Abstract
AbstractSustainable increases in water productivity and water use efficiency at different levels can be achieved by optimizing water uses that are suitable for local farmers, especially those who own small‐scale farms. There has been continuous land fragmentation mainly due to land inheritance over generations. A historical assessment of land fragmentation (1994–2013) was evaluated in relation to water management such as pump operation hours. In the Nile Delta, 90% of farm areas are less than 2.1 ha and 59% of these are small‐scale areas, ≤0.42 ha. Those small‐scale farmers decide on crop patterns and are mainly dependent on the rice crop, which yields the highest net profit income. As a result of land fragmentation, the total number of irrigation events in 2013 was higher than in 2006 and is higher than the number of irrigation events of 1994. Therefore, the total water applied for irrigating crops in 2013 was higher than 2006 (+10.5%) and 1994 (+12.6%). Currently, farmers tend to irrigate their fields for longer periods due to land fragmentation. It is suggested that irrigation improvement as well as a farm contracting system could be the best countermeasures to mitigate the impact of land fragmentation and decrease water losses. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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