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Fding a Thirsty World

Challngs and Oortunitis or a

Watr and Food Scur Futur

RepORT 31

This report has been prepared

as input to the 2012 World Water

Week and its Special Focus on

Water and Food Security.



Copyright © 2012, Stockholm InternationalWater Institute, SIWI

ISBN: 978-91-978846-5-5

ISSN: 1404-2134

How to Cite: Jägerskog, A., Jønch Clausen, T. (eds.) 2012.

Feeding a Thirsty World – Challenges and Opportunities or a

Water and Food Secure Future. Report Nr. 31. SIWI, Stockholm.

Cover photo: iStockphotoDesign by Britt-Louise Andersson and Elin Ingblom, SIWI

Printing by Elanders, Mölnlycke, Sweden. The

printing process has been certied according to

the Nordic Swan label or environmental quality.

For electronic versions o this and other SIWI

publications, visit www.siwi.org.



Not to th Radr

Today, in 2012, nearly one billion people still suer rom hunger and mal-

nourishment, in spite of the fact that food production has been steadily

increasing on a per capita basis or decades. Producing ood to eed eve-

ryone well, including the 2 billion additional people expected to populate

the planet by mid-century, will place greater pressure on available waterand land resources.

This report provides input into the discussions at the 2012 World Water

Week in Stockholm, which is held under the theme o Water and Food Se-

curity, and was edited by Anders Jägerskog, Director, Knowledge Services

at SIWI, and Torkil Jønch-Clausen, Chair o the World Water Week Scientic

Programming Committee. It features brief overviews of new knowledge and

approaches on emerging and persistent challenges to achieve water and

food security in the 21st century. Each chapter focuses on critical issues that

have received less attention in the literature to date, such as: ood waste,

land acquisitions, gender aspects o agriculture, and early warning systems

or agricultural emergencies. It is our hope that the articles provoke concern

and inspire action where needed.

Contributing authors o the chapters are Malin Falkenmark, Ana Cascão,

Mats Eriksson, Josephine Gustafsson and Jan Lundqvist of SIWI; Sibyl Nelson,

Ilaria Sisto, Eve Crowley and Marcela Villarreal o the Food and Agricultural

Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Mark Giordano, Tushaar

Shah, Charlotte de Fraiture, and Meredith Giordano rom the International

Water Management Institute (IWMI). The production of the report was made

possible through the support rom the Swedish International DevelopmentCooperation Agency (Sida) and the International Fund or Agricultural De-

velopment (IFAD).

P h o t o : D a

v i d B r a z i e r / I W M I

Introduction 6

Thmatic Sco o th 2012 World Watr Wk 10

Food Scurity: Ovrcoming Watr Scarcity Ralitis 13

Innovations in Agricultural Watr Managmnt:

Nw Challngs Rquir Nw Solutions 19

Womn in Agricultur: Closing th Gndr Ga

or Dvlomnt 25

Food Suly Chain efcincy “From Fild to Fork”:

Finding a Nw Formula or a Watr and Food Scur World 31

early Warning Systms or Watr in Agricultur 39

Land Dals: A ‘Grn Rvolution’ in Global Food andenrgy Markts? 45

Tabl o Contnts



7

P h o t o : M a t s L a n n e r s t a d

The “water” actor

urning to the water and ood security challenge,

the statistics speak or themselves. I today we still

ace the challenges o eeding one billion under-

nourished people out o a total population o 7 bil-

lion people, how do we achieve ood security or a

world population that is expected to reach 9 billion

in 2050? FAO predicts this will require that we in-

crease ood production by 70 per cent by mid-century.

Tis will place additional pressure on our already stressed water resources, at a time when we also need

to allocate more water to satisy global energy demand

– which is expected to rise 60 per cent over the coming

30 years – and to generate electricity or the 1.3 billion

people currently without it.

Te answer is not simple and has many acets.

We can ocus our attention on the production and

supply, looking at how we can cope with the increasing

stress on our water resources, their variability and the

impact o climate change; we can look at the demand

to see how good demand management can increase

water and energy eciency in ood production, in-

cluding getting “more crop per drop”; and we can

look at the entire chain rom “eld to ork” and see

how to reduce the 30-50 per cent o ood that is lost

and wasted rom harvest to consumption. Tis is a

troubling statistic: with all our eorts to improve

eciency, increase yields and raise production in the

eld we sacrice hal o it in avoidable losses in the

early part o the ood chain, and wastage in the latter.

Te bad news is that we are wasteul; the good news isthat means i we reduce waste we can eed everybody

without additional resource use.

Addressing the challenges related to “water and

ood security”, through the entire chain rom pro-

duction to benecial use and waste, calls or ocus

on a wide range o technical, economic, nancial,

institutional, governance and political issues, with the

“triple bottom line” o economic development, social

equity and environmental sustainability guiding us.

No single event can accord ull justice to all issues,

but the World Water Week in Stockholm shall try



8

to cover as many aspects as possible and provide a

platorm or dialogue between all relevant stakeholder

groups rom academia, government, the private sector

and civil society rom all parts o the world.

World Water Week in Stockholm

– and this publication We have attempted to do this through the Tematic

Scope o the Week (see page 10), which covers the

ollowing key issues: increasing water eciency in all

aspects o ood production; linking ood production

to human health and ecosystem services; paying more

attention to the ood supply chain – rom eld to ork;

securing water and ood security in an urbanising

world; moving towards a green economy – recognising

the water-ood-energy nexus; trading ood and virtual

water; and building new partnerships or knowledgeand good governance. Tese issues will be covered

in workshops, seminars and side events during the

week, and hopeully leave us all somewhat wiser, and

better equipped to help eradicate ood insecurity in

the world.

Tis publication provides brie overviews o new

knowledge, thinking and approaches on emerging

and persistent challenges to achieve ood security in

the 21st century. It ocuses on critical issues that havereceived less attention in the literature to date, such

as: ood waste, land acquisitions, gender aspects o

agriculture, and early warning systems or agricultural

emergencies. It also oers perspectives on how to better

manage water and ood linkages.

Te ood challenge as seen rom the water perspec-

tive is presented by Malin Falkenmark who outlines

how the competition or water between ood produc-

tion and other uses will intensiy pressure on essential

resources. She argues or an integrated approach toidentiy competing demands and assess trade-os

between dierent uses.

Mark Giordano, ushaar Shah, Charlotte de Fraiture,

and Meredith Giordano rom the International Water

Management Institute (IWMI), the 2012 Stockholm

Water Prize laureate, discuss water and society rom

a governance perspective. Tey suggest that while

there may be a scientically rational way to address

certain water and ood challenges, in the real world o

complex socio-politics the politically easible “second

best” solutions are oten the realistic ones. P h o t o : E d

e l p i x



9

Sibyl Nelson, Ilaria Sisto, Eve Crowley and Marcela

Villarreal zoom in on the issue o gender and agri-

culture and explain that one o the reasons why the

agricultural sector underperorms in developing coun-

tries is that men and women do not have equal access

to resources and opportunities. While the central role

o women in water management was highlighted threedecades ago in the 1992 Dublin Principles, progress

has been slow.

Josephine Gustasson and Jan Lundqvist explore the

ood supply chain and highlight how increasing the

ecient use o ood, by reducing losses and curbing

consumer waste, can save water. Tey also note how

prevailing policies and practices encourage a culture

o waste and overeating, which places unsustainable

pressure on both ertile land and water to produce

much more ood than is actually needed to sustain a healthy global population.

Mats Eriksson addresses the challenge o adapting

ood production to water availability in the ace o high

rainall variability, which may become more erratic as

the climate changes. He discusses how Early Warning

Systems (EWS) can identiy coming shortages o both

water and ood in various regions o the world, but

P h o t o : T h

o m a s H e n r i k s o n

stresses that institutional linkages and capacity must

be developed in national and international agencies

to utilise these warnings to take preemptive action.

Te chapter shows how the recent amine in the Horn

o Arica was oreseen by several alerts beore the

crisis hit, but did not trigger the required response.

Tis clearly demonstrates that EWS systems need to beaccompanied by appropriate governance mechanisms

and political will by decision-makers to act beore it is

too late. Vulnerable populations also must be better

prepared and aware o the actions they can take upon

receiving inormation rom EWS systems.

In the nal chapter, Anders Jägerskog and Ana

Cascão investigate the recent increase in the acquisition

o land in oreign countries, primarily targeting

Arica but also happening in Latin America and Asia.

Tey note that land contracts and agreements rarely include provisions or water. Access to the water needed

to grow ood or bio-energy on the land seems to be

taken or granted. Concluding that land investments

will impact local and in some cases regional water

resources, they argue that land lease contracts must

be more transparent and include explicit regulations

or the use and protection o water.



10

Increasing water efciency in all aspects o

ood production

A more productive use o limited, highly demanded

and unreliable water resources is necessary. In most

debates, an increase in water productivity is associated

with a more ecient irrigation. Tis is important.

But it must be complemented with better use o local

rains combined with small scale supplemental irriga-

tion. A better coordination between land and waterresource management, with strong and early involve-

ment o armers is vital. Tis requires nancial and

policy support to armers and armers’ organisations

rom authorities and private actors.

While improved ‘green water’ management will

contribute to meeting the increased ood demand,

investments in ‘blue water’ inrastructure, such as

dams and irrigation systems, are still needed. Tese

investments need to ensure optimal returns to society at large, including more ‘jobs per drop’.

A large proportion o the world’s ood production

is based on un-sustainable exploitation o groundwater

that at the same time are threatened by increasing

pollution by agro-chemicals.

Thmatic Sco o th 2012 World Watr Wk

Given the increasing variability o rainall, armers

need systems or early warning o drought risks, as well

as early inormation on opportunities or promising

cultivation seasons. Improvements in modelling and

data compilation and dissemination can provide timely

guidance to armers about likely water situations at

various time and geographical scales.

Producing more staple crops alone does not increase

ood security. Diversication is vital or armers to

be able to sell their produce at decent prices. It also

oers the possibility to use variable water resources

more eciently, contributing to stronger resilience

to climate change.

Linking ood production to human health

and ecosystem services

Water or ood production, as or any other use, needs

to be considered and managed in terms o both quantity and quality. An obvious win-win between the two is the

sae re-use o wastewater and the recognition o aecal

products as resources rather than waste. Eective water

and nutrient use in rural and urban agriculture, con-

trolling ‘point’ and ‘non-point’ pollution rom the



11

ood chain, sae reclamation o wastewater or local

ood production, and reduced leakage o nutrients are

important aspects o agricultural water management.

Multi-unctional use o land and ecosystems, e.g.

through payment or ecosystem services, improves the

incentives or ood production in tune with nature.

Water interventions or ood security, at production

and household levels, need to ocus on improved nutri-

tion, better health, critical bio-diversity and sustainable

livelihoods, achieving co-benets or environmental as

well as human health. Te ood production in the world

is more than enough to eed all its inhabitants properly.

Yet, a billion are undernourished, around two billion

are overeating, and staggering amounts o ood are lost

or wasted. In addition, ood alone will not eradicate

hunger as up to 50 per cent o malnutrition is related to

unclean water, inadequate sanitation or poor hygiene.

Paying more attention to the supply chain

– rom feld to ork

Tere is no such thing as a post-agricultural society.

