Clean freshwater is essential to sustain life, enable development, and support a healthy environment. Due to population and economic growth, water demand for household, industrial, and agricultural uses is increasing, while the functioning and quality of watersheds and irrigated lands are deteriorating, and ground and surface water pollution is increasing.
In the face of growing water scarcity, IFPRI’s water research aims to reduce poverty by improving overall water use efficiency in developing countries, while improving water quality, reducing irrigated land degradation, increasing food security, and improving access to water by the poor. We seek to identify investments, policies, and institutions that make existing irrigation and water supply systems more efficient, equitable, and environmentally benign. We also address rural water quality management, as poor water quality limits the availability of water for some uses and affects the health of poor populations in developing countries. IFPRI’s water research is unique because it assesses water supply and demand together with food outcomes, nonagricultural water demands, and environmental outcomes at the local, basin, national, and global levels across disciplines, with strong partners, and documented policy impact.
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