Improving agricultural water productivity: Between optimism and caution

Molden, David; Oweis, Theib; Steduto, Pasquale; Bindraban, P.S.; Hanjra, Munir A.; Kijne, J. W.

doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2009.03.023

Cited by 705 publications

(485 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Table 8 shows that the economic productivity of irrigation water will increase with the new water use concession system in all ICs, reaching an average valué of 0.284 €/m^ (higher than the one obtained under the WFD scenario). Although irrigation return flows are considered in the study, future research would be needed to investígate the role that the adoption of more efficient irrigation technologies can play in achieving 'real' water savings at the basin scale, as examined by Molden et al (2010), Ward and PulidoVelázquez (2008).…”

Section: National Policy-driven Scenario: Reduríng Water Supply For Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Ferrer

Varela‐Ortega

Purkey

2013

Journal of Environmental Management

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Keywords:Water management Sustainable irrigation Hydro-economic modeling Policy analysis Semi-arid regions Sustaining irrigated agriculture to meet food production needs while maintaining aquatic ecosystems is at the heart of many policy debates in various parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid áreas. Researchers and practitioners are increasingly calling for integrated approaches, and policy-makers are progressively supporting the inclusión of ecological and social aspects in water management programs. This paper contributes to this policy debate by providing an integrated economic-hydrologic modeling framework that captures the socio-economic and environmental effects of various policy initiatives and climate variability. This modeling integration includes a risk-based economic optimization model and a hydrologic water management simulation model that have been specified for the Middle Guadiana basin, a vulnerable drought-prone agro-ecological área with highly regulated river systems in southwest Spain. Namely, two key water policy interventions were investigated: the implementation of mínimum environmental ñows (supported by the European Water Framework Directive, EU WFD), and a reduction in the legal amount of water delivered for irrigation (planned measure included in the new Guadiana River Basin Management Plan, GRBMP, still under discussion). Results indícate that current patterns of excessive water use for irrigation in the basin may put environmental ñow demands at risk, jeopardizing the WFD's goal of restoring the 'good ecological status' of water bodies by 2015. Conñicts between environmental and agricultural water uses will be stressed during prolonged dry episodes, and particularly in summer low-ñow periods, when there is an important increase of crop irrigation water requirements. Securing mínimum stream ñows would entail a substantial reduction in irrigation water use for rice cultivation, which might affect the profitability and economic viability of small rice-growing farms located upstream in the river. The new GRBMP could contribute to balance competing water demands in the basin and to increase economic water productivity, but might not be sufficient to ensure the provisión of environmental ñows as required by the WFD. A thoroughly revisión of the basin's water use concession system for irrigation seems to be needed in order to bring the GRBMP in Une with the WFD objectives. Furthermore, the study illustrates that social, economic, institutional, and technological factors, in addition to bio-physical conditions, are important issues to be considered for designing and developing water management strategies. The research initiative presented in this paper demonstrates that hydro-economic models can explicitly intégrate all these issues, constituting a valuable tool that could assist policy makers for implementing sustainable irrigation policies.

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Section: National Policy-driven Scenario: Reduríng Water Supply For Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Ferrer

Varela‐Ortega

Purkey

2013

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…The severity of water scarcity has prompted researchers, practitioners and policymakers to recognize water scarcity as an important constraint to increased food production over the next few decades (Hoekstra et al, 2009). Therefore, maximizing yield per unit of rainwater has become an important management issue (Ali and Talukder, 2008;Bossio, 2009;Molden et al, 2010;Rockström et al, 2010). Strategic measures are, therefore, needed to increase the productivity of rainwater in agricultural production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Livestock production is one of the major consumers of fresh water (Amede et al, 2009b;Peden et al, 2009;Diogo et al, 2010;Molden et al, 2010). Globally, livestock production accounts for about 20% of agricultural evapotranspiration (ET a ) (Molden et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Strategies for improving water use efficiency of livestock production in rain-fed systems

