by Jeremy Bird Director General International Water Management Institute (IWMI) at the SLCARP Symposium, Colombo, August 2014

1. Water for Food Security
SLCARP Symposium, Colombo, August 2014
Photo by Hamish John Appleby / IWMI

2. IWMI’s Vision:
A water-secure world
IWMI’s Mission:
To provide evidence-based solutions to
sustainably manage water and land
resources for food security, people’s
livelihoods and the environment
IWMI’s core competencies:
• Applied research at field and basin scale
• Modelling of bio-physical processes
• Socio-economic assessment
• Policy and institutional analysis
• Capacity development

3. A solution orientated research agenda:
IWMI’s expertise supports 6 key challenge areas
Intensify
agricultural
productivity
sustainably
Manage risk and
increase resilience
Benefit from
functioning
ecosystems
services
Enhance efficient
resource use and re-use
Promote gender and
social equity Maximize shared
benefits across
sectors and borders

4. IWMI Offices worldwide

5. Global Risks Report 2014, World Economic Forum
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
‘Water crisis’ is
the third
highest global
risk
..extreme weather,
climate change and
biodiversity loss also
very high

6. We know about climate change and increasing population, but
changes in consumption patterns also leads to significant
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
10 100 1000 10000 100000
GDP per capita (2000 constant dollars per year)
meat consumption
(kg/cap/yr)
Meat
China
India
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
India USA
10 100 1000 10000 100000
GDP per capita (2000 constant dollars per year)
milk consumption
(kg/cap/yr)
Milk
China
USA
increase in water demand
1961-2000

7. Water for Food Security – more than just crops
1. How to ensure sustainable agricultural growth and
productivity increases are achieved in ways that create
and enhance resilience for the poor?
Photo by Neil Palmer / IWMI

8. Water for People
http://bit.ly/1BapyNq - People gather to get water from a huge well in
a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
A photograph by Amit Dave, Reuters

9. Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org
Water for Health
Photograph by Cherry Wolf

10. Resilience

11. …problems are more than physical scarcity
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
Water &
land
scarcity
Slow
growth of
productivity
Unequal
sharing of
benefits
Unequal
sharing of
risks
0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
INDIA NEWS CTOBER 1, 2009
India's Drought Worst Since
1972

12. One example - over abstraction of groundwater
e.g. in Gujarat
Safe
Semi-critical
Critical
Over exploited
Saline
‘Free’ electricity encouraged
groundwater overuse
Over past 10 years solutions
have been found built on
research into technical
interventions supported by
policy and financial
initiatives and incentives

13. Shah, Tushaar (IWMI)

14. Research shows signs of sustainable abstraction
thresholds being exceeded in Jaffna…
Agro-well density, Jaffna
 Agro- wells increased by 37 %
 Agricultural land increased by 6%
(in Valikamam South, 2003 - 2007)
Potential over-abstraction
 Excess irrigation: up to 230 %
 Excess fertilizer: 108 in N (kg/ha)
(in Valikamam, 2011)
(IWMI, 2011)

15. Consequences on saline intrusion…
(IWMI, 2011)
Suggestions:
 Efficient irrigation
management
 Increase the groundwater
recharge
 Salt tolerance crops
 Awareness programs
 Strengthen the water
management committee
 etc

16. We know that:
 in most cases resources are limited
 pressure on agriculture from urban and industrial users will
continue
 the poor and marginalized suffer most in shortage situations
So we need to:
 enhance the productivity of water
 adopt available supply and demand solutions, and research
into new ones
 ensure the right incentive frameworks are in place

17. e.g. Yield potential exists
3.31 3.86 4.8 5.5
13
15
10
5
0
Rainfed Minor Major Mahaweli Global
Max
Paddy Yields t/ha

18. Examples of water transfers and increased productivity exist
Agricultural
production levels
maintained…
…as allocation to
agriculture
reduced and
transferred to
urban use

19. High tech systems are moving
from the lab to the field
(courtesy Jain Irrigation)

20. …adopting
efficient
systems
Kalpitiya
Photos by Herath Manthrithilake (IWMI)

21. Wastewater reuse – can also be a safe and
valuable resource (after Drechsel)
Can we develop effective business models
that promote safe recycling and reuse?

22. Resource recovery and reuse -
Source: Drechsel
Benefits:
Energy reduction in: Water
treatment, chemical fertilizer
production and transport
Environmental benefits: Re-use
of nutrients, reduced pollution
of water bodies, reduced
nitrogen and phosphorous
demand, reduced GHG
emissions

23. Water for Food Security – resilience to shocks
2. How can we plan for variable climates?
Photo by Hamish John Appleby / IWMI

24. Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Future Projections –
complex planning challenge
Projection 1 Projection 2
De Silva, 2006
+
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
-
- - -
+
Projection 3
-
-
-
- - -
+
+
+
+
+ +
Spatial Pattern of Rainfall Projections for 2050s
+
+
Dry
Zone
+
+
Wet
Zone
Intermediate
Zone
Dry
Zone
Wet
Zone
Intermediate
Zone
+
+
Basnayake et al. 2004 De Silva 2006
-
+
+
+
+
+
+ +
+
+
De Silva, 2006
Dry
Zone
Wet
Zone
Intermediate
Zone
-
-
-
Punyawardane et al.
2010

25. Identifying climate change Vulnerability Hotspots – to
design locally relevant adaptation measures
Anuradhapura
Nuwara-Eliya
Ratnapura
Climate Change Vulnerability
Index
Exposure Index
Sensitivity Index
Adaptive Capacity
Index

26. One approach is develop tools for Disaster Relief
RAPID EMERGENCY RESPONSE MAPPING
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12045
2013

27. …another approach is to improve targeting of investment
e.g. flood duration analysis, Indus Basin, Pakistan
(IWMI) Amarnath, Giriraj

28. … another is to improve resilience through storage options
Water Storage
Continuum
Source: McCartney &
Smakhtin 2010

29. Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI)
Source: Pavelic 2012

30. Managed Aquifer Recharge
Ganges Aquifer Management for Ecosystems Services
(GAMES)

31. Encouraging more groundwater use in under-utilized areas
(after Mukharji)
 Agricultural growth in West Bengal had
slumped by more than half
 Research identified that a major
obstacle to agricultural productivity
was getting access to groundwater
 New policies recommended by IWMI
were adopted to reduce ‘red-tape’ and
improve groundwater access for
smallholder farmers.
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
 The policy change could benefit more
than 5.6 million smallholders

32. Challenges and opportunities
 Competition for water is increasing
 Variability and extremes are a reality
 80-90% of increased production will have to
come from investments in existing land
 Innovative solutions exist at various scales and
across sectors – room for optimism
 New technology offers new opportunities
 Research has an important part to play n
developing a range of viable technical,
management, institutional and policy solutions

33. iwmi.org
CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems
wle.cgiar.org