Governments and Businesses Need to Urgently Invest in Water Use Efficiency in Agriculture
Ahead of the International Green Week in Berlin the Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture (HFFA) has met to discuss the crucial role of water in future global food supply.
According to the Forum, there has been a very close correlation between agricultural production growth and the use of water for farming in the past half century. Future agricultural production growth, therefore, depends directly on the sustainable availability of freshwater.
This is essential as world agriculture draws 70 per cent of freshwater used globally. However, water is increasingly becoming a constraint for food production growth and jeopardizes world food security. The quality of freshwater is poor in many regions. More than one billion people have no access to safe water today. This number may well increase significantly in the years ahead as the global population grows and climate change alters the regional availability of water. In consequence conflicts over water will get more intense. “By 2025 two out of 3 persons in the world will live in water stressed conditions”, said Anders Berntell, executive Director of the Stockholm International Water Institute.
The HFFA shares the concerns about global food and water insecurity. However, HFFA is convinced that a major food crisis resulting from agricultural water scarcity can be averted. Water scarcity is not a fate, it is mostly man made. «There is an opportunity now to implement existing measures which aim to sustainably increase the productivity of water use in farming. The challenge of water use in agriculture needs to be moved up dramatically in the global political agenda», said Professor Harald von Witzke, president of the HFFA. «Governments should reform their water management policies to improve water use efficiency. This includes that food production growth occurs predominantly where water is relatively abundant and not where it is scarce.»
The Forum agreed that significant research efforts for new water saving and preserving technologies and draught resistant plants need be initiated now, as is will take more than a decade before new technologies will make an impact.
At present water is mostly priced below its value to society. In order to use this scarce resource as efficiently as possible, water needs to be priced at social cost and paid for by users of water. Therefore, consumers worldwide need to be prepared to pay higher prices for the scarce and limited resource of fresh water.
About HFFA
The Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture is a leading think tank in global agriculture that brings together a unique mix of internationally recognised thinkers from science, civil society and industry. Its goal is to develop scientifically based policy recommendations for the future of global food and agriculture.
