Future of water is in agriculture
Farmers need help to grow more food with less water
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has called for more attention to
be paid to water management in agriculture and for increased support and
guidance for farmers in developing countries to tackle water scarcity
and the related problem of hunger.
“The future of water is in a more efficient agriculture,” Diouf said
at the opening of the Ministerial Conference of the fifth World Water
Forum being held in Istanbul.
“The millions of farmers around the world who provide us with the
food we eat must be at the centre of any process of change. They need to
be encouraged and guided to produce more with less water. This requires
well targeted investment, incentives, and the right policy environment”.
Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all global freshwater
withdrawals, though important differences may exist depending on the
stage of development of countries.
It takes only two to three litres of water to satisfy the daily
drinking requirements of a person, but 3,000 litres to produce the
equivalent of our daily requirements for food.
“Agriculture has a prime responsibility in meeting current and future
demand for food but also managing the environmental impact of
production,” said Diouf.
“The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes,
including population growth, migration, urbanization, climate change,
desertification, drought, land degradation and major shifts in dietary
preferences.
Agriculture’s role today is therefore two-fold - it has to close the
gap between supply and demand, both in the short and in the long run and
also has to prevent future shocks, increase resilience of the most
vulnerable and mitigate environmental impacts Diouf said.
Diouf called for a “new agriculture deal” that integrates the
fundamental role of this sector in overall human development and
strengthens the global governance of world food security.
“It is only by investing in productive sustainable agriculture based
on good water management that we will meet our food and energy needs
while at the same time safeguarding the natural resources on which our
future depends” he said.
Concluding his intervention, Diouf expressed the hope that the fifth
World Water Forum will send a “call to the international community to
ensure the urgent investments needed in water infrastructure in
developing countries and to have a better management of water resources
that can address fundamental human needs but also provide productive
livelihoods for generations to come”.
FAO
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