Poorer countries often face a severe trade-off: the need to improve socio-economic conditions is hard to balance with the maintenance of key ecological processes. As a case study, we select Colombia, a Latin American country with almost 10% of its inhabitants living in extreme poverty. We elaborate a water–food–labour (WFL) nexus grounded on a sub-national Environmentally Extended Input–Output (EEIO) analysis to assess the virtual water trade (VWT) and virtual informal labour (VIL) flows across administrative departments and economic sectors related to domestic trade. The main results are the following: high cross-departmental resource interdependence both in terms of VWT and VIL, rich departments highly depend on the resources of their neighbouring trading partners, extreme poverty conditions shown by economically isolated departments, and considerable income inequality in the food production sectors. Moreover, departments that are net exporters of virtual water suffer from water stress that might be exacerbated by future high rainfall variability due to climate change. These results suggest that strategies to attain sustainable development goals (SDGs) must deal with the biophysical constraints and the economic and political feasibility of the proposed solutions. In this vein, we argue that a holistic framework, grounded on quantitative analyses, is necessary to support informed policy decisions for the simultaneous achievement of multiple (possibly contrasting) goals. Moreover, severe spatial imbalances call for local policy responses coordinated at the national level.

To date, the land–water–food nexus has been primarily addressed from an ecological, hydrological or agronomic angle, with limited response to the governance interface between the input resources. Likewise, in widely used heuristic frameworks, such as the social–ecological system (SES) framework, governance interactions between resources are not sufficiently addressed. We address this gap empirically, using the case of Tajikistan, based on a farm household survey analysis of 306 farmers. The results indicate that land system variables contribute to the willingness to cooperate in irrigation management. Specifically, formal land tenure has a positive effect on farmers paying for water as well as on the likelihood of their investing time and effort in irrigation infrastructure, which is decisive for Tajikistan’s food and fiber production. Irrigation system variables show that, e.g., being an upstream user increases the likelihood to contribute to labor maintenance efforts. We further discuss how decisions with respect to the land sector could be designed in the future to facilitate cooperation in other resource sectors. Further, we conclude from a conceptual perspective that the SES framework integrating a nexus perspective can be adapted: either (1) by adding a second-tier “governance nexus” variable inside the governance variable of an irrigation system; or (2) by adding a land resource unit and system outside the irrigation system.

The scarcity of grazing and water for an animal has a negative effect on household welfare and food security either by affecting livestock production directly, affecting crop or off-farm income due to labor reallocation or through its direct impact on time leisure consumption.The economic impacts of resource (grazing and water) scarcity on welfare are undermined. Thus, a better understanding that is derived from the factual evidence is required. The first objective of this paper is to explore the link between natural resource scarcity and per capita food consumption expenditure (PCFE) as proxy for welfare and food security followed by the second objective of analyzing whether this effect is uniform across all quantile groups and there is gender differential effect using distance and shadow price as resource scarcity indicators. The paper used a relatively unique data set from a randomly drawn 518 sample farmers in Northern Ethiopia. To address our first objective, we employ the IV two-stage least square estimation for welfare and probit model for food security drawing on non-separable farm household model.Our estimates show that about 48% of the households were food secure while 52% were food insecure. Our results confirmed the theoretical prediction that resource scarcity affects household PCFE and food security adversely as predicted by the downward spiral hypothesis. The results indicate that animal feed and water scarcity have an important impact on welfare and food security. As expected, in aggregate, reducing time spent searching for water per day leads to an increase in PCFE and food security. Similarly, a decrease in time wastage for searching grazing increase PCFE and food security respectively, and an increment of PCFE and food security is achieved by a reduction in crop residue transporting time per day.The gender differential analysis signals that increasing resource scarcity results in low PCFE and food security, with the male are considerably likely to have less food consumption expenditure and being food insecure more as compared to female households. The total impact of time spent searching for water, grazing, and transporting straw on per PCFE is − 0.142%, − 0.102%, and − 0.092%, respectively, and decreasing reaching time to a water, grazing, and straw source by 0.6 min will increase PCFE by 354 ETB, 254 ETB, and 229 ETB for the median household. Depending on results from the quantile regression, the effect of water and feed scarcity is not uniform across the food consumption distribution.

