Efficient water use tackles food insecurity

Without water, farmers cannot grow food. As food security issues increase, water resource management becomes more important. There is a need to increase the efficiency of water use in both irrigated and rainfed agriculture. At the same time, it is essential to limit the demand for food that requires a lot of water to produce.

Water productivity – the produce or value derived from each unit of water - must be increased. It is estimated that an additional 5600 km³/year of water needs to be made available by 2050 to eradicate malnutrition and feed an expected increase in world population of 3 billion world inhabitants. This is almost three times the current global amount used for irrigation. However, this figure could change depending on people’s changing diets; how much they consume, how much is wasted, what kind of food is demanded.

Current agricultural practices often lead to the overuse of groundwater, water logging of agricultural land, salinisation (increased salt concentrations) and the high use of flowing water. The negative impacts of this approach are widespread. Declining water quality and supplies affect aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity, including fisheries.

Research from the Stockholm International Water Institute, Sweden, discusses how to increase the amount of food production from each unit of water and land. There is potential for improvement in both rainfed and irrigated food production systems. Increasing water scarcity is often an issue of poor use of resources, rather than a lack of resources. There must be changes in water use practices to produce more food per unit of water. These include:

• Giving people more secure water use rights and land tenure will improve water management in irrigated and rainfed systems.
• Developing appropriate tillage methods could improve soil quality; current methods often damage it.
• Rainwater harvesting and supplementary irrigation can reduce the impact of dry seasons.
• Improved management of existing irrigation systems, including investment in new irrigation and storage infrastructure, will reduce water wastage from these systems.
• There is a need for effective support services for rainfed farmers, particularly improved marketing skills, affordable credit systems and improved extension services.

To achieve this will require changes in governance, changes to the terms of agricultural trade, investment in human resources and changes to the way that land and water resources are valued. Political commitment to improving the efficiency water use is necessary.

The research recommends:

• National strategies for food and nutritional security should be established for all countries. Alongside these, countries need policies and river basin targets for flows of water that maintain vital ecosystems functions, such as supporting fish stocks.
• Current and proposed trade regimes need to be assessed based on their impacts on water resources and ecosystems.
• Governments should raise public awareness about the amounts of water needed to produce different kinds of food.
• Current agricultural subsidies do not encourage efficient water use; these should be replaced by environmentally friendly subsidies, with rewards for efficient water management.
• Governments must explore the possibility of establishing mechanisms to share the benefits of water use amongst all people, not just farmers.
• The United Nations must continue to pursue programmes that reduce the long-term vulnerability of communities and food systems to extreme weather events.
• Research on food production should consider changes in consumer preferences, purchasing power, the role of trade outlets and the food processing industry. If trends in diets continue in the same direction, there will be increasing pressure on the environment and public health.

Source(s):
‘Let it Reign: the new water paradigm for global food security’, Final Report to Commission on Sustainable Development 13, Stockholm International Water Institute, by Jan Lundqvist and Malin Falkenmark, 2005 Full document.

Funded by: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).  Partners in the research were International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

id21 Research Highlight: 29 November 2005

Further Information:
Dave Trouba
Stockholm International Water Institute
Hantverkargatan 5
112 21
Stockholm
Sweden

Tel: +46 522 139 89

Stockholm International Water Institute, Sweden

Jan Lundqvist

Contact the contributor: janlu@tema.liu.se

Other related links:
'Tackling water scarcity in India: farmer participation in irrigation management '

'The value of rainfed agriculture in a world short of water'

'A ‘blue revolution’ for African agriculture'

'Is trade in virtual water a solution for water-scarce countries?'

'Balancing the water demands of agriculture and conservation'