Water productivity: challenges facing agricultural development: changing paradigm of water use (Foro Rosenberg)
- Resumen
- In the early 1960s, Food security was an over-riding concern in many developing countries. Two main interventions have helped reduce uncertainties and stabilize agricultural production on millions of small farms in developing countries. The first was increased investment in irrigation and to lesser extent drainage, and the second was increased investment in research and development of agricultural production technology. <br> As irrigation systems were built and short maturing and high yielding varieties became available, farmers were able to cultivate two or three crops a year and increased the production of cereals, oil seeds, and industrial crops. Global Grain production increased from less than 900 million tons in 1965 to more than 2200 million tons in 2000. More than 40% of world grain production comes from irrigated areas which amount to less than 20% of total cultivated areas in the world. <br> The contribution of the water sector to sustainable agricultural growth is being challenged by increasing scarcity and competition from other sectors. This paper reviews issues related the productivity of the water sector in terms of its contribution to economic growth and national food security which are separate from measuring water productivity at the field level. We may increase crop productivity at the field level through improvement of on-farm water management, better crop husbandry, and advances in irrigation technology. But several water projects have adversely affected the quality of water and contributed to the degradation of aquatic ecosystems. In part, this damage has resulted because piecemeal evaluations of water resource projects have often overlooked the cumulative environmental degradation caused by several projects, and the interactions within the ecosystem have not been adequately considered. Growth of irrigated area is slowing as new systems are costly to develop, existing systems are poorly managed, and there is increasing competition for water use and the escalating demand for water by other sectors. <br> The review expands the discussion about the contribution of the water sector to include the systemic response to declining water quantity and quality at the macro level and the impact of this trend on national accounting for water and its allocation among competing sectors. The declining water quality and quantity requires that new paradigm of irrigation technology be developed. The new approach should be based on assessing the efficient utilization of low water quality including treated waste water, saline water, and polluted water for environmental protection, agriculture, forests, and landscape.
- Autor
- Barghouti, Shawki
- Palabras Clave
- Agricultura de regadío, Recursos hídricos, Productividad, Tecnología ambiental, Países en desarrollo
- Idioma
- Inglés
- Documentos
- Ponencia ( 30 pag, 790 Kb )
- Presentación