1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
The objective of this cooperative research project is to develop technology and methodology for efficient use of water in agricultural systems suited to dry land climates, by employing Irrigation Management Information System (IMIS) technology.

1b.Approach (from AD-416)
1. Conduct research and cooperate on the Irrigation Management Information System (IMIS) project, which is part of a cooperative research project bringing together participants from Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and the United States to Improve water management by providing data for scheduling irrigation and other crop management decisions to increase irrigation efficiency in the Middle East and the United States. 2. Establish an IMIS research sites to represent important agricultural production systems in Palestine. Evapotranspiration (ET) models for several conventional and specialized crops will be evaluated for the designated sites and prioritized according to applicability criteria. Soil and plant water-status measurement instrumentation will be evaluated, adapted and integrated into the system according to the same applicability criteria. 3. Conduct collaborative research on measurement of crop water use and calculation of crop coefficients for key crops, such as peppers and cucumbers and stone fruit tress.

3.Progress Report
The Palestinian cooperators are working closely with U.S., Israeli, and Jordanian cooperators to build a network of agricultural meteorological stations with an Internet site (www.merimis.org), to improve knowledge of crop water use for several crops in the region, and to attain a positive outlook for future collaboration on the pressing water issues in the region.

The second year experiment conducted in the Jenin region on pickling cucumbers concluded and the Palestinians are cooperating with the Israeli researchers on the data analysis and research outcomes. The results of the research will serve as the basis for developing irrigation recommendations for Jenin within three years. The Palestinian cooperators are currently conducting research on date palm irrigation scheduling and on greenhouse agricultural production systems in Jericho. Research is conducted in cooperation with Al-Quds University. Al-Quds provides the scientific support and the laboratories to conduct analysis.

AAA and Al-Quds University sent five engineers to attend the training course entitled Irrigation Water Management and Scientific Writing which held at INCART during the period from 10-14 December 2006. AAA provides the technical support for the MERIMIS Web site. The website is constantly updated and utilized by both, farmers and researchers in the MERIMIS cooperating countries.