2 WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY
WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY 3 CONTENT I SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 4 SECTION 2 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF TARGET 5 SECTION 3 TARGETS AND TARGET ACTION PLAN 9 SECTION 4 SOLUTIONS SECTION 5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP 10 10 10 SECTION 6 CONCLUSIONS 11
4 WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY I SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION n September 2011, during a meeting held in Mexico City, Mexico, the Water Forum of the Americas transitioned the activities leading to the 6th World Water Forum such that the process is now broadly known as the Americas Regional Process towards the 6th World Water Forum. This document represents the Thematic Position Paper for the Water for Food Security Regional Target Group. Six thematic priorities for the Americas were developed and various organizations have volunteered to lead the development of material for each theme. The Water for Food Institute of the University of Nebraska was selected to lead the Water for Food Security theme. Over the course of the last several months since the 6th World Water Forum Stakeholder Consultation in Paris, France, the target and solutions groups have been engaged in the development of Target Action Plans, collecting case studies of existing and potential solutions, gathering feedback, seeking input through stakeholder involvement and a range of other focused activities. The effort has sought wide involvement and stakeholder exchange (the WISE Process) while conducting target activities. Among these are: Water for Food Conference (Lincoln, Nebraska USA) sponsored by the Daugherty Water for Food Institute of the University of Nebraska. This conference included a wide range of stakeholders including scientists, engineers, policy makers, regulators, producers, academicians, and business leaders from around the world. 6th World Water Forum Symposium (Palm Springs, California USA) sponsored by the Environmental & Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Delegates from the U.S., Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and other Americas countries participated in the symposium with emphasis on the Water for Food Security target. Annual Conference & Exposition (ACE) 2011 (Washington, DC USA) sponsored by the American Water Works Association. Participate in the international symposium and coordinate with other stakeholders. Singapore International Water Week 2011 (Singapore) Sponsored by the Public Utilities Board. Participate and coordinate with other stakeholders. Daugherty Water for Food Institute/University of Nebraska collaborative meetings in Brazil with ANA and EMBRAPA. Designed to advance the collaborative research effort between Brazilian and Nebraska institutions. World Water Week 2011 (Stockholm, Sweden) Sponsored by the Stockholm International Water Institute. Participate in water for food sessions, coordinate with the World Water Council, the FAO, and other stakeholders.
WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY 5 Americas Regional Workshop (Mexico City, Mexico) Sponsored by Conagua. Participate in presentations, stakeholder involvement, synthesis and discussions with stakeholders. WEFTEC 2011 (Los Angeles, California USA) sponsored by the Water Environment Federation. Participate in water for food sessions and coordinate with other stakeholders. Seventh Inter-American Dialogue on Water Management (Medellin, Colombia) sponsored by the Inter-American Water Resources Network. Participate in presentations, stakeholder involvement, synthesis and discussions with stakeholders. In addition to participating in face-to-face meetings in many Americas locations, stakeholders were reached out to via e-mail communication and the internet. The following pages outline the background and rationale for the targets, the target action plans, existing and potential solutions, and the way forward SECTION 2 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF TARGET Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and an increasing number of regions, including the Americas, are reaching the limit at which reliable water services can be delivered. Demographic growth and economic development are putting unprecedented pressure on renewable, but finite, water resources, particularly in arid regions. By 2025, 1.8 billion people are expected to be living in countries or regions with less than 500 m3 of renewable water per year per capita, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions (between 500 and 1000 m3 per year per capita). The situation will be exacerbated as the demands of rapidly growing urban areas place increased pressure on the quality and quantity of local water resources. Given the finite circulation of freshwater, and the limited opportunities for expanding arable lands, the Americas is facing a progressive condition of scarcity of water and land resources, which is threatening the viability of key Americas agricultural systems to safeguard Americas food security. Reconciling the competition for water among economic sectors and sustaining the productive and environmental values of these agricultural systems is now critical to avoid further shocks to the Americas food supply system and to sustain the values of the already stressed environmental systems. Irrigation systems are already under pressure to produce more with less water. With no gains in water productivity, average annual agricultural consumption of water could double in the next 50 years, while with reasonable increase in water productivity the Americas water consumption could be held down to 20-30%.