But society outside agriculture is expanding. Percep-

tions about ood, water and lie support systems are

changing with the growth o the urban population,

oten disconnected rom ood production. Tis con-

text calls or increased attention to supply chain is-

sues. It is in the interest o producers, consumers and

society at large to ensure that agricultural produce

is optimally used.

Urbanisation and a growing auence alter the

ood demand towards more resource intensive di-

ets. Geographical distance between producers andconsumers increase the need or better post-harvest

operations. oday, a large and growing raction o

the ood produced is either lost, converted or wasted.

Tere are enormous imbalances and signicant syn-

ergies at the water and ood nexus.

Securing water and ood security

in an urbanising world

Urban areas are the engines o economic growth andrely heavily on water, energy and ood to sustain this

growth. Many cities in developing countries ace the

challenges o water scarcity and ood insecurity, with

major impacts on the urban poor, especially women

and children. Furthermore, many agricultural practices

P h o t o : J u p i t e r i m a g e s



13

P h o t o : A l a s t a i r M o r r i s o n ,

S I W I

Food Scurity: Ovrcoming Watr Scarcity Ralitis

By Malin Falkenmark

Te ollowing chapters in this publication will address water and ood security in a broad perspective.

Tey will stress its link to both urban growth and

virtual water, and highlight the mounting pressure on

scarce water and land resources, the considerable ood

losses, and the need or promotion o a water saving

society. Tis chapter will put ocus on the reality we

ace o a growing water scarcity, and use a back-casting

perspective to analyse our prospects and options or

ensuring that water scarcity does not constrain our

ability to achieve global ood security in 2050. It looksinto key questions, such as: What will the crop water

availability situation look like in 2050? How important

will virtual water fows be? How can we balance

competing demands rom urban and other uses?

What essential diculties will we need to overcome?

Food production consumes water

Food is produced through the photosynthesis process

by which plants manuacture carbohydrates. Water

constitutes one o the two required raw materials –

carbon dioxide being the other.

Water is absorbed by the roots rom the store o inltrated rain in the soil, which is oten called the

green water resource. Substantive amounts o water are

consumed as crops grow; each person requires 50 to 100

times more water to produce the ood they eat than

they use in their home. One undamental condition

or good yields is that the roots gain access to enough

green water to allow or an ecient photosynthesis.

Tis green water is a local resource that is available to

the armer. o avoid crop water deciency, blue water

rom rivers or aquiers may be added by irrigation.Farmers will have to compete or that water, since it

is the key resource or other societal unctions, includ-

ing water supply, industry and energy production.

Continued population growth in large regions with

limited rainall will creates dilemmas in the uture as

the competition or blue water escalates.

What will the water availability situation look

like in 2050?

A country’s ability to produce ood is limited by the

amount o available water on its croplands. In order



14

to compare the availability o cropland water with

ood water requirements in 2050, a series o model-

based studies have been carried out at Stockholm

University in cooperation with PIK , Berlin, using the

well-established pixel based LPJml dynamic global

vegetation and water balance model (Gerten et al .

2004). Tis model assumed climate change will ollow the A 2 scenario and population will grow according

to UN medium projection (Falkenmark et al 2009;

Rockström et al. 2009, 2010, 2011). Water availability

on current croplands was integrated into country-

based availability data (green water was calculated as

inltrated cropland rainall, blue water was calculated

as current irrigation, and allowed only a 15 per cent

expansion to limit urther undermining o aquatic

ecosystems). Te available water was compared with

ood water requirements o dierent diet compositions,

with meat requirements in line with country-based

balancing o red vs. white meat. It also assumed a 25

per cent yield gap closure. In the analysis, the water

rich countries were assumed to produce surplus ood

to allow water short countries to compensate their

carrying capacity overshoot by import, which is now

oten described as ‘virtual water transer’. Estimations

o purchasing power were based on World Bank clas-

sication (World Bank, 2009). Tree dierent dietcombinations were analysed,

1. Food production in line with current dietary trends

(3,000 kcal/p d, 20 per cent animal ood);

2. A diet in line with current trends but a reduction

o meat consumption (3,000 kcal/p d, 5 per cent

animal ood)

3. Te ood intake required asuming that all losses

could be avoided (c Gustasson & Lundqvist inthis volume).

Te analysis showed that there will not be enough water

available on current croplands to produce ood or

the expected population in 2050 i we ollow current

trends and changes towards diets common in Western

nations (3,000 kcal produced per capita, including 20

per cent o calories produced coming rom animal

proteins). Tere will, however, be just enough water,

i the proportion o animal based oods is limited to5 per cent o total calories and considerable regional

water decits can be met by a well organised and reli-

able system o ood trade.

Water scarcity problems to overcome

Te table shows a correlation between low national

income and cropland water deciency. Tere is no

low income country with cropland water surplus.

Tese countries are thereore dependent on getting access to water or ood rom elsewhere. Te growing

Table 1. Accumulated global scale country-based water deciencies and surpluses on current cropland asoreseen by 2050 (Source: Rockström et al ., 2012)

Diet

kcal/cap, day

Income Defciency

km3/yr

Surplus

km3/y

Policy

Implication

3,000

20% animal

protein

Low -1,086 0Impossible

alternativeMedium + high -2,504 1,400

3000

5 % animal

protein

Low -724 0Horizontal

expansion

Medium + high -1,359- 1,954 Import

2,200

5 % animal

protein

Low -381 6Horizontal

expansion

Medium + high -469 2,373 Import



15

Figure 1. Per cent o global population living in areas with blue and/or green water shortages in 2050(source Rockström et al ., 2011).

predicament o water scarcity is urther demonstrated

in Figure 1. It shows that only one-third (14+19 per

cent) o the world population will have enough avail-

able green water to allow or ood sel-suciency rom

rained agriculture and that three-ths (46+14 per

cent) will ace diculties to access to irrigation water

(chronic blue water shortage) (Rockströmet al.,

2011).Te numbers suggest that water shortage will develop

into a very real challenge or the next generation, with

almost hal the world population living in chronic

water shortage.

Tus water scarcity may be expected to be impor-

tant to ood production or 2050 rom two perspectives:

• Wherethereisgreenwaterscarcity,irrigationwill

be essential (by 2050 67 per cent o the world popu-

lation) but will ace increasing competition or the

blue water with other societal sections.• Wherethereisbothgreenandbluewaterscarcity(46

per cent o the world population), competition or

blue water may be increasingly critical to cope with.

Water sharing through virtual water transer

Figure 2 (page 16) compares the outcome o two op-

posite production alternatives:

1) 3,000 kcal/per capita and day with a reduction o

the proportion o animal based oods to 5 per cent;

2) 2,200 kcal/per capita and day with a reduction o

the proportion o animal based oods to 5 per cent.

Te blue colours indicate the number o people living

in water surplus countries with potential possibility

to export, the green represents those dependent on

import due to water deciency, and red shows the

amount o people oreseen to be living in water short

regions that can not aord to import ood. Te sectors

reer to dierent economic situations according to the World Bank’s classication o countries.

wo essential conclusions emerge rom this analy-

sis: First, the virtual water transer component will

have to increase considerably in order to compen-

sate oreseeable carrying capacity overshoot. Second,

in low income countries (the second bar in Figure

2), horisontal cropland expansion will probably be

impossible to avoid. Tis then poses several unda-

mental questions that need to be addressed, such as:

How can a reliable virtual water transer system bedeveloped? What rules would be needed? Will the

better endowed countries in act be able (and willing)

to produce the necessary ood surplus or export?

How will oreign land acquisition aect the picture?

What urther constraints need to be analysed to under-

stand the actual capacity to grow ood? Which water

and land resources will be unt or ood production

rom climates that are too cold or other actors? How

much cropland area will shrink due to urbanisation

and what will be the impact? How will biouel produc-

tion aect the situation?



17

As more people move to and densely congregate in

cities, they place more pressure and demand or water.

At high levels o water crowding (low per capita water

availability), blue water allocation will become more

complicated. Wastewater reuse will be increasingly

essential. At a water crowding level that exceeds 2,500

people per fow unit o one million m

per year (400m per capita and year), a municipal/industria l (M/I),

supply level o 200 m per year – a level o water use

that, as recently as the 1990’s was not seen as wasteul

(Lundqvist and Gleick, 1997) – would not allow any

irrigation at all. Only by reducing the M/I-supply

could water or irrigation be aorded. Te “three H

basins” in China, (Hai, Huai and Yellow river basins)

oers an example. In this silt-laden region, blue water

or environmental fow is seen as essential to meet the

requirements or river based unctions and processes,including the fushing o silt. Reserving some 30 per

cent o the river fow or this purpose (Falkenmark

and Xia, 2012), would involve a limiting o the M/I

allocation to around 90 m/per year.

Balancing our dependence on irrigation with

other water users

Large breadbasket regions in the world are heavily

dependent on irrigation. Currently, 80 per cent o global agricultural water use comes directly rom green

water with the remaining 20 per cent coming rom

blue water sources (CA, 2007). Altogether 3,830 km/

year o blue water is used, out o which 1,570 km is

consumed. About 1,000 km/year originates rom

groundwater. wo problems complicate uture ood

production there: groundwater overexploitation and

river fow depletion.

Te expansion and reliance on groundwater has

been increasing in agriculture. Large scale non-sus-tainable groundwater overexploitation exacerbates

the existing irrigation problems. In the last 50 years,

the groundwater depletion has doubled and is now

in the order o 300 km per year – that is enough to

provide a subsistence diet to almost 1 billion people!

Tree large groundwater aquiers have attracted par-

ticular interest: the Ogallalla aquier in USA , the

North China Plain and Gujarat in northwest India.

Te uture use o these plains is a question that will

impact the livelihoods o millions. Kendy and Scanlon

(in Rockström et al 2012) report that irrigation o the

Ogallalla will have to stop altogether. In the North

China plain, they will have to decrease its irrigated area

to stabilise the water table, but while doing so they will

need to nd ways to maintaining social stability by

continuing agricultural production by synchronising

crop production with rainall.

Surace water irrigation in some cases is also un-sustainable due to river fow depletion and regional

climate aridication. Te vulnerability o 10 major

monsoon river basins in Asia-Pacic region were re-

cently analysed by Varis et al (2011), who combined

average water stress with ve other vulnerability indi-

cators (governance, economy, social, environmental,

hazards). Tey concluded that Ganges and Indus have

the highest river basin vulnerability. Demand-driven

water stress was high in Yellow river basin and very

high in the Indus basin. It is worth noting that all three

basins have already reached high levels o (population-

driven) water crowding and suer rom severe water

shortage. In closed river basins where water crowding

is high, economic development is particularly challeng-

ing. One example is the Limpopo basin in the SADC-

region, which is on track to reach a water crowding

rate o almost 5,000 people per fow unit by 2025 (200

m per capita and yea, urton & Botha, 2012), but is

predicted to ace more than double the current waterdemands over the same time period. o achieve water

security under extreme cases o water shortages, water

governance will critically depend on strong leadership.

Otherwise, conficts and competition over water may

trigger social instability and unrest as people lose their

source o livelihoods that depend on water resources.

