World Water and Food to 2025Jointly published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
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 global food security as water becomes increasingly scarce? What steps can we take to avert threats to global food supply, the environment, and the livelihoods of those lacking access to clean water? Using state-of-the-art computer modeling to show how water availability and demand are likely to evolve,World Water and Food to 2025 contends that if current water policies continue, so will high levels of food insecurity, environmental degradation, and water-related ill health. Further neglect of water issues could produce a genuine water crisis, which in turn could lead to a food crisis. But we can avoid these outcomes if we make fundamental policy changes now.The authors show exactly which policies and actions could ensure sustainable and efficient water use, enough food for the world's people, and adequate drinking water for all.
"Collective angst about increasing water shortage has caused us to reach, out of habit, for more infrastructure: water storage, desalination, and longer pipelines and aqueducts.These are useful tools, but a sustainable solution must address irrigation's monopoly of available water. Can we grow more food while reducing water costs? Can we improve use of existing water sources? How can we reduce water scarcity's impact on the poor? These may well be the 21st century's most pressing questions.This authoritative book presents innovative data collection, serious analysis, and interesting solutions to these questions...A "must-read" for those who want to understand the new world of water."
"Few trends threaten future food production more than the unsustainable use of fresh water and the growing competition for finite water supplies.The authors analyze these trends in illuminating detail. A valuable resource for researchers and development specialists concerned about food, water, hunger, poverty — and human security overall."
"Rosegrant and his colleagues have managed in one short monograph to suggest and analyze feasible strategies that will enable the global community to get away from the terrible water crisis it now faces and move into an era of economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable water use. While the authors do not claim that implementation of these strategies will be easy, the strategies and their analyses are so patently sensible, politically plausible, and supportable, that we could expect to implement them over a 25-year period without any major social catastrophes."
This book is available for download in PDF format as an entire document or by chapter.
- Full Text
- Table of Contents, List of Tables, List of Figures, List of Boxes, Foreword, Acknowledgments, and Acronyms
- Chapter 1: Water Resources and Food Production
- Chapter 2: The Water and Food Model
- Chapter 3: Potential Water Worlds: Future Scenarios
- Chapter 4: Maintaining the Status Quo: The Business-as-Usual Scenario
- Chapter 5: Sustainable Water World or Water Crisis?
- Chapter 6: Water Prices, Water Demand, Food Production, and Environmental Flows
- Chapter 7: Balancing Water for Food and the Environment
- Chapter 8: Irrigated and Rainfed Agriculture: Options for Food and Production Growth
- Chapter 9: Implications for the Future: Meeting the Challenge of Water Scarcity
- Appendix A: Model Formulation and Implementation: The Business-as-Usual Scenario
- Appendix B: Business-as-Usual Scenario Projections for 1995, 2010, and 2015
- References
- Contributors
- Index