Water for food and environmental security
Date
2001-06
Authors
Schultz, Bart, author
U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The cultivated area on earth is 1,500 million ha. At 1,100 million ha agriculture takes place without a water management system. Irrigation covers 260 million ha and is responsible for 40% of crop output. Drainage of rain fed crops covers 130 million ha and is responsible for 15% of crop output. Thus 55% of the food production is obtained with the support of a water management system. During the Second World Water Forum in March 2000 a sector vision of 'Water for Food and Rural Development' was presented. It indicates a required duplication in food production - primarily from already cultivated land - in the forthcoming 25 years and gives recommendations how this can be achieved. In this contribution focus is on how the concerned issues may play a role in the development of irrigation and drainage under different climatological and socioeconomic conditions. It is illustrated which measures may be required, including increase in storages and trans basin water transfers. In line with this the Strategy for Action of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) is presented, showing which contributions ICID is planning to give to the realisation of the challenges. "The pace of change in our world is speeding up, accelerating to the point where it threatens to overwhelm the management capacity of political leaders. This acceleration in history comes not only from advancing technology, but also from unprecedented world population growth, even faster economic growth, and the increasingly frequent collisions between expanding human demands and the limits of the earth's natural systems." Lester R. Brown, 1996.
Description
Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.