Looking ahead, shiting thinking

In the uture, an integrated approach to land and water

will be needed to navigate our competing demands or,and shared dependence upon, available green water

and blue water provided in the basin. Finding the

best path or sustainable ood production requires an

understanding o the resource requirements rom cit-

ies, industrial use, energy production and or sucient

environmental fow in the river to maintain healthy

habitats or reshwater and coastal aquatic ecosystems.

Tis calls or a shit in thinking that is based upon

sequential reuse along a river system.



18

Reerences

Comprehensive Assessment o Water Management in

Agriculture. (2007) Water for Food, Water for Life:

A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Manage-

ment in Agriculture. London: Earthscan, and Co-

lombo: International Water Management Institute.Falkenmark, M. and Rockström, J., (2008). Building

resilience to drought in desertication-prone

savannas in sub-Saharan Arica: The water per-

spective. Natural Resources Forum 32 (2008)

93–102.

Falkenmark, M. and Xia, J.(2012). Urban water sup-

ply under expanding water scarcity. Chapter 5 in

Wastewater Treatment: Source Separation and

Decentralisation. Eds: Tove A. Larsen, Kai M. Udert

and Judit Lienert, IWA, In press.

Falkenmark, M. and Lannerstad, M. (2010) Food

security in water short countries – Coping with

carrying capacity overshoot. In: L.Martinez-Corina

et al, Eds. Rethinking water and food security.

Fourth Botín Foundation Water Workshop.

CRC Press, Taylor&Francis group. pp 3-22.

Falkenmark, M. and Molden, D. (2008) Wake up to

realities o river basin closure. International Journal

of Water Resources Development 24, 201-215.Falkenmark, M.,et al. (2009). Present and uture

water requirements or eeding humanity. Food

Security 1(1): 59-69.

Gerten et al (2004). Terrestrial vegetation and water

balance: hydrological evaluation o a dynamic

global vegetation model. International Water

resources Development, 286:249-270.

Gustasson, J. and Lundqvist, J. This volume.

Jonch-Clausen, T. This volume.

Kendy and Scanlon (2012). A tale o two plains:Consequences o groundwater depletion in the

US Central High Plains and the North China Plain.

Box 3.8 in Rockström et al (2012) Conronting the

water challenge in a turbulent world. Cambridge

University Press.

Lundqvist, J. and Gleick, P. (1997). Sustaining Our

Waters into the 21st Century. Stockholm Environ-

ment Institute. Stockholm.

Lundqvist, J. and Falkenmark, M. (2011). Adaptation

to rainall variability and unpredictability – Newdimensions o old challenges and opportunities.

International Journal of Water Resources Develop-

ment, December 2010.

Rockström, J., M. Falkenmark, et al. (2009). Future

water availability or global ood production: The

potential o green water or increasing resilience to

global change. Water Resources Research 45.

Rockström et al. (2012) Conronting the water chal-

lenge in a turbulent world. Cambridge University

Press.

Rockström, J. et al (2011). Global ood production in

a water-constrained world: Exploring ‘green’ and

‘blue’ challenges and solutions. In Water Resourc-

es Planning and Management, (eds) Q.Graton

and K.Hussey (2011). Cambridge University Press.

Turton, A.R. & Botha, F.S. (2012) New thinking on an

anthropocenic aquier in South Arica. In Eslamien,

S. (Ed.) Handbook for Engineering Hydrology .

London: Francis & Taylor. (Submitted).Varis, O. & Kummu, M. 2011. The major Central Asian

river basins: An assessment o vulnerability.

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Development .

World Bank (2009) Data and statistics: country clas-

sication. Available at: [http://go.worldbank.org/

K2CKM78CC0]. Retrieved June 27, 2012.



19

In the late 1960s, the prospect o widespread am-

ine threatened many areas o the developing world.

In response, donors provided support to develop new

crop varieties that produced much higher yields.

Fertilisers were made available to support the new

seeds, and massive investments in irrigation provided

reliable water supplies to nurture the crops and give

armers the condence to invest in change. Irriga-

tion water was so vital that the Green Revolution

which resulted has even been called a “Pump Revolu-tion,” because o the tremendous role armer supplied

groundwater had in driving change (Repetto, 1994).

With this revolution millions o armers became ood

secure, rural livelihoods were transormed and new

ood supplies drove down prices or urban consumers.

Te early successes o the Green Revolution had

many actors in their avour. Tose making the

changes beneted directly. Farmers saw the benets

o growing improved varieties with higher yields that

brought them larger incomes. Feedback was direct and

measurable, so adoption increased quickly.

P h o t o : T i m o t h y

S y r o t y a / I W M I

Innovations in Agricultural Watr Managmnt:

Nw Challngs Rquir Nw Solutions

By Mark Giordano, Tushaar Shah, Charlotte de Fraiture and Meredith Giordano

Politicians could easily understand the issues and

benets. Tus, there was strong political support or

policy changes that led to the construction o large

irrigation schemes and energy subsidies to support

water access. Te technical and engineering solutions

were at hand.

Te conditions that challenge agriculture today are

very dierent rom those o the 1960s. From a water

perspective, rivers are drying up, groundwater is being

depleted, and ‘water crisis’ is now a commonly usedterm. Agriculture now consumes 70-80 per cent o all

human water withdrawals, with severe consequences

or many ecosystems and the related services on which

we all depend. We now know that we can no longer

view water as an inexhaustible and ree input to a

global ood production system (Comprehensive As-

sessment o Water Management in Agriculture, 2007).

Higher incomes, changing diets, and urbanisa-

tion will impose new demands on agricultural water.

Biouel production will compete with ood production

or available resources. Climate change will bring



20

more requent droughts and foods, and will infuence

temperature regimes in ways that will increase the

challenges aced by armers in how they manage water.

Economic growth will deepen competition between

agricultural and non‐agricultural water uses.

At the same time, we know we have not yet solved

the rural poverty challenge that drove our earlier eorts.Large numbers o the rural poor will continue migra-

ting to cities in search o employment. Increasing urban-

isation will place additional pressure on agriculture to

produce sucient ood at low cost.

We are thus presented with a dilemma. Water, as

put by Kalpanatai Salunkhe, a rural development

worker in India, “is the divide between poverty and

prosperity”. But using that water has a cost. “More

rice, at the price o a river,” as succinctly articulated

by acclaimed Indian author Arundhati Roy in Te

God o Small Tings (1997).

Sometimes there are obvious scientic and technical

solutions to the dilemma. Many times though it seems

that the problems are insurmountable. We provide in

this paper three examples o how the dilemma can

be solved, or at least reduced, by approaching water

problems rom alternative perspectives. We look rst at

working in concert with the trends individual armers

are pursuing. We then describe how less than “optimal”solutions can generate improved results. Finally, we

show why it is important to be cautious when orming

perceptions o problems and potential solutions, as some

problems require case-specic or localised approaches

that might not seem evident upon our initial review.

Small is beautiul… and what armers are

choosing

Much o the public investment in agricultural water

management has ocused on large scale irrigationsystems. Perhaps because o this, national irrigation

statistics sometimes do not even attempt to include

the areas unded by private sector investments,

particularly those o individual armers. One conse-

quence is that smallholder agricultural water manage-

ment is oten ignored and unrecognised by both inves-

tors and policy makers. But, smallholder agricultural

water management is a vibrant and growing sector,

and in many countries the area under privately managed

and owned irrigation is substantially larger than that

under public irrigation schemes.

For example, in South Asia most o the irrigated

area depends on privately owned and managed wells.

Some estimates put the number o privately owned

wells in India at around 25 million, providing 70 per

cent o all irrigation water (Shah, 2009). In Bangladesh

5.1 million o the 6.2 million irrigated hectares are

under privately owned wells and 86 per cent o thearea is served by privately owned pumps (BBS, 2010).

Te situation is similar in Southeast Asia.

In Indonesia the number o privately owned motor

pumps used in irrigation increased rom 1.17 million to

2.17 million just between 1998 and 2002 (Government o

Indonesia cited in Shah 2009). In Vietnam the number

o privately owned irrigation pumps quintupled

during the 1990s to 800,000 (Barker and Molle,

2004). In Tailand there were 3 million privately

owned irrigation pumps in the year 2000, up rom

500,000 in 1985 (Molle et al., 2003). While recent data

are scarce, it is likely that the trend observed in the

1990s has continued.

rends are similar in Arica even i the scale is not

as extensive. Small private irrigation now represents

15 per cent o irrigated area in Kenya, 55 per cent in

Niger and 75 per cent in Nigeria (Abric et al ., 2011).

In Ghana nearly hal a million smallholders irrigate

185,000 hectares using buckets, watering cans andsmall pumps, compared to 11,000 armers in the pub-

lic irrigation schemes (Namara et al , orthcoming).

Te small private irrigation sector employs 45 times

more individuals and covers 25 times more land area

than the public irrigation schemes. All this is virtually

unrecognised in public statistics despite the act that

this small private irrigation has been the only real orce

in increasing irrigation in much o sub-Saharan Arica

in recent decades (akeshima et al ., 2010).

Supporting smallholder agricultural managementcan leverage an existing, armer-driven trend largely

ignored by investors. Farmers’ genuine interest is dem-

onstrated by their willingness to initiate and nance

irrigation themselves. Without the need or large inra-

structure (dams, canals, distribution devices) upront

investment costs are low. echnologies suitable or

smallholders are available. Compared to public or

community managed schemes, the organisational

aspects are simple and prot margins are high.

However, there are constraints, mostly unrelated

to the water sector, or which public action is needed



21

(de Fraiture, orthcoming). Tese include market in-

eciencies such as poorly developed supply chains; high

taxes and transaction costs; and access to inormation

and knowledge regarding irrigation, seeds, marketing,

and equipment. We must also address the inormation

and power asymmetries in output markets, which limit

the returns many armers receive or their produce. While we must be mindul o potential negative

consequences o uncoordinated private irrigation de-

velopment, the reach o the sector and its contribution

to both poverty reduction and ood security in Asia

and Arica could expand signicantly with appropriate

public interventions. As an example o the possibilities,

in sub-Saharan Arica there are an estimated 122 mil-

lion potential rural beneciaries o motorised pumps.

Widespread adoption o such pumps could generate

net revenues up to USD 7.5 billion per year (see Xieet al ., orthcoming).

Pricing water and energy could help… but so

too can creative, non-price solutions

In trying to solve water problems, we oten look or

“optimal” solutions emanating rom our disciplinary or

sectoral perspectives. However, holding out or the best

oten means we miss other opportunities or positive

change as the case o Gujarat, India shows (Shah andVerma 2008, Shat et al . 2008). Tere, ree groundwater

and the ree electricity to pump it contributed to severe

groundwater overdrat, near bankruptcy o the State

Electricity Board, and poor power supply to armers

and other rural residents. Te problem had been well

known or decades, and the textbook solution was

simple: price electricity and groundwater to refect

their value. However, those who tried to implement

these solutions did not appreciate the political realities

o India. Eorts to rationalise pricing were met withgreat resistance by armers. Politicians lost their jobs

P h o t o : D a




23

not enough groundwater use, outcomes which ulti-

mately hamper the economic development o one o

the world’s poorest regions.

Looking orward… with a view toward

innovative policy approaches

We ace daunting agricultural water managementchallenges as demand increases and rural poverty

and general ood insecurity persist. Tere will be no

single solution, but by thinking dierently, we can

crat case-specic solutions that are appropriate or

given locations and points in time.