The microbiological safety of food and the environment in which we live is currently an intensely discussed topic. Increasing production and the demand-driven global market exert pressure on ensuring sufficient high-quality food and safe drinking water. Compared to the past, increased attention in this area is now paid to important viral agents associated with food/water contaminations in both intensive research and routine diagnostics. This interest in viral agents has also increased in recent years due to the ongoing global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. Food- and water-borne viruses usually cause only mild and short-term diseases. The most common is gastroenteritis manifested by fever, vomiting and watery diarrhoea. However, in addition to mild febrile illness, these agents can also cause more serious conditions – respiratory infections, hepatitis, conjunctivitis, aseptic meningitis, myocarditis, encephalitis and paralysis. Globally, these diseases have significant economic impacts and are still among the leading causes of death in developing countries.This manuscript provides an overview of food- and water-borne viruses and technologies developed and currently used for their identification as causative agents. Methods for the detection of these pathogens represent an important tool for the assessment and mitigation of potential risks associated with the contamination of food and water resources. There is currently a wide range of possible approaches. Their use is differently targeted and their sensitivity, effectiveness and specificity also vary. In the case of a specific application, it is therefore necessary to choose the appropriate method, optimize it, and then verify its applicability and limits. The chosen method should be sufficiently robust, sensitive, specific and, if possible, also time and labor saving.

In recent years, the notion of a nexus involving water, energy, and food has been gaining attention in the scholarly literature and popular press, due partly to the impetus provided by an international conference on the nexus in 2011, and partly to the increasing interest among researchers and public officials in determining the investments and policies needed to achieve and sustain water, energy, and food security. While the notion of such a nexus is compelling to some observers, interactions involving water, energy, and food have been known and studied for many years by scientists and policy analysts. The need for greater integration of research and policy discourse across sectors and regions has been expressed in international meetings since the late 1940s. In addition, the conceptual basis for including water, energy, and food in the “nexus,” to the exclusion of other resources and inputs is not evident. In many cases, the information excluded from studies claiming to implement a nexus approach might be of greater importance to science and policy than the information included in the analysis. In this paper, I review some of the experience gained in earlier attempts to enhance integration and policy coherence, and to promote systems analysis. The challenges observed in implementing programs of integrated natural resources management (INRM) and integrated water resources management (IWRM), in particular, suggest that efforts to implement a water-energy-food nexus approach will not enhance the policy process in all settings. In sum, it is not clear that the increasing attention given to studies claiming to implement a nexus approach is warranted.

There is a gap in information in the literature regarding the energy and water embodied is seafood, especially wild catch fisheries. This work draws on primary and secondary data to assess, through a life cycle approach, the energy and water consumed to catch and process wild sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska (USA). The Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery is a very remote wild catch fishery. All material inputs and labor are either barged or flown in from other parts of Alaska, and the lower U.S. states. In addition, a large monitoring and enforcement effort by the State of Alaska is conducted to sustainably manage the fishery. We therefore expanded the system boundary to include energy and water for commuting laborer's and regulators to depict the system within a wider context. Structured interviews were conducted to elicit information from fishers and processors related to their use of water and energy and to ascertain potentials for reducing energy and water demand of the fishery. The energy associated with fishing and processing sockeye ranges between 24.6 and 33.8 MJ kg⁻¹ with fishing effort accounting for 43% of the total energy embodied in products. The water embodied in final sockeye salmon products ranged between 10 and 23 L/kg, mainly the result of processing and packaging. Combined, labor transport and fishery management contributed 8% to the embodied energy in sockeye products, while contributing less that 1% of the water embodied in sockeye products. While not insignificant, the energy costs of fishery management are inconsequential and should provide adequate justification for continued sustainable management and forceful information for consumer choice. The combination of governmental regulations and the remote location results in few opportunities for lowering energy and water demand of this already efficient fishery.