Water is a key natural resource. Yet, it is becoming scarce

 

Population growth remains the key driver of water scarcity. Socio-economic development increases the demand for water as the middle class expands and diets increasingly shift towards more water-intensive products. The growing deficit of water resources poses a threat to food security and nutrition, so urgent measures must be taken to improve the sustainability of water use in agriculture and ensure equitable access to water.

The FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation and FAO’s depository library in Russia, the Central Scientific Agricultural Library (CSAL), held an online presentation of the FAO flagship publication The State of Food and Agriculture (#SOFA2020), which this year is dedicated to the use of water resources for agriculture and food production.

“Water is one of the key natural resources, especially for agriculture. Crop yields, animal husbandry, forestry, the entire cycle of processing raw agricultural products and turning them into food, and the overall quality of life of people depends on the availability or, conversely, the absence of water,” said Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation.

“The year ends with the presentation and discussion of the flagship publication SOFA 2020. The co-organizer of this videoconference is CSAL, the richest repository of publications on all subjects within the mandate of FAO, which received the status of the FAO depository library long before Russia reclaimed its membership in the Organization,” the head of the FAO Moscow Office noted.

The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the belief that it is necessary “to prevent the health crisis from escalating into a food crisis,” said Ambassador Viсtor Vasiliev, Russia's Permanent Representative to FAO and other international organizations in Rome. One of the ways is to take care of water resources, and the Russian diplomat cited the words by Leonardo da Vinci, “The water was given the magical power to become a juice of life on Earth.” It is no coincidence that water is present in three of the five main areas of discussion planned during the UN-convened Food Systems Summit in September 2021.

By 2030, the world's population is projected to increase by two billion people. Providing them with food will require, among other things, investment, both public and private, in water management systems, since already 70 percent of this resource is directed to agriculture. The facts show, noted Victor Vasilyev, that on irrigated lands the yield is triple as compared to drylands.

Russia is an active donor to FAO, contributing to the development of the agriculture sector in the world. “Almost all the projects we finance in the field of agricultural production include irrigation and land rehabilitation components. The most significant of them are the FAO projects aimed at restoring agricultural production in Syria, for which our country has allocated USD 3.0 million; projects by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan (USD 3.7 million), Uzbekistan (USD 1.5 million) and Tajikistan (USD 1 million),” the Russian diplomat emphasized.

CSAL is the owner of the “AGROS” database, which contains bibliographic entries, annotated information and abstracts on documents from both Russian and foreign sources on all issues of the agro-industrial complex. The topic of water has a high profile, said Dr Lidia Pirumova, Deputy Director of the Central Scientific Agricultural Library, who cited the convincing statistics. In total, the library’s collections hold 168,941 documents, including monographs and articles. 10,496 publications alone are on the topic of water resources, and 16,335 are on irrigated agricultural land. “The figures show that scientists are very much engaged with these issues,” concluded Dr Pirumova.

“Increasing withdrawals of freshwater are also threatening water-related ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them. Climate change is disrupting rainfall patterns, causing increasingly serious water shortages in rainfed agriculture,” the keynote speaker of the event, Dr Marco Sanchez, head of the editorial team of the report, Deputy Director, Agri-food Economics Division (ESA), FAO,noted in his presentation. 

“These trends will exacerbate disputes among water users and inequality in access to water. Among the most affected are small-scale farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable populations,” stressed the FAO expert.

“Agriculture holds the key to addressing these issues. Irrigation, livestock production and aquaculture account for almost three quarters of total freshwater withdrawals. Irrigated cropland in particular, which generates over 40 per cent of food production value, is challenged by increasing water scarcity – which reflects the imbalance between supply and demand of freshwater,” Dr Sanchez detailed.

More than 60 percent of irrigated land is experiencing high to very high-water stress. The SOFA 2020 report finds that 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high levels of water shortages or scarcity. Of these, 1.2 billion (one in six people on the planet) live in agricultural areas with very high levels of water shortages or water scarcity. Out of this number, around 520 million live in South Asia, and about 460 million in East and South-East Asia.

Interventions in one agricultural subsector can have negative impacts on other agricultural subsectors – for instance, excessive water withdrawals for irrigation can affect inland fisheries.

“Only integrated decision making can ensure effective and transparent decisions that avoid excessive water use and take account of the interests of all water users. One potentially important policy tool are payments for environmental services – provided to farmers or landowners who agree to manage their land or watersheds for environmental protection,” Dr Sanchez concluded.