We have highlighted three examples o innova-

tive approaches toward solving water management

problems. While we might be perplexed at how to better

manage existing large scale irrigation schemes, we can

observe the irrigation successes o small private armers

P h o t o : D a


and work with them to increase their production and

expand their livelihood activities. While problems

such as groundwater overdrat may seem impossible to

resolve, we can look or alternative approaches outside

the water sector and crat packages o change that are

politically palatable and move us in the right direction.

When “toolbox” approaches do not seem to deliver, we can re-examine our perception o the problems and

make sure that our solutions truly t the problems o

a particular time and place.

Good science will continue to enhance our un-

derstanding and provide the technology needed to

improve the way we work. We will also need new

insights and innovative thinking to help us put science

and technology into use within the many political

economies in which we live.



24

Reerences

Abric, S., Sonou, M., Augegard, B., Onimus, F., Durlin,

D., Soumaila, A., Gadelle, F. (2011) Lessons

learned in the development o smallholder private

irrigation or high-value crops in West Arica. Joint

Organizational Discussion paper issue 4. WorldBank, FAO, IFAD, Practica, ARID and IWMI. Wash-

ington DC: The World Bank.

Bangladesh Bureau o Statistics (BBS). (2010) Re-

trieved May 2010, rom: www.bbs.gov.bd.

Barker, R., Molle, F. (2004) Evolution o irrigation in

Asia. Comprehensive Assessment Research paper

no. 5. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water

Management Institute.

Comprehensive Assessment o Water Management in

Agriculture. (2007) Water or Food, Water or Lie:

A Comprehensive Assessment o Water Manage-

ment in Agriculture. London: Earthscan, and Co-

lombo: International Water Management Institute.

de Fraiture, Charlotte. Forthcoming. Overview paper.

Agricultural Water Management.

Giordano, Mark. (2009) Global groundwater? Issues

and solutions. Annual Review of Environment and

Resources 34:7.1-7.26.

Molle, F., Shah, T., Barker, R. (2003) The groundswello pumps: Multilevel impacts o a silent revolution.

Paper prepared for the ICID-Asia meeting. Taiwan.

November 2003.

Mukherji, A. (2005) Political ecology o groundwater:

The contrasting case o water-abundant West Ben-

gal and water-scarce Gujarat, India. Hydrogeology

Journal, 14(3), pp. 392–406.

Namara, R.E., Hope, L., Sarpong, E.O., de Fraiture, C.,

Owusu, D. Forthcoming. Adoption o water liting

technologies or agricultural production in Ghana:Implications or investment and public policy.

Agricultural Water Management.

Repetto R. (1994) The ‘Second India’ revisited:

Population, poverty and environmental stress over

two decades. Washington, DC: World Resources

Institute.

Revelle, R., Lakshminarayana, V. (1975) The Gangeswater machines. Science, Am. Soc . For the Ad-

vancement o Science 188, 9 May.

Roy, Arundhati. (1997) The God of Small Things.

IndiaInk, India.

Shah, Tushaar (2009a) Taming the anarchy: Ground-

water governance in South Asia. Washington D.C.:

RFF press.

Shah, T., Verma, S. (2008) Co-management o

electricity and groundwater: An assessment o

Gujarat’s Jyotirgram scheme. Economic and

Political Weekly, Vol.43(7): 59-66.

Shah, T., Bhatt, S., Shah, R.K., Talati, J. (2008)

Groundwater governance through electr icity

supply management: Assessing an innovative

intervention in Gujarat, western India. Agricultural

Water Management 95(11):1233-1242.

Takeshima, H., Adeoti, A ., Salau, S. (2010) Measur-

ing the eect o transaction costs or investment

in irrigation pumps: Application o unobservedstochastic threshold model to the case o Nigeria.

Nigerian Strategy Support Program (NSSP) Work-

ing Paper 0015.

Xie, H., You, L., Wielgosz. B., Ringer, C. Forthcoming.

What is the potential or smallholder agricultural

water management in Sub-Saharan Arica? Agricul-

tural Water Management.



25

P h o t o : A .

F l e u r e t , U S A I D

Womn in Agricultur: Closing th Gndr Ga

or Dvlomnt1 By Sibyl Nelson, Ilaria Sisto, Eve Crowley and Marcela Villarreal

“Gender” reers not to male and emale, but to masculineand eminine – that is, to qualities or characteristics

that society ascribes to each sex. People are born emale

or male, but learn to be women and men. Perceptions

o gender are deeply rooted, vary widely both within

and between cultures, and change over time. But in

all cultures, gender determines power and resources

or emales and males.

In traditional rural societies, commercial agri-

cultural production is mainly a male responsibility.

Men prepare land, irrigate crops, and harvest andtransport produce to market. Tey own and trade large

animals such as cattle, and are responsible or cutting,

hauling and selling timber rom orests. In shing

communities, capturing sh in coastal and deep-sea

waters is almost always a male domain.

In many societies, rural women have primary re-

sponsibility or maintaining the household. Tey raise

children, grow and prepare ood, manage amily poul-

try, and collect uel wood and water. In addition tothese unremunerated tasks, women and girls also play

an important, largely unpaid, role in generating amily

income, by providing labour or planting, weeding,

harvesting and threshing crops, and processing

produce or sale. Women may also earn some income

or themselves by selling vegetables rom home gardens,

poultry or milk products, grains or orest products.

Tey spend that income mainly on meeting amily

ood needs and educating children.

Although women make substantial contributionsto household well-being and agricultural production,

in many households men control the sale o crops and

animals and the use o the income. Te ailure to

value their work reduces women’s status in economic

transactions, the allocation o household resources,

and wider community decision-making (FAO, 2012).

A recent study on the progress against key Millennium

Development Goal (MDG) indicators shows that,

1 This chapter is largely based on FAO’s The State of Food and Agriculture - Women in Agriculture: Closing the gender gapfor development (2011).



26

globally and with ew exceptions, rural women are

worse than rural men and urban women and men or

every indicator or which data are available, with very

ew exceptions (Inter-Agency ask Force on Rural

Women, 2012). Tis is why, addressing the dier-

ences between men and women and in particular the

inequalities women tend to ace in relation to men is a critical component o rural agricultural development.

The gender gap in agriculture

Te agriculture sector is underperorming in many

developing countries, in part because women do not

have equal access to the resources and opportunities

they need to be more productive. While tremendous

progress has been made in supporting women’s legal

rights, educational achievements and participation

in public lie and the economy, no country can claimto be entirely ree rom gender-based discrimination.

Te “gender gap”, which is the dierence between

men and women in access to productive resources,

imposes real costs on society in terms o lost agricul-

tural output, ood security and economic growth.

Promoting gender equality is not only good or

women; it is also good or agricultural development

and or poverty and hunger reduction.

Women make essential contributions to the rural

economy o all developing country regions as armers,

labourers and entrepreneurs. Women comprise, onaverage, 43 per cent o the agricultural labour orce

in developing countries. Tis average share ranges

rom 20 per cent in Latin America to 50 per cent in

Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Arica. Teir contri-

bution to agricultural work varies even more widely

depending on the specic crop and activity. In many

countries women are involved in rained agriculture,

backyard or irrigated home gardening, while men are

oten responsible or rained commodities and land

management aspects o irrigation. Women play a key role in sheries and aquaculture (see box 1).

Women’s roles are diverse and changing rapidly, so

generalisations should be made careully. Yet one act

is strikingly consistent across countries and contexts:

P h o t o : D e

r e k S c i b a ,

U S A I D



27

Box 1:

Women in fsheries and aquaculture

Inormation provided to FAO rom 86 countries

indicates that in 2008, 5.4 million women

worked as shers and sh armers in the primarysector. This represents 12 per cent o the total.

In two major producing countries, China and

India, women represented a share o 21 per cent

and 24 per cent, respectively, o all shers and

sh armers.

Studies o women in aquaculture indicate that the

contribution o women in labour is oten greater

than men’s. Women are reported to constitute

42 per cent o the rural aquaculture workorce in

Indonesia and 80 per cent in Viet Nam.

The most signicant role played by women in both

artisanal and industrial sheries is at the process-

ing and marketing stages. Most sh processing

is perormed by women, either in their own

household-level industries or as wage labourers.

women have less access than men to agricultural as-

sets, inputs and services and to rural employment

opportunities, including land, water, ertiliser, live-

stock, mechanical equipment, improved seed varieties,

credit, extension services and agricultural education,

among others. Women and their concerns remain

still mostly invisible in decision-making in govern-

ance structures, planning, policy-making, inra-structure and technology development, as well as in

rural institutions. Women are oten excluded rom

decision-making processes in new agricultural wa-

ter management approaches and resource allocation,

with no choice in the kind or location o services

they receive. It is important to develop policies

and programs that address the needs, interests and

constraints o women and men in the agriculture sec-

tor. Tis includes to strengthen extension systems to be

more responsive to women, address structural barriers

to their access to productive resources and improve the

nancial systems to support rural women producers

and entrepreneurs to move out o less productive

segments o the rural economy. Compared with their

male counterparts, women:

• aremuchlesslikelytoownlandthenmenand,

when they do, operate smaller arms, on average

only hal to two-thirds as large;• keepfewerlivestock,typicallyofsmallerbreeds,

and earn less rom the livestock they do own;

• haveagreateroverallworkloadthatincludesa

heavy burden o reproductive and care activities like

etching water, rewood, child care and domestic

ood preparation with low or no economic returns;

• havelesseducationandlessaccesstoagricultural

inormation and extension services;

• uselesscreditandothernancialservices;

• aremuchlesslikelytopurchaseinputssuchasfer-tilisers, improved seeds and mechanical equipment;

• ifemployed,aremorelikelytobeinpart-time,

seasonal and low-paying jobs; and

• receivelowerwagesforthesamework,evenwhen

they have the same or better experience and quali-

cations.

Te impacts o this gap are signicant. Female arm-

ers produce less than male armers, but not becausethey are less-ecient armers – extensive empirical

evidence shows that the productivity gap between

male and emale armers is caused by dierences in

input use. I women had the same access to productive

resources as men, they could increase yields on their

arms by 20–30 per cent. It is important to highlight

that, in some specic contexts, rural men can also

be disadvantaged with no role in decision making or

limited access to resources and services (i.e. domestic

water, local markets or credit) or exposed to moredangerous jobs than women. raditional stereotypes

may not allow men to dedicate enough time to re-

productive activities, like child care, with consequent

impacts on their lie quality.

Closing the gender gap in agriculture would

generate signicant gains or the agriculture sector

and or society. By bringing the yields on the land

armed by women up to the levels achieved by men

would increase the total agricultural output in de-

veloping countries by 2.5–4 per cent. Increasing the

production by this amount could reduce the number



28

o hungry people in the world by 12–17 per cent.

According to FAO’s recent estimates, 925 million

people are currently undernourished. Closing the

gender gap in agricultural yields could bring that

number down by as much as 100-150 million people.

Te potential gains would vary by region depending on

how many women are currently engaged in agriculture,how much production or land they control, and how

wide a gender inequality they ace.

Rural women and agriculture water management

Tere are numerous gender issues in agriculture water

management, many o which relate to the existing

inequality between women and men in agriculture.

