Cover slide option 1 Title Water and agriculture: threats and opportunities

Jeremy Bird International Water Management Institute

IWA World Water Congress 22 September 2014

Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI

2 billion smallholder farmers produce 70% of global food

Only about a quarter of food produced is traded on the global market

Samarrai, Fariss. UVA Today. Sept 2014.

Room for optimism? Crop yields keep pace with demand

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Canal irrigated area Tank irrigated area Groundwater irrigated area

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Growth of irrigation in India – groundwater expansion

Source: Mukherji, A., S. Rawat and T. Shah. 2013.

Three of 9 planetary boundaries exceeded – climate change, nitrogen cycle and biodiversity loss

Agriculture has been a significant contributor through food production systems

Success, but at a cost…

Photo: Faseeh Shams

UNITING AGRICULTURE AND NATURE FOR POVERTY REDUCTION

Land and water degradation

Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI

Perverse subsidies on electricity for agriculture led to over- abstraction of groundwater

Source: IWMI

Acknowledgements to Stuart Carlson and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bio-fuel production - a ‘classic’ nexus case

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Food shortages as food prices rise, Mozambique

Photo: ILRI 2008

Demand for meat in developing countries increasing rapidly - the world’s population of farm animals nearly tripled between 1970 and 2010.

“Meat Issue.” IFPRI. 2012. http://insights.ifpri.info/2012/10/the-meat-of-the-issue/

TRENDS: Diet changes…Photo: Pay Drechsel

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GDP per capita (2000 constant dollars per year)

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India

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GDP per capita (2000 constant dollars per year)

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Consumption and income 1961-2000

Meat requires 100 times more water than grain protein

Source: IWMI

15%

11%

9%6%

5%4%

49%

EthiopiaMozambiqueTanzania GhanaMaliZambiaOthers

(15%)

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TRENDS - increasing foreign direct investment in land (and water) Distribution of area under FDI in SSA, 2012

(Williams, IWMI)

3.4 m ha across Africa 26 % for food; 68 % for biofuels water quantity not explicitly covered in many

agreements

Hyderabad 2003-2014

TRENDS: Rapid and ‘organic’ pace of urban expansion

Source: IWMI

Sourcing urban water from an increasing distance Hyderabad, India

Krishna RiverHimayat Sagar

Osman Sagar

GW

Musi River

GW – Ground WaterNJS – Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir

HyderabadWaste water irrigation

industry

Godavari Basin

Krishna Basin

NJS

Basin Border

Musi River

P ETManjira

Singur

Godavari River water

Water pum

ped

Water pumped

Source: van Rooijen, D.; Turral, H.; Biggs, T.W. 2005. Sponge city: Water balance of mega-city water use and wastewater use in Hyderabad, India. Irrigation and Drainage 54: 81-91.

TRENDS: Feminization and ageing of agricultural population

1 million Nepali migrants in 2004 - 97% were male. World Bank. 2009

26% of Nepalese households are headed by females. 2011 Census

World’s farming population is ageing – average age approaching 60 Trends towards consolidation of land in China, Korea, Malaysia…

Photo: Neil Palmer/IWMI

There is water - we just need to manage it better

Photo: Sajjad Ali Qureshi/IWMI

1. Scope for increasing production exists

Yield before/without project (Mg ha-1)

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MaizeSorghum/milletsPulse crops RiceWheatCotton

The Bright Spots Initiative: 286 cases of sustainable intensification

Pretty et al., 2006; Noble et al, 2006

Groundwater reserves in Africa are many times greater than surface water

But how sustainable?

Significant groundwater potential exists in Africa

Ref: Altchenko, Y. and K.G. Villholth, 2013. Transboundary aquifer mapping and management in Africa: a harmonised approach. Hydrogeol. J. 21(7), 1497-1517. DOI 10.1007/s10040-013-1002-3.

Tanzania – from bucket to pump – facilitating entry into the irrigation market

Photo: IWMI

West Bengal – easing regulatory and cost barriers to groundwater use

• Access to groundwater - a major obstacle

• Reforms reduced red-tape - licensing and connection charges

• Could benefit more than 4.5 million smallholders

Source: Aditi Mukherji, IWMI

2. Cross-sector cooperation is possible … and necessary

Agriculture to urban transfers

Agricultural production levels maintained…

…as allocation to agriculture reduced and transferred to urban use

Transfers of water between sectors can be managed

IRRI, 2007. Transferring water from irrigation to higher valued uses: a case study of the Zhanghe irrigation system in China

Photo, Tom Schauble

A benefit sharing approach, the Andes

Upstream-downstream benefit sharing, e.g.: The Caneta Basin – consumers finance watershed management New Law on Payment for Ecosystems Services (PES) in Peru

3. Options for increasing efficiency and resilience are emerging

More with less – solar powered micro irrigation?

Courtesy Jain Irrigation

Photo, Hamish John Appleby

“Scuba” flood tolerant rice

4 million tons rice lost to floods in India and Bangladesh annually Scuba rice is resilient to complete submergence up to 17 days In India 12 million hectares of flood-prone land using scuba rice

Photo: IRRI 2008

Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI)Source: Pavelic 2012

4. Re-use of ‘waste’ and recycling of nutrients expanding

2 million tons of waste into rivers, lakes and wetlands daily 128 million septic tanks and latrines in India contribute to 80%

of the pollution of its surface waters 12 000 km3 of polluted water on the planet - more than the

contents of the world’s 10 biggest river basins (FAO 2011)

Photo: Pay Drechsel

Urban – rural interface: options for viable nutrient recycling?

Photo: Pay Drechsel

New guidelines promote safe wastewater reuse

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Source: Murray & Drechsel, 2011

Fecal sludge - treatment plants not always the answer

An alternative: waste to fertilizer – closing the nutrient loop

Co-compostingPhoto: Razak Seidu/IWMI

Photo: Robert Impraim

Photos left and right: Robert Impraim/IWMI

Photo: IWMI

Photo: IWMI

Looking forward to closer cooperation across sectors….

www.iwmi.org

http://wle.cgiar.org/

Photo by IWMI