Christopher Neale
Robert Daugherty
Water for Food Institute
at the University of Nebraska
•
The Grand Challenge: Managing Water for Food Security
Some perspectives on irrigation in the world
•
Mission, vision and initial activities of the Robert B.
Daugherty Water for Food Institute
•
Need to ensure sustainable global
food security in the face of increasing
competition for scarce water resources
•
Significant political, environmental,
social, economic implications
•
Clearly one of the most urgent
challenges for the 21st century
Food Availability
Photo: Catherine Pond
Food Access
Photo: Greg Rodgers
Food Use
Photo: Roberto Lenton
Food Security: When everyone,
everywhere, has access to enough safe
and nutritious food for a healthy, active life
“The reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of
water for health, livelihoods and production, coupled with an
acceptable level of water-related risks."
Source: Grey, David; Sadoff, Claudia (2007), Sink or Swim? Water security for
growth and development, Water Policy, 2007
Food Requirements
Water Availability
for Food Production
Photo: UNEP
A thin tree belt prevents a dune from overtaking irrigated
fields in Sudan’s Northern state.
Photo: Jesse Starita
Jatropha, pictured here in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, is
a popular biofuel source but is also inedible and
produces highly toxic seeds.
Ethanol from Maize in the USA
Ethanol from Sugar Cane in Brazil and other countries
Cassman, 1999. PNAS, 96: 5952-5959
7
8
Rice
Grassini et al., 2011. FCR 120:142-152
12
Wheat
10
R. Korea
-1
USA - irrigated
7
6
Yield (Mg ha )
M aize
6
China
5
Northwest Europe
Indonesia
USA - rainfed
8
5
4
China
4
6
3
3
2
India
India
1
0
1970
1980
Year
1990
China
2
1
0
1960
4
2
2000
2010
1960
Brazil
0
1970
1980
1990
Year
2000
2010
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
Year
Cassman et al., 2003, ARER 28: 315-358
Cassman et al., 2010, Handbook of Climate Change
2010
Increasing competition by other water users
and “thirsty cities”
Population in 2011
3,4
3,6
Urban
Rural
Population in 2050
3
6,3
Population in billions
Source: United Nations Population Division
Urban
Rural
Photo:
Manfred Matz
A man fills rooftop water tanks in Amman, Jordan.
Decreasing quality as well as quantity
Photo: stjohnsriverkeeper.org
In Sudan, untreated effluent flows from the Assalaya sugar
factory into the White Nile.
Increasing sustainability concerns
Climate Change: Increasing variability in time and space
Food
•
•
•
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Increasing global consumption - population growth, rising
incomes, changing diets
Limited opportunities for
expansion in cropland
Further limited by land
degradation, non-food crops
Yield increases reaching a
plateau in many places
Water
•
•
•
•
Increasing competition by other
water users – principally cities
(people and industry)
Decreasing quality as well as
quantity
Increasing sustainability
concerns (e.g., groundwater
depletion) – requires meeting
environmental water needs
Climate Change: Increasing
variability in time and space
• Overall
challenge plays
itself out in a
range of
different
situations and
different scales,
so the specific
nature of the
Water for Food
equation is
inherently
context-specific
Impact of Irrigation in Agriculture
Cultivated area in the world: 1.54 billion hectares
82% rain fed 18% irrigated
Approximate yield: 6 billion tons
56% rain fed 44% irrigated
Water Scarcity will Increase Food Insecurity
Areas of Physical and Economic Water Scarcity
Source: International Water Management Institute analysis done for the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture using the Watersim
model.
(From Uma Lele, ICID September 2013)
19
Total Area Equipped for Irrigation by Region(1000 ha)(1961-2011)
100000
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Source: FAOSTAT
Sub-Saharan Africa
Northern America
Latin America and Caribbean
Eastern Asia
South Asia
South-Eastern Asia
(From Uma Lele, ICID September 2013)
Total Area Equipped for Irrigation
(Brazil, China, India and Indonesia)
(1000 ha) (1961-2011)
Growth of Surface and Ground Water
in India (1951-2007)
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
Brazil
China
India
Source: FAOSTAT
2009
2006
2003
2000
1997
1994
1991
1988
1985
1982
1979
1976
1973
1970
1967
1964
1961
0
Indonesia
(From Uma Lele, ICID September 2013)
Faures and Mukherji 2011
From: Desafios e Perspectivas da Agricultura Irrigada
Eng. Agro. Marcos Brandão Braga
From: Desafios e Perspectivas da Agricultura Irrigada
Eng. Agro. Marcos Brandão Braga
Rehabilitation and Modernization of Existing Systems
• Creation of Water User Associations to operate and maintain
irrigation systems
• Instill good organization and governance
• Rehabilitation of systems, re-engineering and introduction of
flexible operational schemes for existing canal supplied
surface irrigation systems
• Volumetric Water Charges – Increased Water Charges
• Training and Agricultural Extension
• Irrigation Scheduling
Photos: National Strawberry Sustainability Initiative
Smallholder and Community Irrigation
• Introduce irrigation systems appropriate to local water
resources and conditions
• Guarantee good production in the rainy and shoulder seasons
• Technical assistance and agricultural extension
• Is advanced technology an option (drip irrigation, center pivot
irrigation)
• Access to markets for higher production and value crops
• Financing for seed and agricultural inputs, energy
• Sustainability
What can we offer from
the University of
Nebraska?
