This Article is From Apr 09, 2009

FAO calls for more water-friendly agriculture practices

Istanbul: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has urged countries to adopt more water efficient agricultural practices and enhance water management in the sector in a bid to tackle the growing water scarcity and related problem of hunger.

FAO has also asked for more guidance to be provided for farmers in the developing countries in being water efficient as climate change is expected to drastically reduce the availability of water. The agriculture sector remains the dominant water user, with as much as 70 per cent of available sources being deployed in the sector across several countries.

FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said the farming community needs to be given all the assistance it needs in best agricultural practices as the ",future of water is in a more efficient agriculture",.

",The millions of farmers around the world, who provide us with 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 target investment, incentives and the right policy environment",, he added.

The FAO chief's comments at the ongoing 5th World Water Forum come against a backdrop of growing water scarcity, which has already started affecting agricultural production in water starved areas. Experts have warned of growing food insecurity in the near future as water resources dry up and commodity prices shoot up.

Last month, the Davos-based economic think tank, World Economic Forum had warned that the world was heading toward ",water bankruptcy", as demand for the precious commodity would outstrip even high population growth. In less than 20 years, water scarcity could lose the equivalent of the entire grain crops of India and the United States, WEF said.

Experts have maintained that with water becoming scarce, the spectre of a serious food crisis looms large at the world, because a growing world population is already exerting pressure on food demand. Some experts have raised the bogey of climate change and its effects on future water supply for agriculture to drive home the point of adopting more efficient techniques.

Diouf said the agriculture sector has a prime responsibility in meeting current and future demand for food but also managing the environmental impacts of production. ",The growing hunger in the world, with nearly one billion human beings or 15 per cent of the world's population not getting enough to eat, could get worse unless bold decisions are made and concrete and urgent actions are undertaken",, he added.

India, like several other developing countries, remains particularly vulnerable to global climate changes. Agriculture remains the mainstay of India, employing almost 70 per cent of the country's labour force, though it contributes less than one-fourth to the gross domestic product (GDP).

But, it has seen a decline in agricultural activity over the past few years largely due to a combination of factors, including floods and droughts. Despite efforts to secure irrigation through other means, Indian agriculture remains heavily dependent on the climate and the summer monsoon rains.

In several Indian states, particularly Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the failure of the monsoons has resulted in severe water shortages in the past few years, resulting in below-average crop yields.

The FAO chief said the world was 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 long run, and also has to prevent future shocks, increase resilience of the most vulnerable and mitigate environmental impacts",, he added.

Diouf has 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",.

The FAO chief said if efforts are not done on an urgent basis to change water-inefficient practices in agriculture and certain measures like adoption of new drought-resistant seeds and water harvesting undertaken, the world may lose as much as 30 per cent of the agricultural yield in tropical and desert areas in the future.

He suggested that each country would need to manage with its given water resources and use water available in rivers and lakes judiciously and not depend on rain-fed agriculture practices alone. There was also a need to work on some long-term strategies including water basin transfer and development.

Experts have called for integrating climate change adaptation within water management policies to benefit the poorest and most vulnerable people. Abiotic stresses like drought, temperature extremes, flood, salinity, material toxicity and nutritive deficiency are threatening agricultural production globally and India being a tropical country faces such abiotic stresses to a significant degree, which has implications for its national food security.
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