Water sustainability and food security

Ensuring sustainable food production under growing water scarcity

Given the impacts of global change on water and food security and the need for increasing agricultural intensification, this research theme examines the tradeoffs for water and food security. This research includes global modeling of water, food, and energy; projections of current and future demand for water for food production; integrated hydro-economic modeling, models linked across scales; and off-site and on-site modeling of water management and ecosystem health. Key sub-topics include:

• Access to small-scale irrigation
  • Project: Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI)
• Agricultural and economic impact, investment, and growth
  • Project: Water Futures—Solutions for Water and Food Under Growing Resource Scarcity
  • Project: Enhancing Groundwater Simulation in the IMPACT-Water Model for Assessment of Groundwater Irrigation Sustainability and Food Production Impacts
  • Project: Water implications of agricultural technologies
• Water and climate change linkages
  • Project: Forum-G8 Initiative Collaborative Research: Southern Africa’s Hydro-Economy and Water Security: SAHEWS
• Water and energy
  • Project: Energy use in agriculture: Irrigation, mechanization or fertilizer?—tradeoffs and food security implications
• Water quality impacts of agricultural intensification
  • Project: Water Quality Management Options for Improved Agricultural and Economic Growth