Scottsbluff
Omaha
Lincoln
BREBS locations
Eddy covariance system
•
Water sciences (groundwater modeling, drought prediction & mitigation;
irrigation efficiency, evapotranspiration measurement)
•
Agricultural sciences (plant genomics, breeding and biotechnology;
agroecology, crop yield modeling, cropping systems, food science)
•
Social sciences (water resources and agricultural economics; policy
analysis; law; human dimensions of water use; political science)
•
Information sciences (information technology, advanced software
development; remote sensing, geospatial information systems
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Business Administration; Public health
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cover entire state (total of 23 NRDs)
Created in 1972, ahead of major expansion of irrigation
Local authorities
–
–
Not state government
Not federal government
Locally elected boards of directors
Professional staffs
Revenue – Property Tax (set by the boards)
–
Other $$ - Federal/State/private grants, Fees, Sales, etc.
• The network fosters adoption of newer
water management technologies to help
farmers increase crop water productivity,
reduce water withdrawal and energy
consumption, and protect environment.
Electrodes
Sensor
collar
Stainless
steel sleeve
Hand
-held meter
Dr. Suat Irmak
• Mission, vision and
initial activities
•
Established in April 2010 with a $50 million gift from the Robert B.
Daugherty Charitable Foundation
•
Our Vision: A food and water secure world, where global food security is
ensured without compromising the use of water to meet other pressing
human and environmental needs.
•
Conducting scientific and policy research and
developing advanced decision-making tools and
knowledge delivery systems
•
Using the results of scientific and policy research to
inform policy and advise policy makers
•
Educating the necessary human talent
• Drawing on faculty fellows and affiliates and
•
•
other resources across the University
Adopting creative internal arrangements in our
approaches to faculty affiliation and grant-making
Expanding our reach through partnerships
UNL wheat breeder Steve
Baenziger and students
Our institute works on water for food issues both
locally and in other parts of the world facing critical
water for food challenges. This means:
•
Building bridges across the worlds of large-holder and
small-holder agriculture
•
Bridging different communities of expertise and focus – e.g.,
water and agriculture/livestock communities
• Scientific and policy research on increasing
•
production and ensuring sustainability
Quantitative analysis to improve policy
making
• Educating the next generation
• The annual Water for Food Conferences and
related policy dialogues
•
•
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“Path to Solutions” program -- Institute poses specific and
well-defined research challenges to the NU community
“Venture Research” program – Institute seeks applications
from individual faculty who wish to pursue exploratory, highrisk research avenues
“Transdisciplinary Conversations” program -- discussion
opportunities to create exchanges and a sense of scholarly
community amongst students and faculty that do not usually
interact
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Partnership with UNESCO-IHE
Institute for Water Education in
Delft, the Netherlands:
–
Dual Degree Program to began in
September 2013
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Students will study agricultural water
management in Nebraska and the
Netherlands
–
Exchanges, e.g. field methods course
in June 2012 and 2014
Water for Food minor
Research-based policy dialogue:
The Annual Global Water for Food Conferences
Photos courtesy of University Communications
2013 Conference:
“TOO HOT, TOO WET, TOO DRY:
Building Resilient Agroecosystems”
2014 Conference:
“Harnessing the Data Revolution:
Ensuring Water and Food Security
from Field to Global Scales”
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In conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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The State of Nebraska
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India, Brazil, China,
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A limited set of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and
the Middle East/North Africa
The Global Crop Yield Gap and Water
Productivity Atlas
•
•
A comprehensive, graphically intuitive, Global Yield Gap
Atlas within 4 years
Publicly available and widely used as a source of
information by policy makers, researchers, students, and
industry
•
•
Atlas estimates crop
yield gap at field,
regional and national
scales.
Yield Gap =
Attainable yield –
Average yield
Ethiopia
Kenya
Tanzania
THANK YOU
www.gwpforum.org