The path to water efficiency passes through sustainable agri-food systems
24 March 2021, Rome – Productivity gains, good governance and a coordinated holistic policy framework are the three major entry points for action to address water and climate-related challenges in agriculture, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said today in a keynote address at the Global Policy Dialogue series organized by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
Climate change is increasing variability in the water cycle and distribution, reducing predictability of both availability and demand, affecting water quality, exacerbating water scarcity and disrupting the livelihoods of millions of rural people who depend on agriculture, the Director-General said.
“Freshwater resources are the cradle of humankind”, Qu said. “Uncontaminated freshwater is at the core of healthy agri-food systems” and is also a requirement for food safety, he added.
Today’s event, “Building Food and Water Security in an Era of Climate Shocks”, was the first of a series of four policy dialogues geared to support the establishment of a global coalition for carbon neutrality to help build back better after the global COVID-19 pandemic, one of priorities of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Liu Zhenmin, UN Undersecretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the discussions, at which Amir Abdulla, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), also spoke. Other expert participants joined from civil society and the private sector, as well as technical experts from FAO and other institutions including UN Water, an umbrella organization coordinating the work of more than 30 UN organizations to deliver as one in response to water-related challenges.
Today’s event supports World Water Day (22 March) celebrated this week and will be submitted as an input to Action Tracks 1 and 5 of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 preparations. FAO is the UN’s anchor agency for Action Track 1 – “Ensure safe and nutritious food for all” – while the WFP is the anchor for Action Track 5, “Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress”.
Agriculture is the main user of freshwater resources and necessarily must have a central role in comprehensive approaches to improving water efficiency, the Director-General said. “Policy coherence is important for the agri-food system both as a user of water and also as a potential contributor to climate change mitigation,” he added.
Information, experience, tools
FAO’s Director-General also emphasized that freshwater resources are becoming increasingly scarce as a result of population growth, urbanization, industrial development and changing lifestyles and diets, constraining capacities for effective adaptation to climate change and jeopardizing the sustainability of many ecosystems.
While farmers have been adapting to changes in precipitation for millennia, “the current pace and magnitude of these changes are of great concern, especially for the rural poor,” Qu said.
More than 60 percent of irrigated cropland – around 11 million hectares – are under high to very high water stress, he noted, citing findings from FAO’s benchmark State of Food and Agriculture 2020 report. Swift and bold responses by all stakeholders towards sustainable and integrated water resources management are essential to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, he added.
Achieving greater efficiency needs to take the multiple demands on water into account: for food production but also sanitation, other economic sectors and to protect healthy ecosystems.
The Director-General noted that large water productivity gains are within reach through investments, recarbonization of soils and the use of drought-tolerant crop varieties. Robust water accounting and auditing systems, bolstered by secure tenure rights for both land and water, which can be key contributors to good governance with effective institutional and legal frameworks for effective water use. Thirdly, overall policy environments must be harmonized - spanning sectors and geographies - and geared to offering the right incentives and disincentives to water users. “We have to share the cost and the investment needed to increase water efficiency and reach sustainability,” Qu said.
FAO “provides the information, the experience and the tools that can turn innovative ideas into reality on the ground for a world free of poverty and hunger,” he said, highlighting AQUASTAT, a data portal that collects and analyses national-level data of water resources and their usage in agriculture across 147 countries, and the innovative online open-source WaPOR tool to monitor and assess water productivity at different levels and timelines.