Coping with Water Scarcity: An Action Framework for Agriculture and Food Security
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About this ebook
This report aims to provide a conceptual framework to address food security under conditions of water scarcity in agriculture. It has been prepared by a team of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the framework of the project "Coping with water scarcity: the role of agriculture", and has been discussed at an Expert Consultation meeting organized in FAO, Rome in December 2009 on the same subject. It was subsequently edited and revised, taking account of discussions in the Expert Consultation and materials presented to the meeting. The document offers views on the conceptual framework on which FAO's water scarcity programme should be based, proposes a set of definitions associated with the concept of water scarcity, and indicates the main principles on which FAO should base its action in support to its member countries.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
An intergovernmental organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European Union. Its employees come from various cultural backgrounds and are experts in the multiple fields of activity FAO engages in. FAO’s staff capacity allows it to support improved governance inter alia, generate, develop and adapt existing tools and guidelines and provide targeted governance support as a resource to country and regional level FAO offices. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO is present in over 130 countries.Founded in 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO provides a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. The Organization publishes authoritative publications on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and nutrition.
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Coping with Water Scarcity - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Cover picture: Chhattisgarh, India - 2008
(© Melissa Ho)
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© FAO 2012
About this report
The report aims to provide a conceptual framework to address food security under conditions of water scarcity in agriculture. It has been prepared by a team of FAO staff and consultants in the framework of the project Coping with water scarcity – the role of agriculture
, and has been discussed at an Expert Consultation meeting organized in FAO, Rome, during the period 14–16 December 2009 on the same subject. It was subsequently edited and revised, taking account of discussions in the Expert Consultation and materials presented to the meeting.
The purpose of the Expert Consultation was to assist FAO to better design its water scarcity programme. In particular, the experts were requested to provide recommendations on the range of technical and policy options and associated principles that FAO should promote as part of an agricultural response to water scarcity in member countries.
The document offers views on the conceptual framework on which FAO's water scarcity programme should be based, proposes a set of definitions associated with the concept of water scarcity, and indicates the main principles on which FAO should base its action in support to its member countries. At the meeting, experts were requested to review the draft document and provide feedback and recommendations for its finalization. Issues that were addressed in discussions included:
Water scarcity: agreement on key definitions.
The conceptualization of water scarcity in ways that are meaningful for policy development and decision-making.
The quantification of water scarcity.
Policy and technical response options available to ensure food security in conditions of water scarcity.
Criteria and principles that should be used to establish priorities for action in response to water scarcity in agriculture and ensure effective and efficient water scarcity coping strategies.
Acknowledgements
FAO recently embarked on a long-term partnership with the Government of Italy, which has agreed to fund a modular programme on the theme Coping with water scarcity – the role of agriculture
. The development of a conceptual framework to address food security under conditions of water scarcity is part of this programme.
This report was prepared by a team from the Land and Water Division of FAO with assistance from several experts. Pasquale Steduto, as leader of the Italian Trust Fund Coping with Water Scarcity
, lead the initiative and coordinated the preparation of the report. The report was written by Jean-Marc Faurès, Jippe Hoogeveen and Jim Winpenny, in collaboration with Pasquale Steduto and Jacob Burke. Charles Batchelor prepared a background document focusing on water accounting and water audit, which was extensively used in the preparation of this report.
Participants in the Expert Consultation, who contributed to reviewing and validating the report, were: Mary Harwood (Australia), François Molle (France), Humberto Peña Torrealba (Chile), Mei Xurong and Gan Hong (China), Walter Huppert and Elisabeth Van Den Akker (Germany), Nicola Lamaddalena and Stefano Burchi (Italy), Wim Bastiaanssen (The Netherlands), Amadou Allahoury Diallo (Niger), Rivka Kfir (South Africa), Consuelo Varela-Ortega and Elias Fereres-Castiel (Spain), Netij Ben Mechlia (Tunisia), Chris Perry and Charles Batchelor (United Kingdom), Mark Svendsen and Donald A. Wilhite (United States of America), Chandra A. Madramootoo (International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, ICID), Rudolph Cleveringa (International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD) and David Molden (International Water Management Institute, IWMI).
