Integrated Water Management Approaches for Sustainable Food Production

Abstract

With a growing and increasingly wealthy and urban population, it is likely that the role of agricultural water management in ensuring food security will become more important. Pressure on water resources is high. Adverse environmental impacts as a result of sometimes poor management of irrigation and drainage are well documented, calling into question the sustainability of some of the current water management practices. Water, food, energy and climate are intrinsically connected. Greater pressure on water resources and, hence, stronger interconnectivity between sectors sharing these resources, call for new, integrated approaches to agricultural water management. This paper explores the links between water, food, energy and climate. It then explores the role of irrigation and drainage in food production and in providing other ecosystem services that are essential for the sustainable use of natural resources. The paper argues that looking at water for food production in isolation would miss important developments outside the water sector that determine the sustainability of agricultural water management. Integrated approaches to food production are not only necessary to ensure sustainability. They also lead to higher benefits per unit of water. For example, integrating food production with other ecosystem services provided by irrigation and drainage not only contributes to sustainability, it also leads to much higher economic value of benefits. This implies breaking disciplinary boundaries and encouraging greater cooperation from planning to implementation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Food Systems and Natural Resources

“…The motivation to apply a 'food system lens' has been provided in (Sayer et al, 2013, Scherr & McNeely, 2008, efficient use of nutrients (Oenema et al, 2007, Sutton et al, 2013, Sutton et al, 2011b, and water use (De Fraiture et al, 2014, FAO, 2011e, HLPE, 2015, Hoekstra & Mekonnen, 2012, WWAP, 2015.…”

Towards More Effective Irrigation Water Usage by Employing Land Suitability Assessment for Various Irrigation Techniques

“…As de Fraiture et al . () also referred to, it is not always the case that the use of water in agriculture must lead to environmental problems. This depends, among other things, on the quantity of water withdrawn relative to the amount available and on the vulnerability of the landscape water regime.…”

“…(), or in de Fraiture et al . () who included land characteristics among the parameters needed to be evaluated for choosing, designing and implementing the best irrigation and drainage methods in order to provide effective water resource utilization and conservation.…”

“…Over recent decades, agricultural water management and especially irrigation have significantly contributed to the production of food in the world, food security and incomes of farmers in rural areas. As an example, it has been estimated that world production of cereal crops would be 20% lower without irrigation (de Fraiture et al, 2014). Improvement of water management at the field scale by implementation of more efficient irrigation methods is in great demand because of the increasing instability of the climate which multiplies land degradation effects caused by traditional surface irrigation methods on one hand, and by increasing requirements of crop yields from growing populations on the other.…”

“…Incorrect agrotechnical practices leading to large water footprints are compounded by poor water pricing, subsidizing, use of ineffective water technologies and insufficient education of farmers who often do not know the simple rules of water conservation. Thus, from all fresh water about 70% is used in irrigated agriculture worldwide to produce about 40% of global food from an area of 18% of the world's total cropland (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization-World Water Assessment Programme (UNESCO-WWAP), 2006;de Fraiture et al, 2014).…”