Dr. Samir Abou-Shleel

Land evaluation is the first step toward the good agricultural management. Wadi Al-kuf is one of the promising areas for agricultural production in Northeast Libya. The agriculture activities in the Wadi Al-kuf catchment are traditional and inherited. Therefore, the current study aims to assess land resources in wadi Al-kuf, and to evaluate crop suitability maps using integration among soil data, remote sensing data, and GIS. For this purpose, thirty-one soil samples were collected from the study area to represent the main geomorphological units. Topographic maps, fieldwork notes and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were used to create the geomorphological map. The study area has been categorized into nine major geomorphological classes i.e.  Alluvial fans, high alluvial plain, high table land, low alluvial plain, low table land, medium alluvial plain, mid-table land, Wadi, and Wadi outlet. The result of land capability showed that 19.92% of the total area is classified as “Very High”, 31.55% as “High”, 11.94% as “Fair”; 24.15% as “Poor”; 12.41% as “Very Poor”. The main capability limitations are soil erosion risks and rockiness. ‘Also, the results indicated that the most suitable crops in the study area are wheat, barley, sorghum, and alfalfa, (as field crops); Potato, tomato, watermelon (as annual crops), Citrus, olive, apple, grape, and fig (as perennial crops).

In potato cropping systems, nitrogen and water availability are essential factors for production. In this regard, water and nitrogen fertilizers management are considered a challenge in potato production. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore the effect of N source and rate in collaboration with different irrigation water regime on the vegetative growth, yield, and quality of potato. To achieve this objective, a pot experiment was conducted during season 2020 at Soil and Water Research Department, Nuclear Research Center, Atomic Energy Authority, Inshas, Egypt. Experimental treatments consist of two drip irrigation water regimes (100 and 80% ETc), two N fertilizer sources (urea, and ammonium nitrate), which applied at three N fertilizer rates (120, 100, and 80%) of the recommended dose. Significant increment in vegetative growth, yield, and quality of potato were detected under 100% ETc. Comparison between fertilizer sources reflected the superiority of ammonium nitrate which induced the highest values in all measured parameters, while the N rate of 120% achieved the highest values followed by 100%, then 80%. Regarding the interaction effect among irrigation levels, N sources and rates revealed that, the 100% ETc with the addition of ammonium nitrate at the rate of 120% gave the highest significant values of vegetative growth traits (plant height, number of leaves, vegetation fresh weight). Similarly, the highest yield and best tuber quality parameters (tuber number, yield/plant, N, proteins, carbohydrates, and starch content were induced by the same treatment of 120% ammonium nitrate rate in combination with 100% ETc.

Water scarcity is increasing in the world. There is a need to adopt irrigation management practices that can help to conserve water and sustain crop production in such water-limited areas. Potato productivity is generally influenced by irrigation systems and levels, which depend on the soil type. In order to do so, the study aims to assess the vegetation and yield of potato varieties under a smart irrigation system to find out the best management of the irrigation scheduling for improving the growth and yield of potato crops.In this concern, two field experiments were conducted in two successive summer seasons of 2020 and 2021 at the Experimental farm of the National Research Centre in El-Nubaria, El-Behira Governorate, North of Egypt, to investigate the effects of four irrigation levels (120, 100, 80 and 60% ETc) under two drip irrigation systems (surface drip irrigation (SDI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI)) on three potato varieties (Spunta, Hermes and Cara). A program of observations and measurements was developed, concerning vegetative growth, yield, and yield components of the potato crop. The results indicated that all the studied growth aspects were significantly increased with increasing the irrigation levels applied during both growing seasons. Also, the results showed that SSDI showed superior upon SDI with all vegetative and yield growth characteristics. Regarding the response of some potato varieties to irrigation systems and levels, results revealed that the highest value for an average tubers weight and yield /plant was recorded with Spunta followed by Cara and Hermes.

Agricultural development faces many obstacles, such as soil drought, climate change, and human activities, but the main challenge facing Egypt today is the need to develop and better manage natural resources to meet the growing needs of the country. This study aims to map Sinai agro-ecological zones to find out the most suitable environmental condition to growth, development and productivity of agricultural corps using geo-informatics techniques. Nine ground agro-meteorological stations distributed over the study area were used to collect the climatic data from 1986 to 2015. Also, the physiochemical properties of soil were determined. The land capability was carried out using ALES-arid. Model builder with integration of GIS based on an approach using DEM, landsat-8 satellite data, soil analysis and climatic data were utilized to evaluate the agro-ecological zones for agricultural production. The results indicated that land capability was classified as 2.2% belong to C3 (fair), 8.5% belong to C4 (poor), 11.9% belong to C5 (very poor) and 4.4% fits in C6 (non-agriculture). In addition, the Model builder results showed that the study area comprise five zones; i.e. zone (I) high suitable areas (4.1%), zone (II) suitable area (0.1%), zone (III) moderately suitable (15.7%), zone (IV) marginally suitable (7.2%) and zone (V) non-suitable area (9.1%). It could be concluded that, zones I, II, and III were considered the best suitable zones for agricultural development in Sinai Peninsula.

The present study aims to assess the changes of different land use/land cover classes for Nile Delta of Egypt during the period from 1987 to 2015, to evaluate the impact of land cover change and urban sprawl, before, during and after the 25th of January 2011 using remote sensing and GIS techniques, as a result to unplanned urban sprawl which was done by people during the lack of general security of Egyptian revolution. The results indicated that there was a regular trend characterized in most classes and that the change in different land use/land cover classes ranged between increase and decrease areas. A continuous increase in agricultural, urban, fish farms and natural vegetation areas and a continuous decrease in water bodies and sand areas were detected in the studied area. The agricultural area recorded the highest increase during the period from 1987 to 2000 (305296.1 ha.) while it increased by …

Rice is one of the world’s significant food crops, especially in Egypt. The distribution data of planted and harvested paddy rice fields are essential for food security and the management of water resources. The determined area within agricultural associations is often subjective, expensive, labor intensive, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the paddy rice areas in the Nile Delta using a new methodology based on satellite data. The rice areas could be classified with good results at the beginning of the 1st flooding period applying the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The temporal profiles of NDVI and Land Surface Temperature (LST) were investigated. The NDVI profiles of different targets were analyzed to differentiate between rice and other crops, but the results failed to distinguish between rice and other crops in all stages after full vegetation cover …