World Food Day at RUDN University: water is common wealth of humankind

On 18 October, the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation jointly with the UN Information Centre in Moscow and the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) named after Patrice Lumumba held a scientific and practical conference “Water is life, water is food” dedicated to World Food Day within the framework of the World Food Forum – 2023.

The target audience of the forum, held at RUDN University, were students and postgraduates of Russian universities, as well as young specialists in the field of agrarian science and agricultural practice.

Photo: ©FAO/Anna Glukhova

“At the Agrarian and Technological Institute of RUDN University, there is an environmental laboratory, which is accredited for 92 methods, including agricultural systems, seawater and many other areas,” Director of this Institute Elvira Dovletyarova said in her opening speech.

“In our laboratory, it is possible not only to conduct research, but since it is part of the Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN), to compare the data obtained with data for Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. RUDN University is a participant in many international network projects of international organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS, as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) University, and actively promotes the irrigation agenda within the framework of scientific and educational programmes.

We at RUDN University are happy to cooperate with FAO, because we are convinced,” Elvira Dovletyarova stressed in conclusion, “that only international cooperation will allow us to respond to the challenges that we face. Foremost among them is the problem of water conservation.”

Photo: ©RUDN University's Photo Department

In his speech, Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, cited as an example of selfless dedication to the ideals of the United Nations and competent management – FAO Director-General Dr Qu Dongyu, who in his first four years in office has implemented a number of important reforms.

“For the first time, Women’s and Youth Committees were created in FAO. The Women’s Committee deals with social issues, and young people are focused on promoting innovation. These innovations were received with enthusiasm and enjoy the full support of all employees.

Dr Qu Dongyu replaced the seven previous strategic goals of FAO with four areas of the organization’s activities. Namely ensuring better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life while respecting the principle of “leaving no one behind”. Born into a family of poor rice farmers in Hunan Province (China), the FAO Director-General knows well the value of water.

Addressing the student audience, Oleg Kobiakov urged young people to actively participate in FAO projects and events: “The FAO Moscow Office is always friendly and interested in the initiatives of future specialists, and we are convinced that today’s FAO youth “fan club” is the personnel reserve of the future innovative agricultural sector.”

Photo: ©RUDN University's Photo Department

“Climate change has enhanced the likelihood and degree of danger of such extreme weather events as floods and droughts. The rise in global temperatures increases the amount of moisture that the atmosphere can hold, which leads to an increase in the incidence of storms and heavy rain, as well as, paradoxically, to more intense droughts, since more water evaporates from the earth’s surface, and global weather conditions change, said Vladimir Moshkalo, Head of the UNEP Russia Office. For the last 50 years, water-related disasters have dominated the list of natural disasters and are the cause of 70% of all deaths due to natural disasters.”

“Healthy aquatic ecosystems and more efficient management of water resources can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide protection from climate threats,” Vladimir Moshkalo stressed. “For example, wetlands, mangroves, seagrasses, swamps and marshes are highly efficient carbon sinks. They serve as a buffer against extreme weather events, create a natural shield from storm surges and absorb excess water and precipitation.”

In his opinion, no less important are early warning systems for floods, droughts and other water-related disasters, which provide more than tenfold return on investment and can significantly reduce the risk of disasters. Twenty-four’ hours warning of an approaching storm can reduce the subsequent damage by 30%.”

In conclusion, Vladimir Moshkalo stressed: “In order to cope with today’s water-related issues, we must ensure the efficiency of water use within the framework of agrifood systems, find safe methods of wastewater reuse, protect water resources and systems of food production from them and provide everyone with financially affordable food.”

Photo: ©RUDN University's Photo Department

Sergey Kharakhashyan, Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian Youth Public Organization “Russian Union of Rural Youth” (RURY), presented the “‘Human resources for the Village’ programme: a new image of the village and opportunities for youth involvement in the agro-industrial complex.”

RURY encourages the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of young people, for which it holds a business planning competition in rural areas, in which 390 teams and more than 1 000 activists participate. The most promising projects will receive the support of investors and business mentors. Among them may be a mini-smokehouse “Chyo kopchyo”, a bee farm “Bees”, “Evenings in the Agafon yard”, etc.

RURY organizes internships and practical activities for students at large agricultural holdings and farms, such as Rostselmash, STEPPE, Miratorg, Bryansk Meat Company, etc. For the purpose of early career guidance, visiting teams meet with high school students in rural schools, where they share information about measures of state support for the village, opportunities for self-realization.

An interesting project of RURY was the popularization of “Points of Attraction in rural areas”. In the list of these attractive objects, you can find the “Goose Capital” eco-farm in the Kostroma region. This farm, created by young people, won the “Tastes of Russia” contest thanks to some of the highest-quality goose products.

Or “Pikhtovka – the village of the future”, saturated with innovative equipment, interactive services and based on a developed infrastructure, combining traditional rural charm and mega-modernity in the Udmurt Republic. In the same row there is the creative space “Village of the twenty-first century” in Buryatia, the “Milasha” cheese factory created by RURY activist and farmer Nikita Rossov in the Irkutsk region, the “Kudykina Gora” eco-village in Pskov region, etc.

