency was modified by delivering water under pressure inside the field plot to minimise advance time, decreasing water losses. The system design also ensures that the depths and discharge variations over the field are relatively uniform. As a result, available soil water in the root zone is also uniform.

Implementation of the Innovation

The multioutlet hybrid irrigation system was first developed as an experimental system in 2005 in Egypt's National Water Research Center. Several studies were conducted to evaluate the potential use of the innovative system for irrigating crops in the Western Nile Delta. The technology was introduced to farmers, producers, decision-makers, and policy planners in Egypt, Mali, South Sudan, Brazil, India, China, Qatar, Jordon, Sri Lanka, and the USA via direct meetings, presentations, farmer field events, workshops etc. throughout national and international organisations. The following two up-scaling models were developed to improve surface irrigation systems and achieve food security in the depressed agricultural and water-scarce areas of Egypt and Mali.

Model for Up-Scaling in Egypt: In Egypt, water shortage is the country's central dilemma, and inefficient surface irrigation systems are the predominant systems in the Nile Valley and Delta. Consequently, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation adopted the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system to be implemented on a large scale. It was also adopted as the new model for the Irrigation Improvement Project in the West Nile Delta of Egypt, on an area of nearly 504 ha. In addition, some orchard producers have adopted the system for irrigating about 3.8 ha of citrus trees in the East Nile Delta. Moreover, the experimental fields equipped by the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system at the Water Management Research Institute (WMRI) increased from 1.3 ha to 2.6 ha. It is also planned to replace the 6.7 ha of lined ditches with the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system in the experiment stations of WMRI. It is further planned to use the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system model in all ongoing and future irrigation improvement projects.

Model for Up-Scaling in Mali and Sub-Saharan Africa: Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, with approximately 60% of the population living in poverty and 28% malnourished, as per UN-FAO. Agriculture accounts for a substantial portion of Mali's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs a large section of the country's workforce. Many Malian farmers still use primitive irrigation methods, manual tillage tools, flood irrigation without drainage systems, and unimproved crop varieties to produce their food. As a result, they have dispersed and small cultivated plots (100 m²/family), water and soil quality degradation and desertification, insignificant income and extreme poverty, joblessness, food insecurity, and widespread hunger. Thus, another up-scaling model of the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system was developed and implemented in Mali (Tibibas Project) for irrigating 365 ha as an example for converting from monoculture crop in rain-fed production systems to multi-cropping through an appropriate irrigation system for achieving food security and rural income sustainability in depressed areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The overall goal of this up-scaling model was to establish multi-season agriculture and crop diversification along with achieving increased yield and crop water productivity. Other benefits of this model include water and food security, mitigating extreme poverty, promoting gender equality and empowering women by increasing the cultivated area per woman (by 2500%), improving soil and water quality, controlling malaria, and combating malaria desertification. The model will also ensure water, environment, livelihoods, and rural income sustainability.

Scope for Further Expansion of the Innovation

The Hybrid irrigation method and its eight irrigation systems are promising, alternative technologies for marginal farmers to produce their food. The technique and its systems have a range of long-term advantages; therefore, they have scope for significant expansion.

The multioutlet system was adopted and developed by farmers and producers in both developed and developing countries to improve surface irrigation efficiencies, achieve food security, and increase rural income sustainability by increasing cultivated area per woman in sub-Saharan Africa. In Egypt, farmers are moving from using surface irrigation to the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system to irrigate high water consumption crops in the Nile Valley and Delta, such as sugarcane, rice, bananas, etc. Lately, some international organisations have adopted the multioutlet hybrid irrigation system in sub-Saharan Africa to increase the impacts of their food security projects, especially in depressed regions. The multioutlet irrigation system is recently spreading worldwide and adopted by small farmers in many areas of Africa, Asia, the USA, and Latin America for its significant long-term advantages.

The Rice crop is considered one of the most important foods and export crops in Egypt. In the last decade, the annual cultivated area increased from 1.08 to 1.56 million feddans, and the grain yield increased from 3.24 to 5.80 MT. The average grain productivity was 3.42 ton/fed. In Egypt, most of the riverine communities, and farmers use a large quantity of irrigation water in paddy cultivation, creating issues like poor drainage, poor ventilation, and eventually reducing productivity and crop quality. Droughts further exacerbate the situation.

In the presented “Save Irrigation Water Using the Innovative Machine of Soil and Water Management for Rice Crop Cultivation (SWMR)” technique rice is cultivated in tapes and strips which saves a lot of water and reduces the used land area (Top of furrow 45 cm and 35 cm of the bottom). In the conventional technique, the rice intensity is two plants per 80 cm crosswise, while in this innovative method there are four plants in 80 cm crosswise meaning double the yield.

