Non-PR | IFPRI3; CRP2 | EPTD; PIM | CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

The article discusses background of water use in agriculture in the dry areas; the past, present and future projections of water scarcity in the dry regions. It highlights some of the latest debates, principles and terminologies used in the field of agricultural water management. And, finally discusses an ongoing project in the Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana where these principles are being applied to improve the field- and irrigation scheme-scale water productivity of the farming systems.

Earthquakes often cause destructive and unpredictable changes that can affect local hydrology (e.g. groundwater elevation or reduction) and thus disrupt land uses and human activities. Prolific agricultural regions overlie seismically active areas, emphasizing the importance to improve our understanding and monitoring of hydrologic and agricultural systems following a seismic event. A thorough data collection is necessary for adequate post-earthquake crop management response; however, the large spatial extent of earthquake's impact makes challenging the collection of robust data sets for identifying locations and magnitude of these impacts. Observing hydrologic responses to earthquakes is not a novel concept, yet there is a lack of methods and tools for assessing earthquake's impacts upon the regional hydrology and agricultural systems. The objective of this paper is to describe how remote sensing imagery, methods and tools allow detecting crop responses and damage incurred after earthquakes because a change in the regional hydrology. Many remote sensing datasets are long archived with extensive coverage and with well-documented methods to assess plant-water relations. We thus connect remote sensing of plant water relations to its utility in agriculture using a post-earthquake agrohydrologic remote sensing (PEARS) framework; specifically in agro-hydrologic relationships associated with recent earthquake events that will lead to improved water management.

Perchlorate (ClO4−) is a strong oxidizer and has gained significant attention due to its reactivity, occurrence, and persistence in surface water, groundwater, soil and food. Stable isotope techniques (i.e., (18O/16O and 17O/16O) and 37Cl/35Cl) facilitate the differentiation of naturally occurring perchlorate from anthropogenic perchlorate. At high enough concentrations, perchlorate can inhibit proper function of the thyroid gland. Dietary reference dose (RfD) for perchlorate exposure from both food and water is set at 0.7 μg kg−1 body weight/day which translates to a drinking water level of 24.5 μg L−1. Chromatographic techniques (i.e., ion chromatography and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry) can be successfully used to detect trace level of perchlorate in environmental samples. Perchlorate can be effectively removed by wide variety of remediation techniques such as bio-reduction, chemical reduction, adsorption, membrane filtration, ion exchange and electro-reduction. Bio-reduction is appropriate for large scale treatment plants whereas ion exchange is suitable for removing trace level of perchlorate in aqueous medium. The environmental occurrence of perchlorate, toxicity, analytical techniques, removal technologies are presented.

CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) | Walker Tom et al., 'Agriculture: More Water and Better Farming for Improved Food Security', In Confronting Drought in Africa's Drylands: Opportunities for Enhancing Resilience, eds. Raffaello Cervigni and Michael Morris. Chapter 7. Pp. 115 - 136, IFPRI, 2016

The resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 25 September 2015 is symptomatic of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. It postulates goals and related targets for 2030 that include (1) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG2); (2) Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG6); and (3) Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all (SDG7). There will be tradeoffs between achieving these goals particularly in the wake of changing consumption patterns and rising demands from a growing population expected to reach more than nine billion by 2050. This paper uses global economic analysis tools to assess the impacts of long-term changes in fossil fuel prices, for example, as a result of a carbon tax under the UNFCCC or in response to new, large findings of fossil energy sources, on water and food outcomes. We find that a fossil fuel tax would not adversely affect food security and could be a boon to global food security if it reduces adverse climate change impacts.