FAO participants who contributed to the review and helped finalizing the report are Jacob Burke, Thierry Facon, Jean-Marc Faurès, Karen Frenken, Nicoletta Forlano, Jippe Hoogeveen, Gabriella Izzi, Sasha Koo-Oshima, Alba Martinez-Salas, Patricia Mejias-Moreno, Daniel Renault, Guido Santini, Pasquale Steduto and Domitille Vallée. Johan Kuylenstierna (UN-WATER) acted as facilitator for the Expert Consultation.
Assistance in the organization of the Expert Consultation was provided by Helen Foster and Lena Steriti. This report was edited by Thor Lawrence and layout editing was done by Gabriele Zanolli.
Contents
About this report
Acknowledgements
Executive summary
Driving forces behind water scarcity and the role of agriculture
Measuring water scarcity: the hydrological cycle
Policy and management options
Supply enhancement
Demand management in agriculture
Actions beyond the water domain
Assessing and combining food supply options through a cost curve approach
Principles for action
1. Introduction
1.1 The water ‘crisis’
1.2 Agriculture, water and food security
1.3 Aims and scope of the report
2. Defining water scarcity
2.1 Existing water scarcity definitions
2.2 Definitions used in this report
2.3 Dimensions of water scarcity
2.4 Indicators of water scarcity
2.5 The hydrological cycle
3. Driving forces behind water scarcity
3.1 Factors affecting water supply
3.2 Factors affecting water demand
4. Coping with water scarcity: the conceptual framework
4.1 Building on earlier work
4.2 Options to respond to water scarcity by major policy domain
4.3 A dynamic model of policy responses
4.4 Agricultural response to water scarcity
5. Water accounting: getting the water budget right
5.1 Transparent water accounting
5.2 Main challenges addressed by water accounting
5.3 Types of water accounting
Macro-economic water accounting: the System of Environmental and Economic Accounting for Water
Filling the gap between supply and demand: the water cost curve approach
Participatory groundwater monitoring
Trade in water rights: accounting for Australia’s water
Water accounting based on remote sensing
Water accounting by product: the water footprint concept
Water accounting for firms
5.4 From water accounting to water audit
6. Policy and management response options
6.1 Options within the water domain (all sectors)
Managing supply
Managing demand
6.2 Options within the agricultural water management domain
Supply enhancement
Water recycling and re-use in irrigation
Reducing water losses
Improving crop water productivity
Re-allocating water from lower to higher value use in irrigation
6.3 Options outside of the water domain
Investing in rainfed agriculture
Reducing losses in the food chain
Beyond agricultural production: virtual water and the role of trade
6.4 Issues of scale and inter-dependency of response options
6.5 The food supply cost curve as a tool for decision-making
Applying a cost curve to food supply strategies
Calculating the food supply cost curve
7. Principles for action
7.1 Knowledge
7.2 Impacts
7.3 Capacity
7.4 Context-specificity
7.5 Policy coherence
7.6 Preparedness
References
Annex 1. Definitions
Annex 2. Agenda of the Expert Consultation
Annex 3. List of participants of the Expert Consultation
Annex 4. List of presentations at the Expert Consultation
List of figures
List of tables
List of boxes
Executive summary
Simply stated, water scarcity occurs when demand for freshwater exceeds supply in a specified domain.
Water scarcity = an excess of water demand over available supply
This condition arises as consequence of a high rate of aggregate demand from all water-using sectors compared with available supply, under the prevailing institutional arrangements and infrastructural conditions. It is manifested by partial or no satisfaction of expressed demand, economic competition for water quantity or quality, disputes between users, irreversible depletion of groundwater, and negative impacts on the environment.
Water scarcity is both a relative and dynamic concept, and can occur at any level of supply or demand, but it is also a social construct: its causes are all related to human interference with the water cycle. It varies over time as a result of natural hydrological variability, but varies even more so as a function of prevailing economic policy, planning and management approaches. Scarcity can be expected to intensify with most forms of economic development, but, if correctly identified, many of its causes can be predicted, avoided or mitigated.
The three main dimensions that characterize water scarcity are: a physical lack of water availability to satisfy demand; the level of infrastructure development that controls storage, distribution and access; and the institutional capacity to provide the necessary water services.
DRIVING FORCES BEHIND WATER SCARCITY AND THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE
Unconstrained water use has grown at global level to a rate more than twice the rate of population