SWMR saves water, nutrients, time, efforts, applied energy, and operating costs, and the ratio of weeds growing also reduces. The new technique needs an innovative machine to manage soil for 20 cm depth. It is designed and manufactured suiting the hard environment conditions like water, heavy and compacted soil. The machine comprises a cylinder rule having many circular protrusions around the cylinder roll and a subsoil chisel of 25 cm depth behind the tractor. A design is formed on the soil of the cross-section of trenches that faces the transplanted rice rows, and the machine moves on the axe by suitable ball bearings connected to a frame having three kink points to the tractor. Section of trench width (20 cm) of the furrow edge space and reformation of the soil surface to furrows having the (V) shape is created beside the modification of trans planter float by installing the modified wheels to be suitable to the furrow shape. The technique proposes transplanting rice in the bottom of the long trench of V shape which requires almost 50% less of the irrigated water as compared to the conventional method.

For assessing the benefits, rice was cultivated under both conventional/traditional (WT) and innovative techniques (Wm) using the machine for preparing the soil bed. The rice intensification was kept the same under two methods. The rice was transplanted at 20x20 cm. The irrigation water requirements were estimated using local climatic data. It was found that the amounts of applied irrigation water were 13,104 and 6,897 m³/ha for the traditional and modified method of rice cultivation respectively and about 47% (6 BCM) of irrigation water was saved. The rice crop yield of one hectare was 8,580 and 8,978.4 kg/ha for WT and Wm. The irrigation water use efficiency was 0.65 and 1.3 kg/m³ for WT and Wm, respectively. Using this innovative technique, in addition to water-saving led to an increase in crop yield, nutrients saving, and reduced evaporation water losses. The traditional method was prone to mosquito and weed growth which was prevented under the new technique.

Feeding a population growing at an annual rate of 1.84% with limited land and water resources is the most important challenge for Egypt today. There is a large gap between the production of all strategic crops and their consumption. More than 85% of the water withdrawal from the Nile is used for irrigated agriculture. Water availability, therefore, has a direct influence on national food security. At present, surface irrigation is used on over 80% of Egypt’s cultivated land. Poor water management is contributing to irrigation water wastage.

Previous research demonstrated that improved agricultural management practices such as raised bed cultivation can save a good percentage of irrigation water, improve the environment for growing crops, increase the yield, and can positively impact the farmer's net revenue. Crop rotation was touted as one such technique that can save applied irrigation water in various crops with medium to low water requirements. Using crop rotations further helped in the sustainable use of natural agricultural resources and increased agricultural productivity under the prevailing conditions of water scarcity.

In South Egypt, the cropping choices in the old land, new land, and salt-affected lands (sandy and calcareous soils), in addition to sugarcane cultivation, consume a high amount of irrigation water and fertilizers. Therefore, crop rotation was implemented in each of the above locations. These rotations were characterized by cultivation on raised beds, saved about 20% of the applied surface irrigation water. Furthermore, high water-requirement crops were replaced with water-extensive crops during these rotations. Finally, intercropping was practiced, two crops were cultivated on the same unit of land using the same amount of applied irrigation water. In the old land, with proposed rotations, the saved irrigation water varied from 1,095 to 1,331 m^3/ha, while 1,546 m³/ha was saved in Lower, Middle, and Upper Egypt, respectively. On the other hand, in calcareous soil 3,160 m³/ha could be saved with the proposed rotations. However, in sandy soil a low amount of water was saved – 53, 67, and 152 m³/ha in Lower, Middle, and Upper Egypt, respectively. In salt-affected soil, 3,426 m³/ha was saved. The saved amount of irrigation water under sugarcane rotations was 3,596 and 7,609 m³/ha for spring and autumn rotations, respectively.

The second step was to validate the results of these experiments by replicating them in different locations. Demonstration experiments were conducted, and these field days and harvest days were attended by the farmers from the surrounding areas. After that, farmers adopted these innovative techniques under the supervision of workers of the Central Extension Administration.

Crop rotation in conjunction with intercropping solved the food insecurity problem by increasing water and land productivity. Climate change is expected to negatively affect water resources in Egypt in the future, worsening the existing situation further. Therefore, the urgency to adopt unconventional procedures to increase crop production and maintain irrigation water is greater today than ever.

Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in Egypt, sown as a summer crop for human consumption, animal feeding, and industrial purposes specifically for oil and starch production. Due to the production deficit, efforts are made to increase the productivity of the cultivated area by using high-yielding seeds, improving agronomic practices, and optimizing water use. Using the right amount of water at the right time in the irrigation cycle is pertinent to establish good water management practices in line with the strategy of irrigation policy in Egypt. The innovation presented here is a new planting method with surface irrigation technique to increase the irrigation application efficiency, water-saving, field water use efficiency as well as increased quality and quantity of the yield.

In this method, the irrigated area was divided into furrows. The top furrow was named (Border) and the bottom one was named (Tape) and the combination of one border and tape was named (Strip). Grains were planted in the bottommost furrow using the same plant density as recommended in one or two rows of plants according to strip width. Sufficient irrigation water was provided to reach the saturation for top furrows depending on the dimension of the strip. Then the next batch of irrigation water was provided for only tapes in addition to small portions on both the sides of furrows as a result of water flow in these tapes. Accordingly, the wet area of the strip was less, and consequently, water-saving increased by about 30-50% or more without compromising the yield.

Along with the conventional farming technique, called Treatment A, two new treatments were evaluated during the irrigation cycle.

