Agricultural water management in water-starved countries: challenges and opportunities

Agriculture commands more water than any other activity on this planet. Although the total amount of water made available by the hydrologic cycle is enough to provide the world’s current population with adequate freshwater, most of this water is concentrated in specific regions, leaving other areas water-deficient. Because of the uneven distribution of water resources and population densities worldwide, water demands already exceed supplies in nearly 80 countries with more than 40% population of the world. Consequent to future population increase in these countries, supplies of good-quality irrigation water will further decrease due to increased municipal–industrial–agricultural competition. These facts reveal that the time has come for the sustainable management of available water resources based on global, regional, and site-specific strategic options: (1) understanding the concept of ‘virtual water’ and potential use of this water as a global solution to regional deficits, i.e. the water-short countries may import a portion of food crops or other commodities that require more water and export those that need less water in production; (2) improvement in current efficiencies of agricultural water use and conservation, both in the rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, i.e. to produce more with the existing resources with minimum deterioration of land and water resources; (3) use of efficient, economic, and environmentally acceptable methods for the amelioration of polluted waters and degraded soils, and (4) re-use of saline and/or sodic drainage waters via cyclic, blended, or sequential strategies for crop production systems, wherever possible and practical. We believe that these strategies will serve as the four pillars of integrated agricultural water management and their suitable combinations will be the key to future agricultural and economic growth and social wealth, particularly in regions that are deficient in freshwater supplies and are expected to become more deficient in future.     

Investing in water for food, ecosystems, and livelihoods: An overview of the comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture

The authors of the recently completed Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA) concluded that there are sufficient water resources to produce food for a growing population but that trends in consumption, production and environmental patterns, if continued, will lead to water crises in many parts of the world. Only if we act to improve water use will we meet the acute fresh water challenge. Recent spikes in food prices, partially caused by the increasing demand for agricultural products in non-food uses, underline the urgent need to invest in agricultural production, of which water management is a crucial part. The world experienced similar pressure on per capita food supplies and food prices in the 1960s and 1970s, but the challenges now are different than those we experienced 50 years ago. The world's population is substantially larger, there are many more people living in poverty, and the costs of many agricultural inputs are much higher. The current situation and the long-term outlook require a fresh look at approaches that combine different elements such as the importance of access to water for the poor, providing multiple ecosystem services, rainwater management, adapting irrigation to new needs, enhancing water productivity, and promoting the use of low-quality water in agriculture. This special issue highlights the analysis behind a number of policy options identified by the CA, a five-year multi-disciplinary research program involving 700 scientists. This introductory article sets the background and context of this special issue, introduces the key recommendations from the CA and summarizes the papers in this issue.     

Expected effects of devaluation on cereal production in the Sudanian Region of Mali

The Sahelian countries have been much more successful attaining higher yields of export crops, including cotton and peanuts, than with increasing yields of their cereals and other food crops. One principal explanation has been the poor economic and agricultural policy support historically given to food crops. Now this is being changed with structural adjustments, including the 1994 devaluation of the CFA. Intensive cereal production became more profitable with a lag after devaluation. In southern Mali, even highly risk-averse farmers will adopt intensive sorghum technologies, according to risk programming results. Credit can be generated internally for this activity by selling some of the livestock. Returns were very high for this intensification but its further expansion would require more internal liquidity or the expansion of credit in order to increase purchases of inorganic fertilizers.     

Impacts of population growth, economic development, and technical change on global food production and consumption

Over the next decades mankind will demand more food from fewer land and water resources. This study quantifies the food production impacts of four alternative development scenarios from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Special Report on Emission Scenarios. Partially and jointly considered are land and water supply impacts from population growth, and technical change, as well as forest and agricultural commodity demand shifts from population growth and economic development. The income impacts on food demand are computed with dynamic elasticities. Simulations with a global, partial equilibrium model of the agricultural and forest sectors show that per capita food levels increase in all examined development scenarios with minor impacts on food prices. Global agricultural land increases by up to 14% between 2010 and 2030. Deforestation restrictions strongly impact the price of land and water resources but have little consequences for the global level of food production and food prices. While projected income changes have the highest partial impact on per capita food consumption levels, population growth leads to the highest increase in total food production. The impact of technical change is amplified or mitigated by adaptations of land management intensities.     

