Water Policy

In recent years access to safe and reliable water supplies has received increased government attention in Ethiopia. As a result, the national coverage rate for this service has gradually improved. Yet millions of people in rural areas still do ...

Malaria, schistosomiasis (bilharzia), and Japanese encephalitis are the major vector-borne diseases whose increase or decrease can be attributed to agricultural water development (see table). Others include dengue fever, yellow fever, and ...

The agricultural sector in developing countries is particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Given Ethiopia’s dependence on agriculture and natural resources, any adverse agricultural effects will pose serious risks to ...

Abstract IFPRI is a partner in the international “Bonn2011 Conference: The Water Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for the Green Economy” organized by the German Federal Government. <!--break--> More information Conference ...

The System-wide Program for Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) sponsored a workshop on Watershed Management Institutions, March 13-16, 1999 in Managua, Nicaragua. The workshop focused on methodologies for undertaking research on ...

Two factors critical to assuring food security, whether at the local or the global level, are increasing crop productivity and increasing access to sustainable water supplies. These factors are also vital to the economic success of agriculture, ...

Overview Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Monica Di Gregorio; Understanding Collective Action Elinor Ostrom; Understanding Property Rights Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Rajendra Pradhan, and Monica Di Gregorio; Local-Level Public Goods and Collective ...

Spatial and temporal attributes of watersheds and the associated market failures that accelerate degradation of agricultural and environmental resources require innovative institutional arrangements for coordinating use and management of ...

Using a mathematical-programming agricultural-sector model of Egypt, this paper analyzes mechanisms for allocating scarce water and for charging the farmers the Operation and Management (O&M) costs of irrigation and drainage, currently ...

This paper explores disparities in local public service provision between decentralized districts in Ghana using district and household level data. The results show that districts’ geography plays a major role in shaping disparities in ...

This study identifies the major methods used by farmers to adapt to climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia, the factors that affect their choice of method, and the barriers to adaptation. The methods identified include use of different crop ...

This paper explores the determinants of farmers’ investments in indigenous soil and water conservation measures in the semi-arid tropics of India. Many types of indigenous conservation measures are observed in three study villages, ...

With growing water scarcity and increasing competition across water-using sectors, the need for water savings and more efficient water use has increased in importance in water resources management. Improvement in the physical efficiency of water ...

A set of seven policy notes (see policy briefs under outputs) recently released by the International Food Policy Research Institute and its collaborators, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Center for Chinese ...

Agriculture is vitally important to the world’s hungry people, the majority of whom live in rural areas and depend on the land for their food and livelihoods. Yet the increasing fragility of the natural resource base, compounded by global ...

Most agricultural projects initiated by the government of Zaire in the small-farm sector during the last two decades to improve a worsening food supply situation have failed mainly as a result of limited knowledge about constraints affecting the ...

The community-driven development (CDD) approach has become increasingly popular because of its potential to develop projects that are sustainable, are responsive to local priorities, empower local communities, and more effectively target poor and ...

“… Based on a global model of supply and demand for food and water, this report shows that if current water policies continue, farmers will indeed find it difficult to meet the world’s food needs. Hardest hit will be the ...

Water scarcity is an increasingly critical issue for food production around the world. This is particularly true for the world’s poorest region, Sub-Saharan Africa, due to its growing malnutrition and almost complete dependence on rainfed ...

In Pakistan, where agriculture is heavily dependent on irrigation, informal water markets are an increasingly important way to provide small farmers and tenant farmers with access to ground- water. The public canal irrigation system provides ...

This paper estimates hedonic models of rental prices to investigate household preferences regarding water services in rural Guatemala. Estimated values for water services are compared across municipal, private, and community-managed water ...

Lack of access to clean water--a harsh reality in most developing countries--is a source of misery for the poor. In large areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, the Caribbean, and Asia, the only water available to millions for drinking, cooking, ...

The Yellow River basin (YRB) is the breadbasket of China and the “cradle of Chinese civilization.” The basin is characterized by severe water scarcity; the ratio of surface water withdrawal to water resources, at 64 percent in 2008, is among the ...