Planting on a strip of furrows with 80 cm width (bottom of furrows) following the width of the traditional furrow, with one row of plants of 22 cm in between. Grains were planted in the bottoms of furrows using the traditional plant density method. This was named treatment B.

Planting on a strip of furrows with 160 cm width with one row of plants of 22 cm in between. Grains were planted in the bottoms of furrows using the traditional plant density. This was named treatment C.

The amounts of irrigation water applied for each treatment group during growing seasons were measured by a calibrated flow meter (in m³) for each irrigation cycle. Irrigation water was transmitted to each plot through polyethylene pipes of 6-inch diameter and there was a valve in front of each plot to control the water distribution. The maize plant received 7 irrigation cycles throughout the growing season including planting irrigation where equal amounts were provided for all treatment groups until soil saturation (peddling) was achieved for all areas. Life or first irrigation was started after 21 days from planting, then irrigation interval was 14 days each. After 90 and 95 days from planting, the irrigation was stopped.

It was found that the amount of applied water was the highest for treatment A which recorded a maximum value of 8,143 m³/ha. On the other hand, the lowest value of 3,810 m³/ha was obtained from the strip of the furrow with 160 cm (treatment C), while treatment B recorded 5,676 m³/ha. The water applied and water productivity data (WP = Grain yield (kg/ha)/water applied (m³/ha)) revealed that treatments B and C saved around 30.4-53.22% of applied irrigation water, respectively, compared to treatment A. Treatment group C had the highest value of WP (1.78 kg/m³) followed by treatment B which was 1.17 kg/m³, while treatment A recorded the lowest value of 0.77 kg/m³. Concerning grain yield, it was noticed that the decrease in grain yield in treatment A may be due to the excess of applied water which led to partial aeration deficiency in the upper part of the root zone. Also, the excess wetting of the top of the furrow may have resulted in leaching out of some nutrients from the root zone. The slight increase in grains yield (6.18%) for treatment B was due to the increased plants. This was also true for treatment C. In terms of economic evaluation, it was found that treatment C had the highest value of net profit because of low irrigation and labour costs. On the other hand, it gave the highest value of grain yield resulting in economic efficiency for capital investment and investment ratio compared to the other treatments.

In the 2010-2011 growing seasons, the innovation demonstrated positive results in two different sizes of cultivable areas in terms of water-saving, increased water productivity, and an overall increase in economic benefits. By controlling the application and the timing of irrigation water in an appropriate planting setting, the amount of labour was also reduced, thus creating the possibility of employing these resources in further extension of the irrigation area.

Rice is one of the most inefficient crops in terms of water use because it is conventionally grown under submerged conditions increasing the pressure on limited area resources in the country and contributing to irrigation water shortage during the peak summer season.

This study was performed to seek the possibility of growing rice variety (cultivar Sakha 104) on strips to decrease the amount of irrigation water as well as to increase crop productivity. This method depends on reducing irrigated area by land division into furrows. The top of the furrow was named (border) and the bottom of the furrow was named (tape). Every border and tape were named (strip). The seedlings were transplanted at bottom of the furrow using the same plant density as recommended into two rows of plants according to strip width. Irrigation was provided with enough amount for reaching the puddling stage then the next irrigation was given for tapes only with a depth of 7 cm. Accordingly, flooding area was less and consequently increased water-saving by about 30%-40%, this new method also increased irrigation application efficiency and water productivity, however, it decreased percolation losses and decreased evaporation.

Two planting methods were followed in the permanent field: M1: Traditional transplanting: Transplanting of seedlings rice on flat at the hills (4-5 plants) distance of 20 × 20 cm to give the rate of (25 hills/m²) and, M2: Transplanting in strips of furrows 80 cm wide: (Top of furrow 45cm and 35 cm for bottom). Seedlings were transplanted in hills (4-5 plants) 10 cm apart from the two rows on the strips keeping the same population as in the traditional method (25 hills/m²).

The highest grain yield/ha (9.275 t/ha) was obtained from M2 treatment, while the lowest value was recorded from M1 treatment (8.789 t/ha). The results showed that total water used by rice according to the different planting methods were 14,960 and 9,023 m³/ha for M1 and M2 treatments respectively. From these results, it was reported that water saved was about 5,938 m³/ha (39.69%), and yield increased by 5.86% for M2 treatment. The highest water use efficiency was recorded for M2 treatment at (1.032 kg/m³) while the lowest one was recorded for M1 treatment at (0.588 kg/m³).

Therefore, it can be concluded that transplanting rice using strips of furrows 80 cm in the second method (M2) is potentially high for water-saving as approximately 40% was saved, with a 6% increase in grain yield/ha in addition to a 75% increase in water use efficiency. This innovative method was conducted in 2002 on a small research area as experimental work. After that, between 2003-2005, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation co-operated with Water Management Research Institute and extended it in different governorates covering all climate and soil conditions in Egypt.

Egyptian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (ENCID) won the 2nd Award for Best Performing ICID National Committee at 19th ICID Congress, Beijing, China, September 2005.