改进粒子群算法在农业种植结构优化中的应用

【目的】促进地区农业水资源高效利用,在保证粮食安全的基础上,降低灌溉需水量,推动农业节水、提高产量和效益。【方法】以安阳市为例,以经济、社会、生态和水资源效益最大为综合目标,引入惯性权重衰减和粒子变异策略,建立了基于改进粒子群算法的多目标农业种植结构优化模型。【结果】通过对现状水平年2018年、规划水平年2025年(近期)、2035年(远期)的种植结构调整,在结合现状缺水程度下,压减耗水量大的小麦、玉米等粮食作物种植比例,增加油料、蔬菜及食用菌等经济作物种植比例,经济、社会、生态、水资源目标的综合效益分别提升13.59%、10.90%、9.82%;同时,在满足农作物全生育期需水量的情况下,缺水率分别缩减9.02%、9.56%、9.95%,在一定程度上缓解了农业水资源供需矛盾。【结论】改进粒子群算法使种植结构得到平衡优化,在提高综合效益及产量的同时能够降低灌溉需水量。     

Adapting to intersectoral transfers in the Zhanghe Irrigation System, China: Part II: Impacts of in-system storage on water balance and productivity

This paper investigates the impacts of farm ponds in a context of declining supplies in a major canal command within the Zhanghe Irrigation System (ZIS), in Central China. As dam supplies have been diverted to higher-valued uses (hydropower, cities and industry), farmers have responded by constructing small storages within their fields. These farm ponds have given them sufficient flexibility in water supply to practice varying forms of alternate wetting and drying irrigation for rice without compromising yields and incomes. Ponds are recharged by a combination of return flows from irrigation and runoff from catchment areas within the irrigated perimeter. Various scenarios of water supply incorporating the main reservoir, in-system reservoirs, farm ponds and irrigation practices were simulated using the OASIS model. OASIS integrates surface and groundwater flows, and contains a crop growth module to aggregate the impacts of different water management regimes. The modelling and sensitivity analysis show that further reductions in main reservoir supplies will have a negative effect on rice production in dry and average years, and that ponds have played a crucial role in adapting agriculture to reduced canal supplies. The flexibility allowed by the ponds has resulted in increased water productivity, except in high rainfall years, but net depletion has not decreased, as local supplies have substituted for water from the main reservoir. The study demonstrates the importance of properly accounting for return flows and the necessity to understand crop production in relation to the actual depletion of water (as evapotranspiration) within an irrigation system.     

A Water Transfer and Agricultural Land Retirement in a Drainage Problem Area

The increasing scarcity of water in California and the rising cost of compliance with environmental regulations are motivating some farmers in the San Joaquin Valley to sell their land and water, and discontinue production of irrigated crops. In the summer of 2004, all landowners in the 3,700-ha Broadview Water District decided to sell their land to Westlands Water District. The land sales have been completed and Westlands has acquired Broadview's water supply contract. Farmland in Broadview will no longer be irrigated. We describe what motivated the purchase and sale of land and water in Broadview and discuss the potential gains to participants. We describe also the potential public benefits that include an increase in economic activity and environmental enhancement in the San Joaquin Valley. Farm workers displaced by land retirement in Broadview will find employment in the Westlands Water District. Tenant farmers in Broadview will need to find other land on which to continue farming after the land sales are completed. The challenge they face is caused partly by a regional trend toward greater production of perennial crops that is leaving less land available for annual leases.Formerly Manager of Broadview Water District, Firebaugh, California     

Managing water in rainfed agriculture—The need for a paradigm shift

Rainfed agriculture plays and will continue to play a dominant role in providing food and livelihoods for an increasing world population. We describe the world's semi-arid and dry sub-humid savannah and steppe regions as global hotspots, in terms of water related constraints to food production, high prevalence of malnourishment and poverty, and rapidly increasing food demands. We argue that major water investments in agriculture are required. In these regions yield gaps are large, not due to lack of water per se, but rather due to inefficient management of water, soils, and crops. An assessment of management options indicates that knowledge exists regarding technologies, management systems, and planning methods. A key strategy is to minimise risk for dry spell induced crop failures, which requires an emphasis on water harvesting systems for supplemental irrigation. Large-scale adoption of water harvesting systems will require a paradigm shift in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), in which rainfall is regarded as the entry point for the governance of freshwater, thus incorporating green water resources (sustaining rainfed agriculture and terrestrial ecosystems) and blue water resources (local runoff). The divide between rainfed and irrigated agriculture needs to be reconsidered in favor of a governance, investment, and management paradigm, which considers all water options in agricultural systems. A new focus is needed on the meso-catchment scale, as opposed to the current focus of IWRM on the basin level and the primary focus of agricultural improvements on the farmer's field. We argue that the catchment scale offers the best opportunities for water investments to build resilience in small-scale agricultural systems and to address trade-offs between water for food and other ecosystem functions and services.     