This paper uses an agricultural sector model to evaluate the effects of an ambitious and ongoing policy reform program on agricultural production and resource use in Egypt. The results show that Egypt has already gained from the policy reforms, ...

The competition for limited water resources between agriculture and more highly valued domestic and industrial water uses is rapidly increasing and will likely require the transfer of water out of agriculture. This paper reviews and synthesizes ...

Extreme interannual variability of precipitation within Ethiopia is not uncommon, inducing droughts or floods and often creating serious repercussions on agricultural and non-agricultural commodities. An agro-economic model, including mean ...

This paper analyzes drivers of global change and their impacts on the current and future availability and accessibility of water resources in the Nile Basin. Drivers include changes in demography, climate, the socioeconomy, and politics, all of ...

“We examine access to, use of, and participation in decisions on improved water supply in the Volta basin of Ghana, one of the first countries to introduce a community-based approach to rural water supply on a large scale. While 71 percent ...

Green Revolution technologies have not been widely adopted in Africa. What are the chances that they will play a major role in the near future? This paper shows that the enabling infrastructure, especially rural roads and irrigation systems are ...

As water resources become increasing scare in India and demand only increases, the challenge of sustaining irrigation systems and the lands they serve is a matter of crucial importance. In particular, the livelihood of millions of farmers is ...

Ethiopia possesses abundant water resources and hydropower potential, yet less than 5 percent of irrigable land in the Blue Nile basin has been developed for food production, and more than 80 percent of Ethiopians lack access to electricity. ...

Ethiopia is at a critical crossroads with a large and increasing population, a depressed national economy, insufficient agricultural production, and a low number of developed energy sources. The upper Blue Nile basin harbors considerable ...

Latin America and the Caribbean are relatively well endowed with water resources. However, population growth and rapid urbanization are putting considerable pressure on water available for irrigation. Local and regional water scarcity problems ...

Water management in the Pirapama River Basin in northeastern Brazil is affected by both water quantity and water quality constraints. The region is known for significant sugarcane-based ethanol production—which is key to the Brazilian economy and ...

Drought is a recurrent and often devastating threat to the welfare of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where three-quarters of the arable land has less than 400 mm of annual rainfall, and the natural grazings, which support a ...

En este informe de investigaciones, , se examina cómo funcionan los mercados de agua, quién participa, cuál es la naturaleza de las transacciones y qué efectos tienen los mercados en la productividad y el ingreso agrícolas, con objeto de ...

In looking toward 2020, one of the most severe problems to be faced is an impending shortage of adequate supplies of fresh water essential for drinking and for growing crops. The Middle East, where a few waterways serve large areas of land ...

With increasing competition for water across sectors and regions, the river basin has been recognized as the appropriate unit of analysis for addressing the challenges of water resources management. Modeling at this scale can provide essential ...

Barbier and Bergeron explore several hypotheses about the dynamics of natural resource management in the hillsides of La Lima and further explore the causes and consequences of the transition to vegetable production. To fully integrate ...

Water is essential for life and livelihoods. As demands for water increase — for drinking, domestic use, irrigation, industry, and environmental conservation — areas that were once water-abundant are increasingly challenged by conflicting claims ...

CONTENTS: Brief 1. Overview / Ruth S. Meinzen-Dick and Mark W. Rosegrant — Brief 2. Water for Food Production / Mark W. Rosegrant and Ximing Cai — Brief 3. Domestic Water Supply, Hygiene, and Sanitation / Hans van Damme — Brief ...

According to the authors, “watersheds define a terrain united by the flow of water, nutrients, pollutants, and sediment. Watersheds also link foresters, farmers, fishers, and urban dwellers in intricate social relationships. Both ...

In the arid and semi- arid Indian state of Rajasthan, tanks and ponds have been a mainstay of rural communities for centuries. There are over 4600 large minor irrigation tanks, plus numerous johads, bandhs and pals (small water harvesting ...

Pig production in the Philippines has intensified in the urban and peri-urban areas in response to a radical structural change in the pig industry and a growing demand for pork products. Alongside this rapid growth is the emergence of societal ...

