onitoring Environmental Degradation of the Cultivated Land Surrounding Qarun lake, and How it Relates to Water and Salt Balance of the Lake

Abstract

In Egypt, such as in the other developing countries, agricultural production cannot meet the local demands in spite of the fact that most of the agricultural lands are fetile and have enough water for irrigation. About 60% of the human population in the developing countries lives in agro-ecological zones that are characterized by low input farming systems (Higgins et al., 1982). This is particularly true, where tremendous socio-economic transformat ion as well as geophysical changes have made traditional farming systems incapable to meet this growing demand (Hailu and Metzer, 1993). Thus, to satisfy the ever-growing demand for food and fiber remains a major challenge for the world agriculture.

El-Fayoum depression is located in the western desert about 90 km to the south west of Cairo and 30 km west of the River Nile. The lowest part of the depression is occupied by the brackish Lake Qarun, about 45 m below sea level. The soil of El-Fayoum depression have received special attention over the last few years

The choice of Qarun lake area and the land abounded this lake have been determined for several reasons, i.e., the peculiar nature, the geographical situation, the long recorded history of the Qarun lake of soil types, the trend revealed by recent statistics pointing to monitor the degradation in this soil.

Recently, most of government efforts have been subjected to intensive attention of agricultural purpose. A marked increase in agricultural production was necessitating to the rapid increases in population rates. One of the interesting subjects is the selection of suitable drainage system, which aims at increasing and improving more soils in the fringes of the Delta and Nile Valley, in addition to the different suitable sites at Egyptian Deserts.

Following the introduction of perennial supplies of all irrigated areas, cropping intensities and water use per unit area have increased sharply. A consequence of the intensified irrigation has been a rising water table and increased problems of water logging and salinization. The result was a deterioration of soil physical and chemical properties and a lower crop production.