Water management and crop production for food security in China: A review

Food security is a high priority issue on the Chinese political agenda. China’s food security is challenged by several anthropogenic, sociopolitical and policy factors, including: population growth; urbanization and industrialization; land use changes and water scarcity; income growth and nutritional transition; and turbulence in global energy and food markets. Sustained growth in agricultural productivity and stable relations with global food suppliers are the twin anchors of food security. Shortfalls in domestic food production can take their toll on international food markets. Turbulence in global energy markets can affect food prices and supply costs, affecting food security and poverty. Policy safeguards are needed to shield food supply against such forces. China must make unremitting policy responses to address the loss of its fertile land for true progress towards the goal of national food security, by investing in infrastructure such as irrigation, drainage, storage, transport, and agricultural research and institutional reforms such as tenure security and land market liberalization. The links between water and other development-related sectors such as population, energy, food, and environment, and the interactions among them require reckoning, as they together will determine future food security and poverty reduction in China. Climate change is creating a new level of uncertainty in water governance, requiring accelerated research to avoid water-related stresses.     

Hydrological impact of biofuel production: A case study of the Khlong Phlo Watershed in Thailand

This study evaluates the potential impact of increased biofuel production on the hydrology of a small watershed, Khlong Phlo, in the eastern part of Thailand. The water footprint of biofuel energy was estimated for three crops in order to identify the most water-efficient crop. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to evaluate the impact of land use change (LUC) caused by the expansion of biofuel crops on the components of water balance and water quality in the studied watershed. Several LUC scenarios consisting of oil palm (biodiesel), cassava and sugarcane (bio-ethanol) expansion were evaluated. The water footprint results indicated that cassava is more water-efficient than the other two crops considered. Simulation results revealed that although oil palm expansion would have negligible alteration in evapotranspiration (0.5 to 1.6%) and water yield (−0.5 to −1.1%), there would be an increased nitrate loading (1.3 to 51.7%) to the surface water. On the contrary, expansion of cassava and sugarcane would decrease evapotranspiration (0.8 to 11.8%) and increase water yield (1.6 to 18.0%), which would lead to increased sediment (10.9 to 91.5%), nitrate (1.9 to 44.5%) and total phosphorus (15.0 to 165.0%) loading to surface water. Based on the results, it can be concluded that land use change for biodiesel production would affect water quality, while both the water balance components and water quality would be affected by the expansion of bio-ethanol crops. Overall, the study indicates that biofuel production would have a negative impact on the water quality of the studied watershed. Further research at large scale (e.g. basin level) and on the economic aspect is recommended, in order to contribute to developing suitable land use and energy policies.     

Water scarcity: Fact or fiction?

It is surprisingly difficult to determine whether water is truly scarce in the physical sense at a global scale (a supply problem) or whether it is available but should be used better (a demand problem). The paper reviews water scarcity indicators and global assessments based on these indicators. The most widely used indicator, the Falkenmark indicator, is popular because it is easy to apply and understand but it does not help to explain the true nature of water scarcity. The more complex indicators are not widely applied because data are lacking to apply them and the definitions are not intuitive. Water is definitely physically scarce in densely populated arid areas, Central and West Asia, and North Africa, with projected availabilities of less than 1000 m³/capita/year. This scarcity relates to water for food production, however, and not to water for domestic purposes that are minute at this scale. In most of the rest of the world water scarcity at a national scale has as much to do with the development of the demand as the availability of the supply. Accounting for water for environmental requirements shows that abstraction of water for domestic, food and industrial uses already have a major impact on ecosystems in many parts of the world, even those not considered “water scarce”. Water will be a major constraint for agriculture in coming decades and particularly in Asia and Africa this will require major institutional adjustments. A “soft path” to address water scarcity, focusing on increasing overall water productivity, is recommended.     

