Viewpoint: Water, agriculture & poverty in an era of climate change: Why do we know so little?

Overcoming Global Food Security Challenges through Science and Solidarity

“…FAO AQUAStat data indicate that agriculture accounts for 70% of total human water withdrawals today, and more than 80% in Africa and Asia, where key river basins suffer serious water stress. This underscores the pressing need for increased economic research on the agriculture–poverty–water nexus (Balasubramanya and Stifel 2020). Further, agri‐food systems now account for roughly one‐quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, thereby contributing to climate change that increases water stress on those systems and on humankind more broadly (IPCC 2019).…”

Satellite‐Based Monitoring of Irrigation Water Use: Assessing Measurement Errors and Their Implications for Agricultural Water Management Policy

“…Our analysis suggests that measurement errors could have important negative implications for farmer welfare and effectiveness of water management strategies. However, accurate in situ metering is also costly to implement and maintain relative to indirect monitoring through satellite remote sensing, a factor that has contributed historically to the limited uptake and slow spread of metering in many regions (Balasubramanya & Stifel, 2020; Closas & Molle, 2018; Hoogesteger, 2018; Novo et al, 2015). Trade‐offs therefore exist between improved monitoring accuracy versus higher costs of implementation (Escriva‐Bou et al, 2020), which must be balanced in the context of management objectives and heterogeneity in both the value of water and impacts of abstraction on the environment and other water users.…”

“…Similarly, estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2019) show only 36% of groundwater irrigation wells in the United States are equipped with flow meters (Figure 1), with large monitoring gaps in states such as California and Texas that have experienced severe aquifer depletion over recent decades (Scanlon et al, 2012). In low‐income countries, gaps in agricultural water use accounting are even more pronounced, with almost nonexistence monitoring and reporting of agricultural water use in areas of intensive irrigation across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (Balasubramanya & Stifel, 2020)…”

“…However, a key requirement in each case is the ability to monitor farmers' water withdrawals in order to enforce rules governing individual abstraction rates (OECD, 2015) and determine future sustainable abstraction limits (Butler Jr et al, 2018). monitoring and reporting of agricultural water use in areas of intensive irrigation across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (Balasubramanya & Stifel, 2020) A key factor underpinning the low levels of metering of water abstractions for irrigation is the difficulty faced by managers and regulators in maintaining reliable and complete records of the locations of abstraction wells or diversions. In surface water irrigation systems illegal off-takes from canals or rivers are common (e.g., Hanemann & Young, 2020), in particular in developing countries where diversions may be small scale and based on simple temporary infrastructure that exist outside of official planning and permitting processes (Veldwisch et al, 2019;Woodhouse et al, 2017).…”

Evaluasi Kebutuhan Air Persemaian Di Kawasan Karst Nggorang Manggarai Barat, Labuan Bajo, Nusa Tenggara Timur

“…Ketersediaan sumber air di lokasi persemaian dan perbenihan tanaman hutan harus mencukupi selama satu musim, terlebih musim kemarau (Pramono dkk, 2016;Permen LHK, 2020). Ketersediaan air dalam masa persemaian bibit tanaman mengambil faktor penting selain sumber nutrisi dan mempertahankan kelembaban di sekitar persemaian (Pramono dkk, 2016;Balasubramanya and Stifel, 2020;Valliano et al, 2020). Sehingga dalam perencanaan persemaian, jika berada di daerah yang terbatas akan sumber daya air nya (secara geologi maupun hidrologi atau curah hujan yang kecil) perlu dilakukan upaya keteknikan penyediaan air dari sumber air lain atau mendatangkan air dari sumber lain (Traitler dkk, 2018;.…”