Research and policy on property rights, collective action and watershed management requires good understanding of ecological and socio-political processes at different social-spatial scales. On-farm soil erosion is a plot or farm-level problem ...

Bangladesh has made notable progress in achieving food security, despite extreme population pressures, limited land resources, and an agrarian structure dominated by small and tenant farmers. After two decades of sluggish performance prior to the ...

The Nicaraguan Water Law, enacted in September 2007, is the first attempt to implement a new water law in the country. This is not an isolated legislative process in Central America, as other countries initiated similar reforms based on the ...

Without land and water resources, agriculture cannot survive. But in a world facing increased scarcity of both, farmers—especially those in the developing world—are increasingly hard-pressed to feed the hungry. To assess the scope of this ...

Essential to sustaining life and supporting a healthy environment, water is also imperative for economic growth. Yet as water demand for household, industrial, and agricultural uses grows—especially in the developing world—watersheds and ...

Tingju Zhu joined IFPRI in June, 2005 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division. He obtained his Ph.D. in water resources engineering (minor in agricultural and resource economics) from the University of ...

Many watershed development projects around the world have performed poorly because they failed to take into account the needs, constraints, and practices of local people. Participatory watershed management-in which users help to define problems, ...

This paper uses farmers’ responses to exogenous weather shocks in South Africa’s Limpopo River Basin to gauge how farmers are apt to respond to future climate change-induced shocks, in particular drought. Droughts are expected to ...

The paper presents a “Watershed Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model “for the Olifants River Catchment.” A CGE provides an appropriate framework in which to explore policy alternatives for achieving more efficient water ...

Water markets provide one of the most promising institutional mechanisms for increasing access to irrigation from groundwater, particularly for tenants and small farmers. While water markets are found in all provinces of Pakistan, they are most ...

The increasing demand for water and limited degree of cost recovery for irrigation water delivery are important challenges for policymakers in Indonesia. To meet the increasing demand for water, it is important to reduce water use in irrigated ...

This paper analyzes how water resources development and water policy reform can be deployed to address the twin problems of food insecurity and water scarcity in Africa and, in particular, Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper reviews the current status ...

Clearly defined and legally enforceable water rights and responsibilities for water operators and users in an irrigation system are the foundation underlying the incentives for conserving water and improving irrigation efficiency. The ...

The second longest river in China after the Yangtze, the Yellow River and its basin (YRB) is the breadbasket of China and the cradle of Chinese civilization. With only 2 percent of national water resources, the basin generated 14 percent of ...

In recent years India has looked to watershed development as a way to realize its hopes for agricultural development in rainfed, semi-arid areas. These areas were bypassed by the Green Revolution and have experienced little or no growth in ...

“Policies of devolving management of resources from the state to user groups are premised upon the assumption that users will organize and take on the necessary management tasks. While experience has shown that in many places users do so ...

Are we headed toward a worldwide water crisis? The increasing demand for water among households, industry, the environment, and especially agriculture is making global water scarcity a perilous possibility.What will happen to food production and ...

农业用水生产率可定义为作物产出与蒸散发的比例，也即生产单位作物产量所需要的水量。在水资源日益短缺的形势下，提高水生产率是保障世界粮食安全的重要途径。黄河流域（The Yellow River ...

黄河流域（YRB）是中国的胃。农村地区是粮食作物和棉花的主产地，因此农村的财富高度地依赖灌溉水的获取。气候变化、城市和工业的竞争、以及下文将描述的自从1999年以来省级水平37 ...

黄河流域的治理是关系到中国粮食安全和社会经济发展的关键问题之一。黄河流域的耕地约占全国耕地的13%，而水资源量仅占全国的3%。同时，黄河流域水资源还维系着流域内外约1.5亿人口的生活用水、下游高速发展的工业用水及近年来中游采矿和化工不断增长的用水需求。黄河流域水资源短缺形势日趋严峻。为了解决黄河下游的断流问题，流域管理部门分别于1987年推行了基于跨省界定额供水分配方案，于1999年实施了黄河流域水量统一调度方案（Unified Water Flow Regulation, ...