Irrigation reliability and the productivity of water: A proposed methodology using evapotranspiration mapping

Irrigation is the dominant user of water worldwide, but provision of potable water and water for industry are higher priorities and give higher social and economic returns. Irrigation will continue to lose water to competing sectors and the productivity of irrigation systems (since food demand continues to grow) remains a central issue in water management. Performance assessment of irrigation has traditionally been difficult when based on field measurements of flows, deliveries and depths over large areas. Furthermore, performance measures have shifted from narrow engineering indicators to broader productivity issues of production achieved per unit of water consumed. Remote sensing, applied to the estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) over large areas, provides analysts of irrigation systems with extraordinary new tools for the objective assessment of consumption and production – constituting a quantum leap in the assessment of irrigation system performance. Awareness and utilisation of these tools is spreading, but important areas remain to be “converted” from traditional approaches that rely on an array of estimated parameters. The next challenge for remote sensing will be to map the frontier between the reliability of the irrigation service and the productivity achieved. Reliability provides the inducement for farmers to invest in higher productivity – to the benefit of themselves and society – and understanding better how the individual maximises profits within an uncertain irrigation environment can provide important guidance to managers and system designers.     

Simulating the effects of tax exemptions on fertiliser use in Benin by linking biophysical and economic models

The sluggish increase in the area productivity of staple crops is a major factor causing increased dependence of African countries on food imports. The increased use of mineral fertiliser may dramatically improve the food balance of many countries and result in lower food prices, higher food supply and consumption, and improved food security and nutritional status. In Benin, West Africa, political measures to improve farmers’ access to fertiliser are biased in favour of cotton production. This article simulates the impact of universal tax exemptions for fertiliser use on crop yields, food balances, and the use of land resources for the most important staple crops in Benin using a crop growth model and an agricultural sector model. The simulation results indicate that tax exemptions on fertiliser use could have positive effects on physical productivity and would increase food security until 2025 as compared to a baseline scenario. At the same time, the pressure on land resources would not be aggravated, so that better access to fertiliser may help to curb excessive cropland expansion in Benin.     

Managing scarce water resources in Asia: The nature of the problem and can remote sensing help?

Water demands are outstripping supplies in many parts of Asia and causing conflicts, especially as rapidly urbanizing and industrializing areas compete with more traditional agriculture on alluvial plains near expanding metropolises. The environment is increasingly being seen as a legitimate and important user of water, often in competition with irrigation, domestic, industrial, hydropower and community uses of water. Any future scenario requires an improvement in water productivity, especially in agriculture. Surface and ground water supplies are not well regulated owing primarily to a weak knowledge base, analytical capacity in addition to a number of traditional institutional, governance, political and other factors. Water policy makers have, therefore, to work out strategies for integrated water and environmental management, which rely on a proper knowledge base of the basin hydrological and pollution conditions. Examples from various countries in Asia are elaborated in this paper to demonstrate how spatially distributed evapotranspiration data from remote sensing, in conjunction with other key data, can help to build the knowledge base for integrated basin scale water management. Remote sensing is not a solution, but it provides key data that is difficult to access by conventional data collection methods.     

设施草莓智慧生产管控系统设计与实现

针对设施草莓生产过程中环境参数采集和控制可靠性差、水肥调控粗放等问题，设计开发一种设施草莓智慧生产管控系统，包括生长环境信息感知系统和设施内的环境调控系统2个部分。结合多传感器数据融合算法和专家决策控制系统模型，提高环境参数采集的准确性和真实性，保证草莓各生长阶段对生长环境和水肥需求的精准控制。目前系统在示范园区内的草莓玻璃温室运行良好，水肥利用率与环境调控能力分别提高82.1%和35.5%，草莓产量、品质也有大幅度提高。     

傍河井取水与引黄河水之间的关系分析

以莘县为例,探讨傍河井抽取的地下水与引黄河水之间存在的关系。研究结果表明,引黄沟渠在抽水井影响半径2倍以外时,傍河井的数量或者抽水量足以引起引黄沟渠周围区域性地下水位下降,则引黄河水对该区域的地下水补给量就会增加,取水量越大,地下水位下降越大,补给量增加的也越多;当引黄沟渠在抽水影响半径2倍之内时,引黄河水就会直接补给水井,补给量与水井的单位时间出水量、水井与引黄沟渠的距离、抽水时间有关,出水量越大、距离越近、抽水时间越长,引黄河水的侧渗补给量越大,反之依然。     

Assessing grain crop water productivity of China using a hydro-model-coupled-statistics approach. Part II: Application in breadbasket basins of China

