Monitoring Agricultural Drought in the Near East - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 213

Table 16.3 Intraseasonal droughts at Tel Hadya, Syria a 1

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

Early season Mid-season Late season

1978-79 1 1

1979-80
1980-81
1981-82
1982-83
1983-84 1

1984-85 2

1985-86 1 1

1986-87
1987-88
1988-89 2 2

1989-90 1 2

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1990-91 2

1991-92
1992-93
1993-94 1 2

Line
——
-0.0
——
Norm
PgEn

1994-95 2

1995-96
1996-97 1

1997-98
1998-99
1999-00 2

2000-01 1

Note: 1: mild drought; 2: severe drought.

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Mediterranean and the NAO and its impact on the stream flow of the Tigris
and Euphrates. Their analysis indicates that during positive-NAO years,
Turkey (and to a lesser extent northern Syria) become cooler and drier,
whereas during negative-NAO years anomalous warmer and wetter condi-
tions prevail. Both in the Maghreb countries, particularly Morocco, and in
the eastern Mediterranean a link thus appears to exist with North Atlantic
sources of climatic variability. The predictability of this phenomenon and
its application in early warning systems will be explored further on.

Im pact of Drought on Agriculture
The major crops of the Near East include cereals (wheat, barley, maize),
potatoes, olives, sugarcane, sugar beets, fruits (especially citrus, grapes,
and watermelons), cotton, and vegetables (especially onions). The relative
importance of each of these crops is shown on a country basis in table
16.2. Of these crops, barley is one of the most important in the Near
East because of its link with livestock production and its value for the
economic exploitation of agriculturally marginal lands. It covered about
11 Mha (during 1995-2002), accounting for approximately 13% of the
region's total cropland as calculated from the FAOSTAT on-line database
(FAOSTAT, 2002; http://www.fao.org).