Women’s lack o ownership and weaker tenure o land,

in comparison to men, impacts their ability to make

decisions about water use on the land. Lack o owner-ship o land can also bar women rom participating

in water user associations, which can result in poor

technical outcomes in water management (World

Bank et al , 2009).

Women’s role in managing domestic water, and

the impact this has on their livelihoods, has been

documented in numerous countries. Studies rom

Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic o anzania,

or example, show that children and women in ruralareas etch water rom the main water source on aver-

age our times per day and require about 25 minutes

or each trip. “In rural areas o Guinea, or example,

women spend more than twice as much time etching

wood and water per week than men, while in Malawi

they spend over eight times more than men on the

same tasks. Girls in rural Malawi also spend over

three times more time than boys etching wood and

water. Collectively, women rom Sub-Saharan Arica

spend about 40 billion hours a year collecting water”(Inter-Agency ask Force on Rural Women, 2012).

Many o these tasks could be made much less on-

erous and time consuming through the adoption o

simple technologies. In addition, the introduction

o water sources in villages can signicantly reduce

the time spent by women and girls etching water.

For example, the construction and rehabilitation P h o t o : N e i l P a l m e r , C I A T

2 Inserting the potential output gains calculated above into the ormula or estimating the number o undernourished provides a roughquantitative estimate o how closing the gender gap in agriculture could cont ribute to reducing hunger. I yield gaps o 20–30 per cent wereclosed and domestic production increased by 2.5– 4 per cent, the number o undernourished people in the countries or which data areavailable could decline by 12–17 per cent.



29

o water sources in six rural provinces o Morocco

reduced the time that women and young girls spent

etching water by 50–90 per cent. Primary school

attendance or girls in these provinces rose by 20 per

cent over a period o our years, which was partly at-

tributed to the act that girls spent less time etching

water. When women’s and girls’ time is reed romthese burdensome tasks, they can engage in other

activities to strengthen livelihood resilience, includ-

ing productive activities such as crop production.

On one side this osters social and group cohesion and

provides women with an opportunity to communicate

with other women and people outside their homes.

On the other hand, it exposes them to threats o vio-

lence and health hazards.

New agricultural projects are becoming more multi-

purpose, multi-use and multi-user, with more involve-

ment o communities, both men and women, in the se-

lection o and planning or such interventions. Neither

recognising nor addressing the multiple uses o water

is one o the causes o women’s lower participation in

water users’ associations. In many societies, ensuring

that there is water or household use is a task assigned

to women. However, in some places both men and

women are getting involved in water issues at various

levels and capacities to solve water problems, taking

into account their knowledge and skills regarding the local water situation, and their dierent use and

control o water (World Bank et al., 2009).

Te Dublin Principles (adopted at the Interna-

tional Conerence on Water and the Environment,

1992) recognise the central role o women in water

management and policymakers have subsequently

made attempts to incorporate gender issues in water

development projects. “However, these policies have

not been adequately translated into practice and at-

tempts to involve women in water management havemet with only modest success. Inequality remains a se-

rious problem among various groups (socio-economic,

religious, ethnic and caste) and between men and

P h o t o : M a t s L a n n e r s t a d



30

women within these groups. Tis is mainly due to a

series o actors, including the lack o understanding

o gender issues by policymakers and project sta,

the lack o will and commitment during the project

design and implementation, the limited capacity and

use o relevant tools, and the limited sex-disaggregated

data, in addition to the local cultural norms” (WorldBank, et al ., 2009).

Policy interventions can help close the gender gap

in agriculture and rural labour markets. Priority areas

or reorm include:

• Eliminatingdiscriminationagainstwomeninac-

cess to agricultural resources, education, extension

and nancial services, and labour markets;

• Investinginlaboursavingandproductivityenhanc-

ing technologies and inrastructure to ree women’s

time or more productive activities; and• Facilitatingtheparticipationofwomeninexible,

ecient and air rural labour markets.

Water sector reorms in several countries have creat-

ed many new institutions, some o which may include a

gender unit, even though these oten have not aected

the way the institutions work. Some positive examples

o armative action policies have incorporated into

regulations o water ministries (i.e. Lesotho, Uganda

and South Arica) targets or involving women at all

levels o water management, speciying per centages

o sta who should be women. Te Arican Ministers’Council on Water ( AMCOW ) has also launched a

Policy and strategy or mainstreaming gender in the

water sector in Arica to ensure that gender concerns

are taken into account in the ormulation and imple-

mentation o policies and laws to create equity and

equality.

Building on these positive developments, additional

eorts are needed to close the gap between women and

men in the agriculture sector. Making women’s voices

heard at all levels in decision-making and ensuring

that they have the same access to resources and op-

portunities as men is crucial to making them better

armers, more productive workers, better mothers and

stronger citizens.

Reerences

AMCOW (2011). AMCOW Policy and Strategy or

Mainstreaming Gender in the Water Sector in

Arica.

FAO (2011). The state o ood and agriculture –

Women in agriculture: Closing the gender gap or

development. FAO.

FAO (2012). Gender website. www.fao.org/gender/

gender-home/gender-why/why-gender/en.

Inter-agency Task Force on Rural Women (2012)Rural Women and the Millennium Development

Goals. FAO.

The World Bank, FAO, IFAD (2009) The gender

and agriculture sourcebook. Module 6 – Gender

mainstreaming in agricultural water management.

World Bank.

Gender and Water Alliance (2006). Gender,

domestic water supply and hygiene. Gender and

Water Alliance.



31

P h o t o : S u s a n n a

W e s t m a n T o d o r o v i c ,

S I W I

Food Suly Chain efcincy “From Fild to Fork”:

Finding a Nw Formula or a Watr and Food Scur World

By Josephine Gustafsson and Jan Lundqvist

Demand or ood will increase dramatically this cen-

tury. With increasing competition or limited water,

land and other natural resources, a undamental task

ahead is to make the best possible use o these resourc-

es and to acilitate that the goods and services pro-

duced, including ood, will be accessible across social

groups and properly used by a burgeoning population.

Tis raises questions as to whether continuing con-

ventional propositions that ocus almost exclusively

on increasing production to meet demand is the only,and the smartest, way orward in eeding a growing

world population.

Tere is reason to question the prevailing and con-

ventional approach to achieve ood security. Between

one-third and one-hal o the produced ood is being

lost early on in the supply chain segments or wasted at

the consumer-end, amounting to about 1.3 billion tonnes

per year globally (Gustasson et al . 2011; Lundqvist,

2010; WR AP, 2011; Partt and Barthel, 2010).

Signicant variation characterise the situation and

reliable statistical inormation is limited (Partt and

Barthel, 2011). For the US, it is argued that the level

o absolute losses and waste increases in pace with in-

creased ood supply (Hall et al . 2009) which in essence

means that the more we produce, the more we waste.

‘Good old thinking’ is not good enough

Te analytical disconnect between production and

benecial use o the produce is striking although it

is not a new phenomenon. As aptly ormulated in an

FAO report (1981:2): “It is distressing to note that somuch time is being devoted to the culture o the plant,

so much money spent on irrigation, ertilisation and

crop protection measures, only to be wasted about a

week ater harvest”. In the 30 years that have passed

since this conclusion was drawn, the resource situation

has become more precarious. Te uture is loaded

with uncertainties but competition or resources will

undoubtedly increase. Te act remains that a ll ood

produced, regardless i it is eaten, lost or wasted,

has consumed water, energy, occupied land and con-

tributed to GHG emissions.



32

Table 1: Generic FSC and examples o ood waste (Partt and Barthel, 2010).

Stage Example o ood waste/loss characteristic

Harvesting

• Ediblecropsleftineld,ploughedintosoil,eatenby

birds, rodents, timing o harvest not optimal, loss in

ood quality

• Cropdamagedduringharvesting/poorharvesting

technique• Out-gradesatfarmtoimprovequalityofproduce

Threshing • Lossthroughpoortechnique

Drying – transport and distribution• Poortransportinfrastructure,lossduetospoiling,

bruising

Storage• Pests,disease,spillage,contamination,naturaldrying

out o ood

Primary processing – cleaning,classifcation, de-hulling,

pounding, grinding, packaging,

soaking, winnowing, drying,

sieving, milling

• Processlosses

• Contaminationinprocesscausinglossinquality

Secondary processing – mixing,

cooking, rying, moulding, cutting,

extrusion

• Processlosses

Product evaluation – quality

control, standard recipes• Productdiscarded/out-gradesinsupplychain

Packaging – weighing, labelling,

sealing

• Inappropriatepackagingdamagesproduce,grain

spillage rom sacks, attack by rodents

Marketing – publicity, selling,

distribution

• Damageduringtransport:spoilage

• Poorhandlinginwetmarket

• Lossescausedbylackofcooling/coldstorage

Post-consumer – recipeselaboration, traditional dishes,

new dishes, proper evaluation,

consumer education, discards

• Platescrapings

• Poorstorage/stockmanagementathome:food

discarded beore serving• Poorfoodpreparationtechnique:ediblefood

discarded together with inedible

• Fooddiscardedinpackaging:Confusionof‘best

beore’ or ‘use by’ dates

End o lie – disposal o ood

waste/loss at dierent stages o

supply chain

• Foodwastediscardedmaybeseparatelytreated,feed

to livestock/poultry, mixed with other wastes and

landflled



33

Te high rates o losses and waste o ood make our

resource eciency very low, and this ineciency comes

at substantial economic and environmental costs (Lun-

dqvist, et al . 2008; Björklund, et al ., 2008). It is important

to note that estimates on the level o losses depend on what is included in the denition. Higher gures include

the conversion o grain to eed and to biouels into the

calculations. Some even take overeating into account as a

orm o “waste”, as this arguably is a non-benecial use o

ood, which is also on the increase. Te level o losses also

varies signicantly between seasons, years and between

commodities and regions. A ‘logical paradox’ is that losses

tend to be larger during “good years” i.e. when yields are

high, due to insucient transport, storage and marketaccess (Enors, 2009; Adesina, 2009; Lundqvist, 2010).

Apart rom the need to pay attention to quantitative

aspects in the supply chain, more attention should

in parallel be paid to consumer diets and habits.

Dietary trends on the whole are moving towards an

increased overall demand or, and a larger share o,

more water intensive ood items. Tis will have wide

implications or resource use, though it is dicult to

predict precisely how these patterns will aect resource

consumption in the uture ( WWAP, 2012). Tus,balancing health-related preerences such as high meat

intake diets (which require more water) with sound

natural resource use principles will be increasingly

important in eorts to meet uture ood demand in

a sustainable manner.

Te challenges are daunting. Prevailing natural re-

source use already exceeds the Earth system’s carrying

capacity, as noted in the Millennium Ecosystem As-

sessment report (2005) and planetary boundaries are

not respected (Rockström et al., 2009). New modes o

thinking and governance are required in an era when

needs and wants o a growing population expand and

where segments o the population are rapidly becom-

ing wealthier. Reduction o poverty is essential, how-

ever, increasing wealth and prudence in resource use

unortunately does not seem to be a common com-bination. Primary challenges are more deeply rooted

in socio-economic and political dynamics than poli-

cies and management o natural resources. O course,

eciency in resource use is essential, but expectations and

pledges or a better lie constitute quite strong social and

political orces that may, or may not, abide to the laws

and limitation o natural resource systems.