6 WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY Therefore, increasing water productivity is imperative to coping with water scarcity while meeting rising demand for food from a growing, wealthier, and increasingly urbanized population, and responding to pressures to re-allocate water from agriculture to cities while sustainable environmental flow would have to be ensured. Targeting high water productivity reduces investment costs, because less water needs to be withdrawn, and the need for additional water and land resources in agriculture. Irrigated agriculture uses about 70% of the total water withdrawal worldwide. However, the majority of large-scale irrigation systems are performing well below their potential. In fact, large-scale irrigation systems in several emerging and least developed countries may be characterized by an inflexible and unreliable water delivery service with significant inequities between the head and the tail end of the systems. A number of these irrigation systems are still top-down agency-managed supply-based systems with dilapidated infrastructure, which lack meaningful participation of water users in their governance. Furthermore, although irrigation system performance and irrigation modernization has to a large extent been the focus of investments during the last two decades, expected progresses have been generally modest. The major reasons for these unsatisfactory results are related to: i) the compartmentalization of the modernization activities in either hardware or software - investments were made either in the hardware and automation or in institutional set up and participatory irrigation management - while they were needed in all of the components of an irrigation system; ii) overall lack of understanding of the modernization strategies and the concept of service oriented management; iii) limited capacity of the irrigation mangers to implement the modernization strategies and plan for improvements, iv) lack of vision for the future needs; and v) lack of understanding that regular operation and maintenance of water management systems is required and that modernization is a continuing process in the context of changing water delivery environment. To enhance the productivity of irrigated agriculture a coherent strategy and a push for modernization of irrigation management is needed at the country and regional level, that addresses the past shortcomings of the investments in irrigation modernization and allows for appropriate managerial and infrastructural upgrading in a cost effective manner, while accounting for future water delivery requirements. In light of this it would be useful to investigate how many systems have been modernized in the last 10 years and to report on the achievements. Proven systematic methodologies and approaches can then be helpful in identification of investments priorities, preparation of modernization plans, and in developing national, regional, and Americas capacities in irrigation modernization.
WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY 7 Water productivity (WP) is the ratio of the net benefits from crop, forestry, fishery, livestock and mixed agricultural systems to the amount of water used to produce those benefits. In its broadest sense, it reflects the objectives of producing more food, income, livelihood and ecological benefits at less social and environmental cost per unit of water consumed. Physical water productivity is defined as the ratio of agricultural output to the amount of water consumed more crop per drop, and economic water productivity is defined as the value derived per unit of water used and this has also been used to relate water use in agriculture to nutrition, jobs, welfare and the environment (Comprehensive Assessment IWMI, 2007). With about 80-85% of the Americas food calories derived from crops (where 50% of the human direct food calories are provided by rice, wheat and maize only), one of the key recommendations to increase water productivity remains more crop per drop, i.e., the physical water productivity as defined above. The advantage to target the physical (rather than economical) water productivity is also in the independence from volatility of economic valuations. Each country (or sub-national though significant system) has its main crop(s) that can be taken as reference to monitor irrigated water productivity. For each of these crops, a baseline needs to be identified for benchmarking (we recommend in principle the average of a few years, e.g., 2000-05). The weighted aggregation of the different water productivity would then represent the Americas water productivity for each crop (or crop category). Investigation of water productivity variability and potential (and consequently the water-productivity gap) would provide the scope for increasing water productivity and would guide the typology and affordability of intervention measures. Departing from the base line, then, the water productivity can be monitored periodically and the slope of the interpolating line of the values over the years would indicate the % change of water productivity. There is considerable scope for improving water productivity, but not everywhere. Therefore, agricultural systems within each country may be selected for monitoring the % change of water productivity. Focusing in areas of low productivity (like in sub-saharan Africa and South Asia) would have the advantage of both reducing the amount of additional water needed for agriculture and help to reduce poverty. In light of the requirements as outlined above it will also be necessary to preserve land for agriculture (in front of urban areas extension). This will require consistent policies, also outside the water and agriculture sector. Standard methodologies have been developed to assess water productivity at different scales (field, country, Americas). These will be associated to sound water accounting methodology to assess also real saving in water use and consumption. Typical interventions measure may relate to:
8 WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY operation and maintenance of irrigation systems (for better amount and timing control of irrigation; etc.); on-farm water management (to minimizing non productive consumption of water, including the use of improved varieties; etc.); modernization, or upgrading of existing irrigation and drainage systems, or installation of new systems where this can be viable; financial frameworks (to provide incentives to farmers for adoptions of best practices, and enhanced technology, including improved varieties, etc.); use of marginal water in non-conventional agriculture (i.e. forestry); all of those measures that would lead to an increase of land productivity; countries would have to agree on a standard criteria to be adopted for water productivity analysis. Irrigation modernization is the way forward for improving water management and water productivity in large-scale irrigation networks. However, it is a longterm, continuous, and often an expensive process that must follow a systematic approach in order to avoid critical faults. In order to achieve optimal benefits from modernization of irrigation systems it would have to be developed and implemented in conjunction with land improvement and changes in cropping patterns (high cash crops). Main stakeholders in the modernization processes are governments, irrigation and/ or drainage agencies and farmers. This implies that these three partners would have to reach agreement on the activities, responsibilities and cost sharing in the modernization process and the subsequent operation and maintenance costs. While the objectives of modernization are generally improved conditions for farming and higher crop yields it may be expected that farmers share in the cost of service will increase. This can be either financially, or in kind. Appropriate cost-recovery mechanisms that include the social dimension will have to be applied. It is therefore important to have agreement among the stakeholders on such aspects preceding the actual implementation. Improvement of crop production systems to include appropriate crop selection and rotation, enhancement of regional and inter-regional cooperation for diversified crop production and for more crop per drop, self reliance concepts, as well as implementation of research results on high yielding and resilient crop varieties may be important to facilitate such processes. Each individual country would have to assess the need for modernization and develop strategies that will provide basis for improvements in large-scale irrigation networks. The steps that need to be followed, not necessarily in the same sequence, could be:
WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY 9 identification of the large scale irrigation systems that require modernization; development of consistent modernization strategies based on a consultative process with different stakeholders. As example of such approaches at least 3 critical areas (e.g. Punjab) could be identified and the developments in these areas carefully followed; application of systematic and robust methodologies like Mapping Systems and Services for Canal Operations Techniques (MASSCOTE), and use of tools such as Rapid Appraisal Procedure (RAP) in selected irrigation systems. These can help in diagnosing the current situation, quantifying the existing level of water delivery service, setting the priorities, identifying the interventions, and developing comprehensive modernization plans for irrigation systems. The results of these applications can then feed back into the consultation process; internalization of these auditing approaches in the management of large scale irrigation systems through capacity development of the irrigation managers and engineers in (i) service-oriented management, (ii) up-to-date irrigation and drainage techniques (iii) modern management tools and (iv) environmental impact assessment and (v) natural resources management; assistance to farmers in good practices related to field water management and crop water use, and support in developing further their capacity as stakeholders in the water management process; establishment of centre of excellences at the regional levels on irrigation modernization. SECTION 3 TARGETS AND TARGET ACTION PLAN Within the Water for Food Security theme, two (2) targets were developed for the Americas as follows: Target I By 2015, increase the productivity of rainfed and irrigated agriculture lands in the Americas by 15% as compared to 2005 2007 baseline and such that by 2050 there is food security at affordable prices. Promote sustainable rural development under increased need for food production. Target II By 2020 increase the use of treated wastewater and/or low quality water in agriculture in the Americas by 25% as compared to the 2005 2007 baseline. The Target Action Plan for Targets I and II are shown on the following page.
10 WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY SECTION 4 SOLUTIONS Solutions are currently being developed by interested parties and uploaded to the Platform for Solutions for the 6th World Water Forum. Periodically, the proposed solutions will be downloaded into this document during an updating process. The totality of solutions will be integrated into this document following the conclusion of the 6th World Water Forum. SECTION 5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP The recommendations for follow-up will be developed after the final solutions are collected.
WATER FOR FOOD SECURITY 11 SECTION 6 CONCLUSIONS The conclusions will be developed after the solutions have been collected and the recommendations for follow-up have been developed.