Photo: © FAO/Vladimir Mikheev

“High population growth rates have increased the relevance of the search for solutions to the problem of using freshwater. In this regard, the volume of water extraction from rivers for the needs of life support of the population, including irrigation, has increased,” Andrei Novikov, ameliorator scientist, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of the Agroengineering Department of RUDN University, said in his presentation.

“Irrigated agriculture plays an important role in solving the food issue,” Andrei Novikov emphasized in his report. “Irrigated lands occupy no more than 20% of the total area of arable land and produce up to 40% of the world’s food, including two-third of rice, most of cotton, oil and vegetable crops. For example, in Central Asia, irrigated agriculture is 60 times more productive than non-irrigated agriculture, in the Volga region – eight times, in the Republic of Dagestan, up to 70% of crop production is obtained from irrigated land, including all rice, more than 80% of vegetables, about 60% of fruit and berry crops and more than 50% of fodder crops.

The constraining burden of freshwater scarcity and the development of irrigation in the world necessitate the use of farming methods that contribute to increasing water productivity. In the future, it is necessary to achieve the level of productivity of an irrigated hectare up to 15-17 thousand fodder units with the effective use of irrigation water, fertilizers and other means.

The expert stressed that such tracks of scientific and innovative irrigated agriculture are particularly relevant as the development of water-saving and soil-conservation methods of precise agrotechnology in the system of crop rotations of various specializations, promising forage agrocenosis and technologies for improving their use; increasing soil fertility; creating varieties and hybrids of plants resistant to climate change, diseases, and pests.

“These areas of research,” Andrei Novikov said in conclusion, “are designed to solve the issue of food supply in the future while increasing productivity, efficiency of land and water use both in our country and in various regions of the world.”

In the report “Freshwater scarcity and ways to overcome it”, Natalia Frolova, Head of the Department of Land Hydrology of the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University, noted that “this is one of the most acute problems of our time for all countries of our community. There are forecasts that by the middle of the twenty-first century, this problem may affect more than seven billion people.

Thus, by 2030, more than half of the world’s population will live in areas with acute water scarcity, and climate change is further exacerbating this problem. The freshwater that people use, mainly a renewable freshwater resource, is stream flow, but only a small part of freshwater is available to people, and most of it is spent on food production.”

“In the late twentieth century, appeared the popular concept of “virtual water” by J. Allan, who believed that depending on the amount of water used for a particular type of agricultural product, it should be grown mainly where it grows best,” said Natalia Ryazanova, Associate Professor of the Department of International Complex Problems of Nature Management and Ecology at MGIMO University.

“This approach was reflected, for example, in the environmental code of the state of California (the USA), when the environmental police took repressive measures aimed at ensuring that people did not grow any crops around their homes or lawns that would consume a large amount of water. Only succulents could be grown. Moreover, monitoring was carried out with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles, and if it was noticed that people had pools filled with water, they were obliged to pay a fee to the local budget.”

As an example of glocalization (globalization plus localization), the expert cited the United Arab Emirates (the UAE), which at one time bought or leased land in different countries of the world on which it grew agricultural crops.

Answering Oleg Kobiakov’s question about the possible “reanimation” of the long-standing project of transferring the waters of Russia’s northern rivers to the south, Natalia Ryazanova said that “at that time there was no such thing as an environmental justification, the emphasis was on financial and economic justification. However, experts have come to the conclusion that the transfer of Siberian rivers to Central Asia will have negative consequences for the environment. Currently, this project is being studied again at the Water Problems Institute and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but the solution here will lie in the political sphere, taking into account public discussion.”

“People receive a large amount of nutrients from the seas. The seas produce a large amount of oxygen, 40-50% due to phytoplankton, and therefore the oceans can be called the lungs of our planet. Today, oceans and seas face a lot of problems,” said Anfisa Kharybina, Youth Ambassador of the Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) in Russia, who joined the forum online from Sakhalin.

“Russia has a quite long coastline. Relevant statistics on SDG 14 are gathered at the national level. This is the ratio of protected areas to the total marine areas with fish stocks located within biologically stable limits, as well as the degree of compliance with international legal instruments to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.”

Anfisa Kharybina said in conclusion that this work is coordinated with UNEP and FAO, and its results are reflected in Rosstat reports.

Photo: © FAO/Anna Glukhova

“By 2025, soil degradation in the Southern Federal District (SFD) will amount to 70% (24 619 thousand hectares) of the total area of agricultural land (35 396 thousand hectares),” said Angelina Egorova, Member of the Department of Environmental Economics of the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Youth Ambassador of the SDG 6 “Clean Water and Sanitation” in Russia (2019-2020).

“The most alarming situation has developed in the Republic of Kalmykia, in the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions, where the level of soil degradation exceeds 70%. In the Rostov region and the Krasnodar Territory, the degradation of farmland amounted to over 50%.”

Angelina Egorova noted that to solve the issue “it is proposed to create a system of expanded monitoring of agricultural land and a single regulatory and controlling body.”

Photo: © FAO/Anna Glukhova

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The conference was also attended by Polina Rozanova, representative of the “SilkInS” startup, who gave a presentation on “Technologies for providing people with food using water resources”, as well as Timur Myagkov and Polina Zavodnyuk, Members of the Secretariat of the Churkin Moscow International Model UN, who delivered a presentation entitled “Social and economic consequences of lack of access to water as a resource”.