Modiying human behaviour is an essentialchallenge

Designing a practical ormula to modiy human

behaviour is one o the most delicate and multiaceted

tasks or the 21st century. Tis challenge requires a

combination o tailored measures or dierent actors,

including producers, market operators and consum-

ers. o be eective, many o the measures need to

be designed with reerence to the local social and

environmental context. Te notion o ‘more crop per

drop’, which is widely accepted, needs to be combined with a strategy that promotes an intended and ben-

ecial use o the goods and services produced. Waste

does not have a place in such a vision. In an urbanis-

ing world with new relations between producers and

consumers, a better understanding o consumer preer-

ences and behaviour becomes essential, as elaborated

in able 1 below (Partt, et al. 2010). Sound incentive-

structures lie at the core o any institutional approach

aiming to infuence consumer behaviour, be it through

inormation campaigns, taxation o water-intensive

ood items or waste ees.

P h o t o : F e l i x A n t o n i o / I W

M I



34

Figure 1. Average per capita ood supply in kcal per day, or selected countries and years (Lundqvist 2010, based

on Food Balance Sheet statistics, FAO).

China serves as an illustrative example o the challenge

o eeding a huge and still growing population under

environmental constraints. Rapid economic progress

and urbanisation in the nation has increased ood sup-ply and demand. By any comparison, increases in ood

supply have been remarkable, as illustrated in Figure 1.

As a result o economic progress, ood security

and quality o lie have improved or hundreds o

millions. Economic growth has, however, intensied

pressure on scarce water and land resources (as shown

in Figure 2) and brought serious environmental threats

along with it. River basins in north- and northwest-

ern China will constitute hotspots o extreme water

scarcity within the coming years (Rosegrant et. al.,

2002). With much o its production located in the dry

North, China is an interesting case to discuss in terms

o the need or improved virtual water management

even within its own borders. I trends continue, the

prospects or sound rural development, ood security

and the environment will be negatively impacted by

water shortages and environmental degradation. Po-

litical leadership in China has recognised that sus-

Snashot cas: Watr saving socity in China

tainable stewardship o natural resources is needed

to ensure continuous socio-economic progress. Te

promotion o a “water saving society” is one o the

pillars in ocial policy (FYP, Ministry o Water Re-sources, 2010). China’s combination o a precarious

water situation, rapid socio-economic development,

postharvest losses and determination to promote stable

progress or society and the environment, make it an

interesting case to examine what can be achieved by

improving supply chain eciency in a nation that

must provide ood to a vast population with limited

natural resources. Unortunately, ew studies have

looked into the level o ood losses and waste in China

today, but gures indicate that between 20-30 per cent

o the ood produced is lost or wasted (these gures

are however uncertain and dier between ood items).

Smil has argued that by lowering China’s post-harvest

losses to around 10 per cent the country could gain

30 Mt o grain a year, which is enough to provide 75

million people with adequate diet (Smil, 2000). Tis is

just one example that highlights the potential gain o

reducing ood losses and waste in the Chinese context.



35

Figure 2. Food supply in China and the associated per capita water requirement 1961-2005 (Lundqvist 2010,

updated rom Liu, J. et al., 2008)



36

Opportunitiestoimprovesupplychainefciency

For armers and consumers alike, there are no real ben-

ets associated with ood losses and waste. Althoughthere are costs associated with the reduction o losses

(e.g. investments in improved storage and transport),

it is a potential win-win option. Reducing losses and

waste o ood not only saves water (as well as energy

and other resources), it also enables armers to receive

income rom a larger raction o their production

(Lundqvist et al., 2008). Solutions to reduce losses and

waste are relevant rom a corporate perspective, rom

a natural resources use perspective and or society

at large. Yet, there is little debate on how dierentactors could contribute to achieve a more ecient and

sustainable ood supply chain and the benets that

would be gained by their action. Currently, there is

not sucient analysis on potential water savings gained

through improvements in the supply chain. Expanded

research in this area would be valuable to guide cost-

eective interventions to save water.

It is interesting to note that today businesses are

taking a more active role in developing strategies to

improve uture supply- and value chain eciency. Tis

is highly relevant particularly or actors with activities

located in water scarce regions and in areas where water

predicaments constitute a potential business risk. Some

actors see or instance improved packaging that candecrease the risk o ood waste as an integral part o their

corporate social responsibility (Segré and Gaiani, 2012).

Food supply chain collaboration

– A way orward?

Te underlying actors that cause ood losses and

waste are signicantly dierent when comparing indu-

strialised countries (where ood waste and overeating is

the bigger problem) and developing countries (where

ood losses and undernourishment are more extensive).Tere is consensus among scholars and decision-

makers that these require dierent approaches. In

developing countries and tropical regions, investments

in improved storage, transport and cooling inrastruc-

ture are important as is increasing producers’ access to

ood processing, packaging and markets, i.e. beyond

the local ones. Agricultural commodity producers

should be supported to diversiy and scale up their

production. Both public and private actors have a

role to play to ensure that this is achieved. Food waste

also needs to be reduced through a combination o



37

policy interventions. In industrialised countries and

economies in transition, awareness-raising activities

should target consumers, retailers and the ood indus-try (Gustavsson, et al., 2011).

What is required is essentially a comprehensive as-

sessment o the cultural perceptions o ood and habits

and their impact on natural resources. In rich and a-

fuent societies, people are living in a “culture o abun-

dance” (Stuart, 2009) and in “comort zones” (Elias-

son, 2010). With an abundance o ood, consumers

are accustomed to choose rom shelves burgeon-

ing with subsidised ood items, accessible around

the clock. Tis makes it easier and less costly to waste and overeat, and provides less incentive to

cut down on waste and to enjoy a sustainable diet.

Few realise that the price on the tag o the items in the

shop is only part o the real price. Another part is paid

by taxes (to cover subsidies), and the environmental

costs are let invisible to the consumer.

Moving beyond what is already known, there is a

need to strengthen empirical knowledge on the mag-

nitude and the trends o losses and waste o ood. Un-

ortunately, ocial statistics leave much to be desired

(Smil, 2000; Partt and Barthel, 2011). Many actors

need to contribute to remedy the situation. Businesses,

or instance, could provide data and inormation or

part o the supply chain. Tey are in a strategic positionbetween the producers and the consumers that de-

mand a variety o ood items. o the extent possible,

inormation and gures on ood losses, waste and

potential savings respectively need to be analysed

to also understand the impact o waste in water and

socio-economic terms. Similarly, attempts need to be

made to identiy holistic ood supply chain arrange-

ments that contribute to water and energy savings.

A dialogue with actors in the supply chain on strate-

gies and arrangements that will improve supply chaineciency thereore needs to be initiated.

Finally, by adopting sustainable diets we can ad-

dress the paradox o the opposite trends with un-

dernourishment and malnutrition, including obesity

(SIWI, IFPRI, IUCN, IWMI, 2005). With a more

ecient ood supply chain and airer distribution o

the ood produced, a water and ood secure world is

still possible. o achieve this, it is essential to enable

a vivid dialogue and promote collaboration between

supply chain actors now that “the business o business”

no longer is merely “business” (Friedman, 1970).

P h o t o : D i g i t a l V i s i o n



39

P h o t o : A n n e W a n g a l a c h i / C I M M Y T

early Warning Systms or Watr in Agricultur

By Mats Eriksson

Te mounting demand on agricultural systems re-

quires improved knowledge on how to respond tochanges in water availability or ood production,

particularly in semi-arid, sub-humid and monsoonal

systems. More land is being taken into production

and increasingly in marginal climate zones (Jägerskog

et al ., 2012), which are oten vulnerable to climate

variability and change, particularly delayed, reduced

or absent rainall. In addition, some areas in vulner-

able climate zones that are used or arming today

may suer rom a warmer and drier climate, and not

be suitable or agriculture at all times. As a result, theamount o productive armland per capita is decreasing

rapidly (Funk, 2011).

Te shrinking availability o land, growing de-

mand or ood, and increasingly variable and uncertain

climate together limit the buer margin or ailure in

ood production (Gerten & Rost, 2009). Tis makes

eective Early Warning Systems (EWS) crucial to

prevent catastrophic disruptions o agricultural pro-

duction rom occurring when unavorable changes in

rainall arise, or when irrigation water supplies are una-

vailable or insucient. In this chapter, we discuss how

EWS can bolster ood security by reducing damages

caused to agriculture by water scarcity and drought. A drought EWS is designed to detect the emergence,

or probability o occurrence, and the likely severity

o drought ( WMO, 2006) and then provide warn-

ings on potential threats posed by such weather and

climate orecasts. Any EWS, and particularly those or

drought, is dependent on long term reliable monitor-

ing o meteorological and hydrological parameters.

Te ability to use the obtained data or orecasts is

undamental or the EWS to be eective. By providing

warnings at an early stage, EWS can enable armers toadapt and plan to the projected situation in advance

and prevent sudden crisis o ood insecurity. EWS

designed with the purpose to alert arming communi-

ties on climate related shortages in water availability,

linked to shorter or longer periods o dry spells or

drought, are especially important or this purpose and

particularly or non-irrigated agriculture. But they are

challenging to establish and make unctional. Tese

weather phenomena progress slowly, and it is dicult

to know i, and when, a warning or water shortages

should be announced.



40

P h o t o : R .

R o s s i M a r s h l a n d ,

U S A I D

From warning to response: Establishing an

eective end-to-end EWS

Te recent drought and consequent amine in the

Horn o Arica is a tragic example that powerully

demonstrates why EWS are needed, as well as the chal-

lenges aced to make them unctional and eective.

In act, several institutes issued warnings on the pre-

dicted shortcoming o rains at an early stage. For

instance, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network

(FEWS NE), set up by the US Agency or Interna-tional Development to help policy makers prevent

humanitarian disasters, issued alerts several months

ahead o the actual drought based on analysis o global

scale climate systems (El Niño/La Niña and Indian

Ocean temperatures) and the ood security situation

at the time (Funk, 2011). Te warnings did not trigger

much action. Even when the absence o rains proved

the warnings to be correct, governments and the in-

ternational community still did not react. It was not

until the crisis hit the media and news channels ran

stories showing desperately malnourished children that

they took action. One reason or the slow response was

political ear o nancial and reputational risks i the

warnings proved to be wrong (Hillier & Dempsey,

2012). Another reason may have been that international

actors were apprehensive about being perceived as

overly interventionist and, in the process, undermining

the capacity o local communities to cope with the

drought. In addition, in some regions such as the Horn

o Arica, there is a “drought atigue”, which slows the

response time.Te 2011 crisis in the Horn o Arica highlights the

act that any EWS has to be an “end-to-end system”.

Tis means that it should encompass a chain o activi-

ties involving data gathering, compilation, analysis,

orecast, decisions, communication, and nally enable

a response. Although both are essential, perhaps the

largest challenge to creating a unctional EWS pertains

more to creating communication channels rather than

technical matters. Both the climate service providers

and the climate service users need to reach out and

learn rom each other how to transmit and use knowl-



41

edge more eectively in order to prevent crisis and save

lives (UN/ISDR , 2006). Tus, the early warnings, or

other related inormation such as orecasts, need to

be tailor-made to the recipient and as such will look

dierent i it is targeting the science community, poli-

ticians and decision makers, or armers. In addition,

good governance o the system and political will totake action under uncertainty are crucial actors to

avoid climate related disasters and ood insecurity.

