Dear Collegues,
Firs of all, I would like to thanks FAO for inviting to comment on this paper.
In this draft V0, the topic of water and food security is very broad analized and has been well tackled. Also the nexus water-(food-enery-land) - security has been well observed. The paper is very innovative and stresses the importance of increasing knowledge about scientific issues relating to water in agriculture sector. In fact, they are often under-represented in rural development policies in different countries.
The paper addresses emerging topics like “water grabbing”, often included in the broader context of the global phenomenon of land acquisition, a topic at the centre of international debate, and that has attracted the attention of organizations. International governments, civil society and academic institutions worldwide. The renewed interest in agricultural land by different types of investors - private companies, public-private partnerships, local governments, investment funds has occurred since the 2000s, intensified considerably during the crisis in 2007-2008, through the rent - for a period generally between 50 and 99 years - of large tracts of agricultural land on which to install new business.
Finally, a very detailed analysis is then dedicated to the section of the paper relative to improved water management for improved FSN and important aspects like virtual water and water footprint have been well analysed.
Filiberto Altobelli