World Savvy Monitor

Nutrition is a staple of human existence, and water is essential for the production of food through agriculture – the cultivation, irrigation and processing of crops, and the maintenance of livestock.  Globally, 70% of all water is used in agriculture, but this figure can be as high as 90% in developing countries.  

The global population is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050.  Obviously as the population grows, there is a concomitantly higher demand for water as well as food.  And as populations become more prosperous, the foods they consume will likely be increasingly water-intensive.  Can adequate food and nutrition be produced using less water?  What will be the effects of global warming?  These will be critical questions going forward in a world of water stress.  

The way water is used for food production is a classic example of the tragedy of the commons; it is tough to fault anyone for trying to feed their families or produce food for export to hungry people, but when everyone pushes water supplies beyond their replenishment rate, ultimately none of these farmers, big or small, will be able to feed anyone.

• The Green Revolution
• More Crop Per Drop
• Current Trends
  

The Green Revolution

The big story here begins with innovation in agricultural practices over the last century (concentrated in the 1960s) that have largely fed the world, albeit while doing serious damage to the world’s water supplies.

• For centuries, crops in most places were rain-fed (using green water), and were thus dependent on seasonal and regional variability of precipitation.  Growing seasons were short, and output was limited.
• New widespread irrigation practices took blue water from rivers, lakes, and aquifers to sustain crops year-round and substantially boost output.  Crop yields from irrigated land are typically up to four times more substantial than their rain-fed counterparts.
• Chemical fertilizers and pesticides were developed that exponentially increased total output and crop variety.  
• The Green Revolution made it possible to feed a growing world population and, in turn, ended up encouraging population growth.  The result was more people eating more and different foods, most of them highly water intensive to produce.  

The toll on the water cycle brought on by the Green Revolution has been significant, from overuse and the unsustainable use of water to the pollution of water from agricultural chemical and organic run-off.  Water stress could lead to food stress as irrigation sources dry up. 

More Crop Per Drop

A big part of a potential solution to easing water stress will be increasing the water-efficiency of agriculture.  

• Different types of food require varying
  amounts of water to irrigate and process.
• As water stress spreads, farmers must increasingly pay attention to the level of productivity (or efficiency) of the water they
  use to grow and harvest their crops, when determining what to grow as well as in managing their crop yields.  
• Crop per drop efficiency would suggest that farmers in arid regions not grow water-intensive crops, but that these be grown in wetter areas of the world.

The success of crop per drop efficiency, however, depends on people being able to get crucial food imports at stable prices.  When global food markets falter, as they did in 2008, the trend often swings back to self-sufficiency over water efficiency.  Countries begin growing food crops that they do not have the sustainable water supplies to support.  See the 2008 New York Times series entitled “The Food Chain,” which illustrates how this desire for food self-sufficiency has led countries such as Djibouti to grow rice (a highly water intensive crop for which it is not suited) in solar paneled greenhouses, fed with groundwater and cooled with seawater, making it the most expensive rice in the world.

Current Trends

Below are some trends to watch relating to agriculture and water:

1) Meat consumption is rising all over the world.  

• Meat requires ten times the amount of water per calorie to produce that plant-based food does.  
• With an increasing number of meat-eaters in the world, the demand for this commodity will likely continue to grow.
  

2) Non-food crops consume a great deal of water, expanding the water footprint of the agricultural sector while not directly feeding anyone.  Profits from growing and selling cash crops such as these do allow people to purchase food from other sources, but as more land (and more water) is devoted to non-food crops, food supplies and prices are impacted.

• These cash crops include cotton, a staple of many developing countries’ economies, and biofuels such as sugar and corn which are used in the production of ethanol.  
• These products are water-intensive, but are often grown in arid areas.   
• The fact that these crops have alternatives/substitutes, leads many to wonder if they should be the recipients of stressed water supplies.
  

3) There is increasing competition between small farmers and large-scale agribusinesses for limited irrigation resources.  It is tough to say which are more water-efficient.  

• Small farmers often have limited access to large irrigation systems and are therefore more locally savvy and nimble in their water use.  
• Large industrial agriculture practices are often wasteful of water, and large conglomerates can afford not to address this waste because the resource is currently so underpriced once infrastructure is in place.
• However, small farmers in some water-stressed areas, particularly in South Asia, often desperately turn to highly unsustainable water extraction practices, such as overdrilling for wells.

4) Help for poor countries in boosting their agricultural water efficiency is lacking at a time in which it is becoming more critical.  

• Agricultural aid, often known as agricultural extension assistance for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), has been decreasing over the past two decades in real terms; it has fallen by one-third since the 1990s.
• Private investment in water efficiency in LDCs is also considered inadequate. Large investments of private capital in this sector are seen as risky in LDCs where regulation, governance, and land policies are inefficient or non-existent.

5) When considering water for agriculture, fishing is often not taken into account.  

• As lakes and rivers dry up due to disruptions in the water cycle (man-made and climate-related), fish stocks are impacted.  This is currently happening in rich and poor countries alike.  
• Water pollution also negatively impacts the supply and quality of fish.
• Many people in the world depend on fish for their daily protein requirements, and many depend on the fishing industry for their livelihoods.

6) Global warming is thought to be playing a role in the increasing prevalence of droughts all over the world.  Feeding a growing population with any kind of crops (water-intensive or water-efficient) is likely to become more challenging as water stress increases due to more severe droughts.

Next:  Water, Economics, and Trade