Kebebe

Oosting

Haileslassie

et al. 2015

Animal

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Livestock production is a major consumer of fresh water, and the influence of livestock production on global fresh water resources is increasing because of the growing demand for livestock products. Increasing water use efficiency of livestock production, therefore, can contribute to the overall water use efficiency of agriculture. Previous studies have reported significant variation in livestock water productivity (LWP) within and among farming systems. Underlying causes of this variation in LWP require further investigation. The objective of this paper was to identify the factors that explain the variation in LWP within and among farming systems in Ethiopia. We quantified LWP for various farms in mixed-crop livestock systems and explored the effect of household demographic characteristics and farm assets on LWP using ANOVA and multilevel mixed-effect linear regression. We focused on water used to cultivate feeds on privately owned agricultural lands. There was a difference in LWP among farming systems and wealth categories. Better-off households followed by medium households had the highest LWP, whereas poor households had the lowest LWP. The variation in LWP among wealth categories could be explained by the differences in the ownership of livestock and availability of family labor. Regression results showed that the age of the household head, the size of the livestock holding and availability of family labor affected LWP positively. The results suggest that water use efficiency could be improved by alleviating resource constraints such as access to farm labor and livestock assets, oxen in particular.Keywords: mixed-crop livestock systems, livestock feed, water use efficiency, livestock water productivity ImplicationsLivestock production is one of the major consumers of fresh water, and the influence of livestock production on water resources is increasing because of the growing demand for livestock products. The results suggest that water use efficiency could be improved by alleviating resource constraints such as access to farm labor and livestock assets, oxen in particular. The findings of this research help in making decisions about where to invest scarce resources in order to improve water use efficiency in livestock production under rain-fed conditions.

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“…Managing the irrigation demand by reducing the beneficial use in agriculture may not always bring real water savings (Ward and Pulido-Velazquez, 2008). It may result in lowering the productivity of the use of thermal and land resources, affecting instream use values (Ward and Booker, 2003), increasing salinity (Khan and Hanjra, 2008), and negatively impacting ecosystem health (Karimov et al, 2014), but it may also deliver other socioeconomic benefits including incomes, employment, revenue, and gains in food security (Molden et al, 2010) for both rural and urban consumers. This highlights the necessity to quantitatively assess the impact of cropping changes beyond land and water savings and to consider also other social gains to the wider public.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can a change in cropping patterns produce water savings and social gains: A case study from the Fergana Valley, Central Asia

Karimov

Hanjra

Šimůnek

et al. 2018

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

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Abstract:The study examines possible water savings by replacing alfalfa with winter wheat in the Fergana Valley, located upstream of the Syrdarya River in Central Asia. Agricultural reforms since the 1990s have promoted this change in cropping patterns in the Central Asian states to enhance food security and social benefits. The water use of alfalfa, winter wheat/fallow, and winter wheat/green gram (double cropping) systems is compared for high-deficit, low-deficit, and full irrigation scenarios using hydrological modeling with the HYDRUS-1D software package. Modeling results indicate that replacing alfalfa with winter wheat in the Fergana Valley released significant water resources, mainly by reducing productive crop transpiration when abandoning alfalfa in favor of alternative cropping systems. However, the winter wheat/fallow cropping system caused high evaporation losses from fallow land after harvesting of winter wheat. Double cropping (i.e., the cultivation of green gram as a short duration summer crop after winter wheat harvesting) reduced evaporation losses, enhanced crop output and hence food security, while generating water savings that make more water available for other productive uses. Beyond water savings, this paper also discusses the economic and social gains that double cropping produces for the public within a broader developmental context.

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Improving agricultural water productivity: Between optimism and caution

Cited by 705 publications

References 28 publications

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Strategies for improving water use efficiency of livestock production in rain-fed systems

Can a change in cropping patterns produce water savings and social gains: A case study from the Fergana Valley, Central Asia

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