The presentation by Dr Marco Sanchez was complemented by contributions by his colleagues. Jakob Skoet, FAO Senior Economist, Agri-food Economics Division (ESA), revealed the results of comparison of the current report SOFA 2020 and one of the previous ones (from 1994). While 25 years ago the key issue was “water scarcity”, today we face ”water shortages” exacerbated by dramatic climate change. 

Looking into productivity in irrigated and rainfed crop areas, noted Theresa McMenomy, FAO Economist, Agri-food Economics Division (ESA), FAO assesses and determines the various needs in each country. 

Since agriculture has always been the main consumer of water resources, it would be expedient to increase water productivity, said Jippe Hoogeveen, FAO Senior Land and Water Officer, Land and Water Division. “With climate change provoking more floods and draughts, we need to enhance irrigation,” FAO expert noted. By applying high tech solutions like satellite monitoring the state of water resources, there are more opportunities for “precision agriculture” and, in particular, for using the collected information to adapt to draughts. 

The growing shortage of freshwater exacerbates tensions between water users, while water resources and ecosystems are being degraded, said Vladimir Moshkalo, Head of the UN Environment Programme Office in Russia. “In order to fortify actions to restore degraded ecosystems, the UN General Assembly has declared the coming decade to be the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, with FAO and UNEP designated as focal points, and we jointly call on all stakeholders to vigorously participate in the activities of this Decade. Officially, the Decade will be launched on 5 June 2021, on the World Environment Day.”

In the expert community, there are two concepts about what the shortage of water resources could entail. Dr Anastasia Likhacheva, Director for the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS), Higher School of Economics (HSE), and Sadaf Abdolova, expert at the Institute for Agrarian Studies at HSE, presenting the project “Balance of Water Forces”, described the crossroads which some consider a scenario when water becomes the “new oil” for Russia, while others foresee a Third World War for water resources breaking out. 

Dr Nina Karpenko, Head of the Department of Hydrology, Hydrogeology and Flow Regulation of the Timiryazev Russian State Agricultural Academy, listed in her presentation the environmental aspects of agricultural water supply in the Russian Federation in relation to water pollution. According to Rosstat, the discharge of industrial and municipal wastewater reaches 16 km3 per year. There is a flow of diffuse runoff from agricultural land and development areas, formed after snowmelt, rain and streets washing. At the same time, the performance of water treatment facilities and other water protection measures can be assessed as “insufficient or ineffective” (on the average, only 11.6% of wastewater is treated according to the standard). 

What could be the solution then? According to Dr Karpenko, it is necessary to “develop knowledge-intensive technologies for preserving and increasing water resources” and, in general, pursue “sustainable water resources management.” Among the recommendations, the expert listed the following:

• Construction of reservoirs to accumulate and preserve rainwater and water during extreme climatic events, such as floods, melting glaciers, heavy rains that will occur with less frequency in the future, replenishment of groundwater reserves;
• Creation of reservoirs of seasonal or multi-year regulation;
• Use of wastewater for irrigation, which provides direct benefits to farmers who suffer from water scarcity;
• Creation of new generation irrigation systems with low-volume irrigation (drip, fine-dispersed, combined), water circulation systems with technological units for cleaning and conditioning of drainage and discharge waters. This will save up to 20% of fresh natural water for irrigation. 

In the Q&A segment of the forum, a lively discussion followed a query by one of the participants, “How would trading water at US stock exchange affect the deficit of water? Could it make the problem worse? Or better?” Dr Jakob Skoet noted that water has two intrinsic qualities: “It is a commodity, but it is also a basic human right. We must ensure a minimum of water to meet the basic needs.” Marco Sanchez supposed that in this case water could be “overpriced” and exacerbate the existing scarcity.

Representatives of line ministries and agencies, including the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosselkhoznadzor, leading Russian universities, the press and the public attended the forum. On the overall, almost 100 participants followed the online broadcast. 

BACKGROUND 

Irrigated agriculture remains the largest consumer of freshwater. Moreover, due to increasing demand and competition, water shortage is only growing. At the same time, in rainfed agriculture, the problem of regularity of precipitation is aggravated, caused largely by climate change. These trends exacerbate contradictions between water users and increase inequality in access to water. This is especially true for small farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable groups. 

The growing shortage of freshwater available to humanity is a threat to food security and nutrition. The implementation of the Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), in particular SDG 2 (eliminating hunger) and SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), requires urgent measures to improve the sustainability of water use in agriculture.

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Please find FAO publication SOFA2020 in English here:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4060/cb1441en

Card page: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cb1441en

PDF: http://www.fao.org/3/cb1441fr/cb1441en.pdf

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