The Hindu : Threat of water scarcity looming large

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 16, 2003

National

National

Threat of water scarcity looming large

By N. Gopal Raj

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 15. Better use of water in agriculture is essential for staving off water scarcity and ensuring food security in the coming decades, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said.

Although there was no global water crisis, there were serious water and food security problems in some developing countries and one among five developing countries would face water shortage by 2030, according to a new FAO study, `Unlocking the water potential of agriculture'. This would be presented at a week-long World Water Forum beginning in Kyoto on Sunday.

In the next three decades, the world population is expected to increase by two billion, almost all of this in developing countries, and the FAO says that world food production needs to increase by 60 per cent to feed these people. Efficient water use therefore, becomes vital. "If we want to avoid a future food crisis, we need more investments to achieve productivity gains in agriculture in developing countries using existing and new technologies,'' the FAO said. Political will was needed to create the enabling environment for increasing water productivity.

Agriculture was the biggest water user, accounting for about 70 per cent of all water withdrawals compared to the 20 per cent by industry and 10 per cent by domestic users. While a person needed about four litres of drinking water every day, the water required to produce a person's daily food requirements was between 2,000 and 5,000 litres.

"Unfortunately, the international debate on water problems tends to overlook the important role of agriculture,'' says Kenji Yoshinaga, Director of FAO's Land and Water Development division. Improving water efficiency by just one per cent in an arid, developing country would save 200,000 litres of freshwater per hectare annually.

Integrated rural water development was needed to improve water use in both rain-fed farming and irrigated lands, the study said. The global irrigated area was expected to increase annually at about 0.6 per cent in the coming 30 years. But 70 per cent of the increase in cereal production was expected to come from these irrigated areas. There was "significant scope'' for increasing rain-fed production through suitable water harvesting systems, but appropriate investments and policy changes were needed. Crop breeding specifically for rain-fed environments was also crucial to the future growth in cereal production.

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