Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) releases its new State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2020 report which looks at what it takes to overcome water challenges in the agriculture sector, the world’s largest user.
Intensifying water constraints threaten food security and nutrition. Thus, urgent action is needed to make water use in agriculture more sustainable and equitable. Irrigated agriculture remains by far the largest user of freshwater, but scarcity of freshwater is a growing problem owing to increasing demand and competition for freshwater resources. At the same time, rainfed agriculture is facing increasing precipitation variability driven by climate change. These trends will exacerbate disputes among water users and inequality in access to water, especially for small-scale farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable populations.
More than three billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high levels of water shortages and scarcity, and almost half of them face severe constraints. Furthermore, available freshwater resources per person have declined by more than 20 percent over the past two decades globally, underscoring the importance of producing more with less, especially in the agriculture sector, the world’s largest user of water.
About 1.2 billion people – 44 percent of them in rural areas and the remainder in small urban centers in the countryside – live in places where severe water shortages and scarcity challenge agriculture. Central Asia and Northern Africa and Western Asia are also severely affected – about one of every five people live in agricultural areas with very high water shortages and scarcity, compared to less than 4 percent in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America and Oceania. About 5 percent of people living in sub-Saharan Africa live in similar conditions, meaning that about 50 million people live in areas where severe drought has catastrophic impacts on cropland and pastureland once every three years.
According to the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2020, a flagship report published today by the FAO, improved water management, supported by effective governance and strong institutions including secure water tenure and rights, underpinned by sound water accounting and auditing will be essential to ensure global food security and nutrition, and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“With this report, FAO is sending a strong message: water shortages and scarcity in agriculture must be addressed immediately and boldly if our pledge to commit to achieve the SDGs is to be taken seriously,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu emphasized in the foreword of the report.
The SOFA report notes that “the inherent characteristics of water make it difficult to manage”. It says “water should be recognized as an economic good that has a value and a price,” noting that customary practices leading it to be treated as a free commodity often create market failures. A price that reflects the true value of water, by contrast, sends a clear signal to users to use water wisely. At the same time, policy and governance support to ensure efficient, equitable and sustainable access for all is essential.
SOFA notes that the rural poor can benefit substantially from irrigation and endorses its cautious expansion. Between 2010 and 2050, harvested irrigated areas are projected to grow in most regions of the world and to more than double in sub-Saharan Africa, potentially benefiting hundreds of millions of rural people. “Water managements plans need to be problem focused and dynamic,” the report recommends.
The report notes that, in some cases, small-scale and farmer-led irrigation systems can be more efficient than large-scale projects which is a promising path for sub-Saharan Africa, where surface and underground water resources are comparatively undeveloped and only 3 percent of cropland is equipped for irrigation and where expanding small-scale irrigation can be profitable and benefit millions of rural people.
Evidence provided in the report informs a discussion of how countries may determine appropriate policies and interventions, depending on the nature and magnitude of the problem, but also on other factors such as the type of agricultural production system and countries’ level of development and their political structures. Based on this, the publication provides guidance on how countries can prioritize policies and interventions to overcome water constraints in agriculture, while ensuring efficient, sustainable and equitable access.