CurrentstatusofclimateservicesandEWS

Te collection, storage and dissemination o mete-

orological and hydrological data are a major task that

involves many institutions and centres operating on

global, regional and national levels, oten under the

supervision o the World Meteorological Organiza-

tion ( WMO). Climate inormation on the global andregional level is based on large scale atmospheric mod-

els and remote sensing technology. National level insti-

tutions strongly rely on ground-based meteorological

observation networks. Tese have been deteriorating in

the last decades, particularly in the tropics, in remote

areas, and in least developed countries. Unortunately,

these are places where this kind o inormation is

probably needed the most. Finding stable nancing

to build and maintain these networks is oten a greatchallenge as governments must be convinced o the

importance o this data, its potential service and the

value o preemptive action. Nonetheless, themes like

ood security, water availability and health are the

primary targets o policies and are greatly dependent

upon eective and ecient climate services in order

to deliver results. Demonstrating the benets o using

climate services in these prime target policy areas is es-

sential to enhancing the nancial security o National

Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) as well as o global atmospheric and spatial programmes.

Global meteorological climate inormation sys-

tems have also developed considerably during the

last decades. Te Global Climate Observation System

(GCOS), a joint undertaking o WMO, the Inter-

governmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) o

UNESCO, UNEP and the International Council or

Science (ICSU), is now able to provide comprehensive

inormation on the total climate system. It includes

both on the ground and remote sensing components

and is intended to meet the ull range o national and

international requirements or climate and climate-

related observations. It constitutes the climate observ-

ing section o the Global Earth Observation System

o Systems (GEOSS).

Few systems exist worldwide to provide early warn-

ings o droughts (Grasso and Singh, 2011). FAO’s Glob-

al Inormation and Early Warning System on Foodand Agriculture (GIEWS) (FAO, 2009), the Humani-

tarian Early Warning Service (HEWS) (established

with the help o the World Food Programme) and the

Beneld Hazard Research Center o the University

College London are the main global programmes

that provide early warnings on natural hazards,

including drought. Te GIEWS provides inormation

on countries acing ood insecurity through monthly

brieng reports, which includes drought inormation.

Te HEWS collects drought status inormation romseveral sources, and the Beneld Hazard Research

Center produces monthly maps o drought conditions.

However, the ways and means to use these inormation

sources on the national level determines whether early

warnings become successul or not.

On a regional scale, the US based Famine Early

Warning System (FEWS NE) provides monthly re-

ports on droughts and amine conditions or Eastern

Arica, Central America and Aghanistan. Similarservices are available or North America (the North

American Drought Monitor, including US, Canada

and Mexico) and China (Beijing Climate Center o

the China Meteorological Administration).

WMO, in collaboration with the UNCCD, is

implementing two initiatives addressing drought. A

High Level Meeting on National Drought Policy

(HMNDP), planned or March 2013, will address

the need to develop national drought policies. Te

Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP) will contribute to the global coordination o drought-

related eorts o existing organisations and agencies.

On the national level, National Meteorological and

Hydrological Services (NMHS) provide platorms or

weather and climate inormation. Te capacities o each

NMHS is pivotal or the ability o a country to assess

inormation, and to issue warning and alerts when

needed. It provides one o the most crucial links in

the end-to-end chain between climate inormation

producers and users (Srinivasan et al., 2010). Te

NMHS also has to tailor the inormation to t the



43

P h o t o : I L R I / D o r i n e A d h o c h

Priorities or the uture

Recent advances in inormation and communication

technologies, improved space-based technologies or

monitoring weather and climate, and stronger skills

in providing weather orecasts and climate scenarios

have greatly enhanced the possibilities to establish

well unctional EWS or water in agriculture. Tere

are still, however, major challenges to overcome in

most regions o the world.

Monitoring o rainall, soil moisture and other

hydro-meteorological parameters provides the basis

or the development o water availability scenarios

and orecasting o droughts. A combination o eldbased and remote sensing techniques can be used to

provide the inormation that orms the cornerstone

or the assessment o potential upcoming droughts

upon which any warnings to the arming and other

communities will be based. Changes in climate and its

variability are long term processes which also demand

long data series. Tereore, it is crucial to continue

measuring meteorological parameters and ensure that

there are no interruptions in data series. A gap in

data cannot be repaired in atermath, and the cost tomaintain data series is small compared to the value

o this inormation when society needs to prepare or

climate-induced hazards.

In addition, existing approaches to provide early

warning on drought must be improved. Due to their

complex nature, several indicators are required or

drought monitoring and early warnings. Although all

types o drought are originally due to a shortage o

rain, monitoring only this parameter is insucient toassess the severity and impacts o a drought ( WMO,

2006). Precipitation must be integrated with other

climatic parameters.

For large parts o the world suering rom droughts,

EWS are oten inadequate, non-unctional or non-

existent. Te most critical component or a EWS is

its ability to ensure eective communication o inor-

mation throughout the end-to-end chain. Here, the

importance or decision makers on dierent levels

to take action on early warnings is crucial. Decisionmakers on higher levels must understand the costs and

potential consequences to not responding early and

committing resources on the basis o orecasts, and

they must be inormed on the risks posed by waiting

or certainty (Hillier and Dempsey, 2012). Early ac-

tion generally involves taking a modest nancial cost,

while acting late risks the loss o lives and livelihoods

and ultimately spending more money on response.

Waiting until the emergency is ully established means

that the risks and consequences o inaction are borne

by vulnerable people themselves.



44

Reerences

FAO (2003). Trade reorms and ood security:

Conceptualizing the linkages. FAO, Rome.

Retrieved July 2, 2012, rom www.ao.org/

docrep/005/y4671e/y4671e00.htm.

FAO (2009). GIEWS – The global inormation andearly warning system on ood and agriculture.

FAO, Rome.

Funk, C. (2011). We thought trouble was coming.

Nature, Vol. 476, p.7.

Gerten, D., Rost, S. (2009) Hydrologic limitation o

global ood production and the potential o green

water management. Climate Change: Global Risks,

Challenges and Decisions. IOP Conf. Series: Earth

and Environmental Science 6.

Grasso, V.F., Singh, A. (2011) Early warning systems:

State-o-art analysis and uture directions.

Draft report, UNEP. Retrieved July 2, 2012 rom

http://na.unep.net/geas/docs/Early_Warning_

System_Report.pd

Hillier, D., Dempsey, B. (2012) A dangerous delay –

The cost o late response to early warnings in the

2011 drought in the Horn o Arica. Oxfam Interna-

tional and Save the Children, UK.

Jägerskog, A., Cascão, A., Hårsmar, M., Kim, K. (2012).

Land acquisitions: How will they Impact Trans-

boundary Waters. Report Nr 30. SIWI, Stockholm.

Srinivasan, G., Rasura, K., Subbiah, AR. (2010). Cli-

mate inormation or adaptation and risk manage-ment within local communities. Abstract for the

Technical Conference on Changing Climate and

Demands for Climate Services for Sustainable

Development, Turkey Feb 2010.

UN/ISDR (2006). Global survey o early warning

systems. Report released at the Third Interna-

tional Conerence on Early Warning, Bonn, March

2006. Retreived July 2, 2012, from www.unisdr.

org/2006/ppew/info-resources/ewc3/Global-

Survey-of-Early-Warning-Systems.pdf.

WMO (2006) Drought monitoring and early warning:

concepts, progress and uture challenges.

WMO – No. 1006.



45

P h o t o : J o h n M a

c R o b e r t / C I M M Y T

Land Dals: A ‘Grn Rvolution’ in Global Food

and enrgy Markts?1

By Anders Jägerskog and Ana Cascão

Te Global Sustainability Panel (GSP, 2012) states

that “While investment in the agricultural sectors

o low-income countries is urgently needed, the new

trend o land access deals oten compounds local,

well-established and persistent constraints aced by

the poor in obtaining access to land and water.”

Te GSP report is one o the rst to explicitly point

out the link between investment in land and access to

water on a global scale. Beyond the issues o access to

water and land, politics and global market dynamicsurther drive the intensity o this nexus and oten over-

ride local priorities and rights (Jägerskog et al ., 2012).

Land deals in Arica, Latin America and Southeast

Asia or the production o ood, cash-crops and biou-

els has increased in recent years, and quickly escalated

ater the rise o ood prices in 2007-2008. Tat crisis,

coupled by water scarcity in countries in the Middle

East and North Arica region as well as in parts o Asia,

caused countries relying on ood imports (and the ‘vir-

tual water’ embedded within them) to diversiy risks

to mitigate the impacts that uture ood price hikes

may have on their populations. Te strategy pursued

by these ood-scarce countries has been to invest in

land or the production o ood crops in countries well-

endowed with land and water resources (Von Braun,

J. and Meinzen-Dick R, 2009). Can this mean that

the world might be experiencing a new ‘green revolu-

tion’ (dramatic increase on agricultural production)similar to the one o the 1960/1970s, and or the rst

time in sub-Saharan Arica’? It is too early to draw

conclusions, but what is already possible to observe

is an increased international and domestic interest

in armland by governments and private companies,

primarily in Arica and Latin America (World Bank,

2011). Te prolieration o land investments have raised

concerns over their impact on domestic ood security

1 This article par tly builds on the SIWI report: Jägerskog, A ., Cascao, A., Hårsmar, M. and Kim. K., (2012), ”Land Acquisitions: How Will TheyImpact Transboundary Waters? ”. Report Nr. 30, SIWI, Stockholm



46

in host countries (Matondi et al., 2011) and on the

implications they have on customary land uses and

the rights o local populations, which in some cases

are eared to be ignored during large scale agricultural

and hydropower developments without appropriate

dialogue and agreement (Deininger, 2011).

o date, research o land acquisitions has largely

ocused on the terms and conditions o the contractsor investment and leasing o land, which are oten

ot made public or are unclear (Cotula, 2012). Te

potentially signicant eect that these investments

will have on water resources, at the local, national and

transboundary level has not yet been adequately ana-

lysed. Tis chapter outlines some o the key questions

as they relate to the land-water nexus and also discusses

potential repercussions or ood security.

Land, ood and water As outlined in the introductory chapter to this pub-

lication (Jønch Clausen, this volume) and also un-

derscored by the International Food Policy Research

Institute (Von Braun, J. & Meinzen-Dick R, 2009)

ood security is an increasingly global problem. It also

is becoming a more important political priority o

increasing complexity as the prospects or supplying

ood are strongly impacted by population growth, the

eects o climate change, new technologies, sharply

increasing energy demands and shits in consumption

patterns. Tus, the increasing land acquisitions seem

logical, at least rom the investors’ perspective. I you

cannot obtain ood security through supplies at home

– due to scarcity o ertile land or water resources –

and do not trust a volatile international ood market

then the investments in overseas armland appear as a

natural step. However, critical questions on their im-

pacts on land rights, water allocation and ood market

mechanisms need to be investigated. An importantissue is also the costs, benets and trade-os that

arise when arable land is used or energy production

(to create biouels) rather than ood production.

Another key concern is the potential negative impacts

land investments may have on the ood security and

customary rights o local armers and pastoralists.