We assessed the basin-scale crop water productivity (CWP) on staple grain crops, i.e. rice, wheat, maize, soybean, at major breadbasket basins of China over time periods of 1997-2004. The multiple-year average CWP was 1.06 kg m⁻³ for the selected basins (equivalents of 946 m³ water consumption in producing 1 metric ton of crop economic yield), varying from 0.97 kg m⁻³ to 1.18 kg m⁻³. Of all the water consumed in crop production, irrigation water contributes 28-41%, while soil-stored precipitation contributes 59-72%, confirming the crucial yet hitherto under-estimated role played by green water in total crop yield formation. The blue water depletion rate ranges from 0.48 to 0.87, with most of the basins exceeding 0.50, while the green water depletion rate from 0.39 to 0.85, with the majority of basins being beyond 0.60. We conclude that both blue and green water shortage will contribute to water scarcity in grain crop production. The mission of ensuring China's food security will entail multiple trade-offs among water security, ecosystem conservation, environment protection, and human development with increasing challenges in the years to come. However, increasing water productivity through research innovation and technological upgrades at river basin scale is a key to mitigating water stress that may be caused by increasing food production in the coming decades.     

Increasing water productivity with improved N fertilizer management

There is continuing debate about the role of water productivity and the potential to increase it in response to significantly increased water demand to meet the future needs for food—estimated to be roughly double that of today by 2050. The debate centers round the relative potential benefits of enhancing rainfed agriculture, improving irrigation and expanding areas of both. All expansion and intensification options will require significantly more water to be used, often in places where the ecosystem impacts of agriculture are already severe. Improvement in water productivity can result from improving the provision and management of the other factor inputs of crop production. There is considerable debate on the ability of other inputs—typically nitrogen—to substitute for water. This paper describes a set of simulations undertaken with well calibrated maize (Zea mays L.) crop model in Decision Support System for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT). The simulations investigate the response to nitrogen under rainfed conditions in Florida, and show that neither the transpiration ratio nor the harvest index are constant in practice, and that fertilizer use can enhance water productivity, even in quite high yield conditions and that the transpiration ratio can be increased by N fertilizer application at low levels of crop water use.     

Use of saline and non-potable water in the turfgrass industry: Constraints and developments

The need for salt-tolerant turfgrasses is ever-increasing. Rapid urban population growth has put enormous pressures on limited freshwater supplies. Many state and local governments have reacted by placing restrictions on the use of potable water for irrigating turfgrass landscapes, instead requiring use of reclaimed, or other secondary saline water sources. In coastal areas, overpumping, and resultant salt water intrusion of coastal wells used for irrigating turfgrass facilities has widely occurred. The nature and extent of the salinity problem, followed by basic salinity issues and available management choices, will be discussed. Issues facing the turf manager using saline water sources are soil salinization, resulting in direct salt injury to turf, and secondary problems of loss of soil structure ensuing from sodium and bicarbonate effects, resulting in loss of salt leaching potential and soil anaerobiosis. Management choices for the turf manager using saline water are limited. Soil salinity must be maintained below the level deemed detrimental to the turf, by maintaining sufficient leaching. Sodium/bicarbonate affected soils must be managed to maintain sufficient permeability to permit adequate leaching. Finally, salt tolerant turf species/cultivars must be used. Long-term solutions to the salinity problem will require development of improved salt-tolerant turfgrasses. Progress in cultivar development, and future development of potential alternative halophytic turfgrass species will also be discussed.     

Economic and agronomic strategies to achieve sustainable irrigation

The achievement of sustainable irrigation in arid regions requires greater attention to waterlogging, salinization, and degradation of ground and surface waters, which are among the problems that continue to threaten productivity and degrade environmental quality. We consider sustainability to be achieved when irrigation and drainage are conducted on-farm, and within irrigation districts, in a manner that does not degrade the quality of land, water, and other natural resources, either on-farm or throughout an irrigated region. Sustainability may also be described as maintaining the productive resources required for irrigation, so that future generations may have the same opportunity to use those resources as we do. Given the increasing importance of irrigated land for food production, the time has come when it is vital to intercept, reuse, and isolate drainage waters within the regions in which they are generated. Adoption of this strategy can be enhanced by policies that require farmers, and irrigation districts, to consider the off-farm impacts of irrigation and drainage. Such policies include linking water rights with salt rights to require the monitoring and management of both irrigation water and the salt loads in drainage waters. We review the knowledge gained since the early 1970s regarding the economic and agronomic aspects of irrigation and drainage, with a focus on drainage water reduction and sequential reuse of drainage water on salt-tolerant crops. Economic incentives that motivate farm-level and district-level improvements in water management are also reviewed. We conclude that adequate knowledge exists for implementing strategies that focus on water use and salt disposal within irrigated regions, and we recommend policies that will motivate improvements in productivity and enhance the likelihood of achieving sustainability.