The Africa Union’ -Semi Arid Food Grains Research and Development (AU-SAFGRAD) in collaboration with Arab League’ Fund for Technical Assistance to African Countries (AFTAAC) has organized a 10 days intensive training from 16-26th June, 2025, Medenine, Tunisia for young irrigation professionals from Africa Union’ Member States. The training targeted young (less than 40years old) professionals, nominated and working in the irrigation Units of public Ministries/Departments of agriculture/water or research institutes.
The focus of the training was to develop the technical capacity of the early career Officers to design, operate and maintain small modern irrigation schemes to mitigate water scarcity in agricultural production. A total of 13 trainees from 12 countries participated in the training. The beneficiaries were drawn from Algeria, Benin, Cameroun, Cote d’ Ivoire, Guinée Equatoriale, Morocco, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Tchad, Togo and Tunisia.
The course module was designed to support knowledge delivery in participatory planning, infrastructure operation and maintenance (O&M), good water use about water scarcity and productivity, prevention or mitigation of environmental problems (e.g. salinity, water quality and small dams planning management), as well as related governance issues critical to scheme operation. The training also, included knowledge sharing by subject matter experts, and field visits to model farms in different locations. Specifically, lectures/presentation addressed the understanding of the water situation in Tunisia. Water resource management plan, measures put in place to efficiently manage water: Desalination plants. modern Irrigation types with technical implementation challenges, irrigation and conveyance efficient such as canal lining and choice of pumps and laterals, and increased conveyance, reuse of drainage water for increased efficiency, use of unconventional water resources for irrigation, water quality management, underground water management and aquifers re-charges Management and participation of Water User Association (WUA) in operations and maintenance.
In the closing session, the representative of the trainees thanked African Union Commission through AU-SAFGRAD for giving them this opportunity to be trained on the new irrigation systems which will facilitate their work and contribute in developing agriculture sector in their respective countries. Prof. Sghaier Najari, Director General of ARI, mentioned the importance of this training session on strengthening the capacity of the new generation and improvement the skills of young researchers. Mme Sherine Imam, Minister Delegate at AFTAAC focused on the facilitation provided by its organization to assist African Member states in different sectors including agriculture as well as the strategic cooperation with AU-SAFGRAD in building the capacity of young African professionals. In his side Dr. Mohamed Blidi, the Director General of the Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation appreciated this initiative from the Commission which encouraging the cooperation and sharing experiences among African Member states. Dr. Ahmed Elmekass, Coordinator of AU-SAFGRAD has highlighted the importance of irrigation sector in achieving Kampala Declaration which emphasized that sustainable water management, particularly in water-scarce regions is fundamental to the transformation of Africa’s agrifood systems. After the closing statements, the trainees received their certificates of attendance in a session moderated by Dr. Mure Agbonlahor – Senior Production and Marketing Officer at AU-SAFGRAD.