In addition to potential conficts around land and

water occurring in the countries where investments

are being made, transboundary water issues will also

come to the ore. Te investors will need reliable accessto water or irrigation o its crops on the purchased

or leased land. Tis directs attention to the manage-

ment and allocation o internal water resources o the

countries as well as their shared transboundary waters

(Jägerskog et al ., 2012).

A land investment is a water investment

Few o the contracts on agricultural investment and

land acquisition are made available to the public.

Lack o transparency and non-disclosure o agree-

ments between parties have been obstacles to inves-

P h o t o : E r i k F o r h a m m a r



47

tigate land deals on water. Cotula (2011) reviewed 12

land investment contracts in Cameroon, Ethiopia,

Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal and Sudan. Te

only consistent trend the contracts show on how they

address water is inconsistency. In some cases water is

taken into account and the terms o access is specied.

According to a contract between the governmento Mali and the Libyan government, or example,

the investors are granted water without restriction

during the wet season (June-December), but they are

obliged to grow crops which require less water dur-

ing the dry season (January-April). Another contract

signed between the governments o Sudan and Syria

allows the investors to access water resources rom the

White Nile, as well as groundwater resources. Water is

not, however, mentioned in other contracts. It seems

to be taken or granted that water comes along withthe land.

Some investors clearly view land investments as

a water investment, in particular those experiencing

shortages at home. Te new investors including India,

China, South Korea, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE ,

Kuwait and Qatar are either experiencing water short-

ages or are under severe water stress, at least in parts o

the countries. India and China are experiencing water

shortages because o the rapidly increasing utilisationo their water resources or agricultural, industrial and

domestic uses, and related environmental degradation.

Increased prosperity and population growth in both

nations, and elsewhere in ast growing economies,

have required them to ll its reshwater needs through

virtual water trade. Investing in armland overseas is

the other or complementary alternative to meet ood

demand at home.

What water will be used? Blue, green,transboundary?

Approximately 40 per cent o the world’s population

lives in transboundary river basins, and 263 inter-

national water basins account or about 50 per cent

o global land area and 40 per cent o reshwater re-

sources (Wol, 2002). Te hotspot countries or land

deals are mostly located in transboundary water basins

such as the Mekong, Nile, Niger and Zambezi.

Te governments o Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia

have attracted oreign investors to their respective

countries because o the ‘abundant’ land and water re-

sources available. Tough the arrival o these investors

and the utilisation o the transboundary water rom

the Nile Basin has not been a source o confict yet,

their implications ater they are ully implemented

may spark uture diplomatic conficts with the down-

stream neighbours. In the Mekong River basin, China,

the upstream riparian state, has been involved withthe Economic Land Concession o Cambodia, the

downstream riparian state as well as the country most

reliant on the basin. Unlike the case o the Xayaburi

dam in Laos, which is under negotiations by a Tai

developer and put on hold (Hookway, 2011), the water

use in oreign land concessions in Cambodia and Laos

has not been a topic in intergovernmental dialogues

in MRC (Baird, 2011; Saracini, 2011).

In sub-Saharan Arica, 96 per cent o the cultivated

land is currently rained (FAO AQUASA, 2012).Rained agriculture utilises ‘green water’, i. e. the

water that is in the soil moisture. ‘Blue water’ reers to

the water available in rivers and in aquiers. Globally,

rained agriculture is the most common practice or

ood production, especially in developing countries.

In many developing regions, a lack o irrigation a-

cilities and hydraulic engineering structures limits

the use o blue water. I the investors are allowed to

construct irrigation acilities and other inrastructurein the leased arm land, blue water use would increase.

Tis would increase agricultural production in the

region, and likely will increase the use o transbound-

ary water resources (Jägerskog et al., 2012).

Regulationsandinstitutions:Cantheyhelp

overcome the grey area?

It is too early to judge i the current land deals will

contribute to increased ood productivity, ood security

and trade at the global scale. It is also dicult to assessat this time whether the positive impacts (inrastructure

development, jobs, technology transer, etc) will out-

weigh the negatives impacts at the national and local

levels in the countries where armland is being leased.

Te regulatory environment that oversees land deals

is currently lled with several grey areas. Tere is a

lack o both clear regulations and institutions that

could deal with potential conficts o interests between

the dierent users o land and water resources. Te

adoption o principles at the global, regional and na-

tional levels could help ensure that land deals provide



48

a development opportunity with benets or all the

parties involved.

A number o international initiatives have emerged

to develop policies aimed at making large scale agri-

cultural investments environmentally, socially and

economically sustainable. FAO, IFAD, UNCAD and

the World Bank have agreed upon seven principles or

“responsible agro-investments” (RAI, 2010) (See box 1).

In addition, the “Voluntary Guidelines on the Re-

sponsible Governance o enure o Land, Fisheries and

Forests in the Context o National Food Security”

adopted by FAO in May 2012 barely mentioned water.

While water is not explicitly mentioned in the RAI

principles it is inherent in almost all them. It would be

useul i water was also recognised in the international

principles or responsible agro-investments as well as



49

Box 1:

Seven principles or “responsible

agro-investments” (RAI, 2010)

Principle 1: Existing rights to land and associated

natural resources are recognised and respected.

Principle 2: Investments do not jeopardise ood

security but rather strengthen it.

Principle 3: Processes or accessing land and

other resources and then making associated in-

vestments are transparent, monitored, and ensure

accountability by all stakeholders, within a proper

business, legal, and regulatory environment.

Principle 4: All those materially aected are con-

sulted, and agreements rom consultations are re-

corded and enorced.

Principle 5: Investors ensure that projects re-

spect the rule o law, refect industry best prac-

tice, are viable economically, and result in durable

shared value.

Principle 6: Investments generate desirable so-

cial and distributional impacts and do not increase

vulnerability.

Principle 7: Environmental impacts due to a pro-

ject are quantied and measures taken to encour-

age sustainable resource use while minimising the

risk/magnitude o negative impacts and mitigating

them. (RAI, 2010).

more clearly spelt out in the voluntary guidelines.

Otherwise, there is great risk that water rights, and

impacts on water quality, may be orgotten or ignored.

Te adoption o legal principles and mechanisms

could also help increase transparency. Regulations

related to the current and uture land deals could

mitigate the negative impacts the deals can have onthe local populations and the environment. Regional

institutions, such as Regional Economic Commissions

(RECs) and River Basin Organisations (RBOs, could

also play an important role, in particular when the

water resources that are used on the lands come rom

transboundary sources. However, the development o

the national land and water resources or the national

socio-economic development o the countries is stil l in

the domain o sovereign states, and it is not expectedthat this will change. aking the potential transbound-

ary eects o the land deals into account could provide

an opening or riparian states to delegate some advisory

and coordination unctions to the RECs and RBOs to

promote integrated management approach to land and

water resources, without countries relinquishing their

sovereign rights. Agricultural development, namely

through the expansion o irrigation, had been oten

excluded rom the agenda o these institutions due to

its politically sensitive character.

Forming a air land market

Te market or armland and water will become an

increasingly large part o the global political economy

and the global ood and energy markets. Current and

uture ‘land deals’ can potentially contribute to an

increase in agricultural production and help grow

more ood, cash-crops and biouels. Te question is:

who is going to benet rom this ‘green revolution’? Asymmetric power relations between regions, coun-

tries, and economic sectors are expected to play a role

in determining the benets and costs that land and

water deals will bring or the dierent parties. Regula-

tions are crucial to ensure that all parties gain a air

deal and that the land and water resources are used

eciently. Trough the adoption o international and

regional principles and delegation o powers to regional

institutions, it is possible to better protect the custom-

ary rights o local populations, decrease the negativeimpacts o the deals on the environment and endorse

basin-wide integrated land and water management.

Tis would promote airer terms o trade between the

countries and corporations investing in land and the

host countries and local populations. It would also

help ensure that those investments enhance regional

and national ood security in Arica, Southeast Asia,

Latin America and globally.



50

Reerences

Allan, J.A (2011), Vir tual water: Tackling the threat

to our planet’s most precious resource. London:

I.B.Tauris.

Anseeuw, Ward, et al. (2011), Land rights and the

rush or land: Findings o the global commercialpressures on land research project’. (Rome: Inter-

national Land Coalition).

Baird, I. G. (2011), ‘Turning Land into Capital, Turning

People into Labour: Primitive Accumulation and

the Arrival o Large-Scale Economic Land

Concessions in the Lao People’s Democratic

Republic’. Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary

Inquiry, 5 (1), 10-26.

Conca, Ken (2006), Governing water. Massachusetts:

MIT Press.

Cotula, L. (2011), Land deals in Arica: What is in the

contracts? London: IIED.

Deininger, K. (2011), Challenges posed by the new

wave o armland investment. Journal of Peasant

Studies, 38 (2), 217-47.

Economist (2011), The surge in land deals – when

others are grabbing their land. The Economist,

May 5th, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2012 rom

www.economist.com/node/18648855.Economist (2012) The visible hand. The Economist,

January 21, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2012 rom

www.economist.com/node/21542931.

GSP (2012). The report o The United Nations

Secretary-General’s high-level panel on Global

Sustainability. New York: United Nations.

HighQuest Partners (2010) Private Financial Sector

Investment in Farmland and Agricultural Inrastruc-

ture. OECD Food, Agriculture and Fishing Working

Papers 33, OECD, Paris.

Jägerskog, A., Cascao, A., Hårsmar, M. and Kim. K.,

(2012). Land acquisitions: How Will They

Impact Transboundary Waters? Report Nr. 30,

SIWI, Stockholm.

Matondi, P, Havnevik, K., and Beyene, A. (2011),Biouels, Land Grabbing and Food Security in

Arica. London and New York: ZED Books.

RAI ‘Principles or Responsible Agricultural

Investment (RAI) that Respects Rights. Livelihoods

and Resources. Retrieved July 2, 2012, rom

www.responsibleagroinvestment.org/rai/

node/256.

Reardon and Barrett (2000) Agroindustrialisation,

globalization and international development: an

overview o issues, patterns and determinants.

Agricultural Economics (23) 195-205.

Von Braun, J. and Meinzen-Dick R. (2009); ’Land

grabbing’ by oreign investors in developing coun-

tries: risks and opportunities. IFPRI Policy brie, No.

13. International Food Policy Research Institute,

Washington DC.

Saracini, N. (2011), ‘Cambodia or sale’, in M.

Haakansson (ed.), Stolen land stolen uture.

Copenhagen: DanchurchAid.Smaller, C. and H. Mann (2009). A thirst or distant

lands – Foreign investment in agricultural land and

water. IISD, Winnipeg, Canada.

Wol, Aaron (2002). Confict prevention and resolu-

tion in water systems. London: Elgar Press.

Deininger, K, and Byerlee, D, (2011). Rising global

interest in armland. Washington D.C.: World Bank.

Retrieved July 2, 2012 rom http://elibrary.world-

bank.org/content/book/9780821385913.



Fding a Thirsty World

Challngs and Oortunitis or a Watr and Food Scur Futur

This report presents the latest thinking and new

approaches to emerging and persistent challenges to

achieve ood security in the 21st century. It ocuses

on critical issues that have received less attention

in the literature to date, such as: ood waste, land

acquisitions, gender aspects o agriculture, and early

warning systems or agricultural emergencies. It also

oers perspectives on how to better manage water

and ood linkages.

feeding a thirsty world 2012 - worldwaterweek report 31

Documents