Enhancing food security requires a change in the way we manage water in agriculture

Everywhere people are worried about water scarcity and that it may turn even scarce as climate changes. Water scarcity may be physical or economic and varies in severity between countries of the world. Certainly water scarcity negatively effects sustainable production where delicate tradeoffs are required to sustain productive agro ecosystems. As scarcity increases, more food is required with less water, which was stated by the Secretary General of the UN, Mr Kofi Anan as producing “more crop per drop”. This is producing more outputs per unit volume of water or increasing water productivity. Outputs are biophysical, economic, social and/or environmental.

When water is more limiting than land, as the case is in dry areas, maximizing the returns per unit of water is more appropriate that the conventional strategy of maximizing yield per unit of land. The earlier brings higher benefits. Many options and technologies are available for increasing water productivity but implementation requires a change in agricultural water management thinking and strategies. Deficit irrigation, as an example, yields a bit less yield per unit of land but the water saved, if used on new land, may bring more benefits. Rainfed systems, is another example where great potential exists through applying supplemental irrigation for improving the system productivity. However, to achieve high impacts, a change in the policies of water valuation and allocation is necessary. Water productivity should be evaluated and optimized at all scales from the field to the basin levels. In water scarce areas, business as usual is no more an option. Improving water productivity should be the focus of research and new development.

 



Theib Oweis
Director, Integrated Water and Land Management Program
International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria
Email: t.oweis@cgiar.org