Since irrigated agriculture is the main consumer of water in Jordan, it is important to maximize agricultural water use efficiency by adopting suitable cropping patterns and scheduling water amounts according to these patterns especially in areas with limited water resources. This research was carried out to assess present and future water productivity in the northern Jordan Valley (NJV), which represents a part of the most important irrigated area in the country. The work aimed to provide possible solutions to improve water productivity based on the water productivity of the existing cropping pattern, which was dominated by citrus. The work was based on the analysis of ground data of cropped areas that were verified using remote sensing images and GIS maps, climate, soil, and crop management data.
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All data were utilized to run the AquaCrop model to calculate the water productivity of the main irrigated crops in the NJV under present and future climate. Results showed variation in water productivity among different crops, with a decreasing water productivity trend for citrus in the future. For vegetable crops, variations in water productivity were low, which may enforce farmers to replace citrus with vegetable crops. The research calculated the possible amounts of water that can be saved by improving water efficiency and productivity and the possible water deficit resulting from climate change in the area.
