Virtual water has been proposed as a mechanism with potential to reduce the effects of water scarcity on food security. To evaluate the role of virtual water in reducing the effect of water scarcity on food security, all components of the available water resource in agricultural areas must be quantified to provide a basis for evaluating food imports driven by water scarcity. We refer to this situation as ‘agri-compatible connections’ among water scarcity, virtual water, and food security. To date, this has not been captured in the literature on water scarcity, virtual water flows and food security. The lack of agri-compatibility has rendered the virtual water concept seemingly inconsistent with trade theories and water-food security policy needs. We propose two requirements for achieving agri-compatible connections: (i) the limit of crop production imposed by water scarcity should be captured by quantifying all components of the water available to satisfy specific crop water requirement in the importing economy, and (ii) food import should satisfy ‘water-dependent food security’ need, which is the actual or potential food security gap created by insufficient available water from all sources for crop production (all other things being equal). Further, we propose that agri-compatible water scarcity should capture three key elements: (i) a reflection of aridity or drought potential, (ii) quantification of all the components of water resource available to a given crop at a given locality and time, and (iii) use of crop- and catchment-specific water scarcity factors to evaluate the effect of crop production and virtual water on water scarcity. In this paper, we show the conceptual outlines for the proposed agri-compatible connections. Achieving agri-compatible connections among water scarcity, virtual water and food security will enhance the analysis and understanding of the role of virtual water for food security in the importing economy and water scarcity in the exporting economy. We suggest that achieving agri-compatibility will improve the use of virtual water as a mechanism to reduce existing and future pressures on global food security

The author considered the contemporary state of the issue of water treatment in food and beverages production. The article presents regulated water quality parameters for drinking and bottled water, for dairy industry, beer and soft drinks production, as well as for production of vodka, vodka for export, and baby food. The article shows that water from central utility and drinking water supply needs additional treatment to produce food and beverages. It should be cleaned from hardness salts, iron, manganese, mineral salts, organic compounds and microbial contamination. Besides, many companies use groundwater sources (from wells). That makes water treatment procedure even more complicated. The author considered such treatment methods as ion exchange, magnetic water treatment, catalyzed oxidation, deferrization using sorption-filtering materials from mineral raw materials, aeration, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, activated carbon adsorption. The author shows the treatment mechanisms, their advantages and disadvantages. The article indicates which materials and equipment can be used to apply these methods in water treatment practice. It describes new techniques for effective water treatment such as radiolysis, cavitation and advanced oxidation treatment techniques. It gives flow diagram of bottled water production depending on its origin and content of impurities which is used by the companies working in Gelendzhiksky district, Lipetsk and Kemerovo. The author analyzed the contemporary state of the issue of water treatment in food and beverages production companies based on the available information and assessed the technical level of water treatment systems. The article reveals that only companies which produce alcoholic drinks such as vodka, liquors, and beer use a number of water treatment procedures which meet modern requirements. In general, food production companies face water treatment issue. Labor intensive, expensive and non-environmentally friendly water treatment methods are used everywhere. But they do not always guarantee required water quality. For that reason water treatment schemes in food industry should be revised. The author gives recommendations to replace traditional technologies with modern ones.

Seventy-one percent of the earth’s surfaces are covered by oceans.Water therefore are an important habitat for the microorganisms and the other living things.A consistent microbial biodiversity is present in water from phototrophs to chemioorganotrophs. The complex relathionships between different microorganisms and the environment are often modified by organic, chemical and physic contaminations. The input of organic material can determine pathogen pollution. The presence of pathogens has to be monitored to eliminate serious problems for animal and human health. Water, in fact, can be a vehicle direct (drinking water) or indirect (irrigue water) for microbial pathogens.

Water, energy and food nexus of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is presented in the light of water governance. The water governance doctrine refers to social, economic, administrative and political systems influencing the transboundary water use and management. Water governance means who gets what water, when and how much, and who has the right to water related benefits. Indus Water Treaty is cited to be one of the few successful settlements of boundary water basin conflicts that has stood the test of times since last six decades. Riparian states have opportunities of harvesting water, power and agriculture by compliance to accords in letter and spirit. IWT restrains both (India) and lower (Pakistan) riparian from pulling out of accord from fear of deadly consequences. IWT is founded on World Bank’s professionally prepared comprehensive terms and conditions keeping in mind future regional developments. This treaty has given control of three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) to India and three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab) to Pakistan. IWT gives both countries genuine share of eastern/western waters for domestic use, agriculture and electricity generation using Run-of-River Plants, subject to observing minimum level of water flow into lower riparian at Head Marala Barrage. Water, energy and food nexus of this treaty bonds upper and lower riparian to comply with water governance principles. Upper riparian diverted 34 million acre feet (MAF) water out of eastern rivers before entering into Pakistan and launched run-of-river power plants spree on western rivers in last two decades. Restricting water flow to lower riparian in the name of pond filling needs attention. Unrestricted use of water in run-of-river power plants is pointed out to be a limiting factor in Indus Water Treaty. Continuum of cooperation has room for collaboration under Indus Water Treaty. India and Pakistan can sort out disputes by dialogue, in light of rights and needs, rather Harmon Doctrine. Keywords: Water, Power, Energy, Agriculture, Dams, Climate change, Run-of-River Plants

A humongous amount of food goes to waste yearly. The use of renewable energy sources is encouraged to reduce global warming. Food waste as a source of energy and water as a food-water-energy nexus has shown to be a viable source of renewable energy. This paper proposes a food waste recycling system that uses a mechanical presser to the extraction of moisture from the food waste with its desiccate being fed to an anaerobic digester to produce biogas. Literature on the topic is reviewed and the benefits and limitations of the system are also discussed.

Globally, water is a bottleneck to food security and, as such, a new approach for water for food is needed. Food insecurity is knocking at every nation's door, including those of the most developed. Moreover, the disruptions in food supply chains that result from continued reliance on a business-as-usual approach of traditional, non-sustainable food and agricultural systems make food insecurity even more vividly present. This article explores the current relationship between food production and water resources. It attempts to better understand how we might reduce the inter-dependencies between food and fresh water by exploring new and alternative sources of water, including improving the efficiencies of green and recycled water.

The agricultural community has a challenge of increasing food production by more than 70% to meet demand from the global population increase by the mid-21st century. Sustainable food production involves the sustained availability of resources, such as water and energy, to agriculture. The key challenges to sustainable food production are population increase, increasing demands for food, climate change, and climate variability, decreasing per capita land and water resources. To discuss more details on (a) the challenges for sustainable food production and (b) mitigation options available, a special issue on “Water Management for Sustainable Food Production” was assembled. The special issue focused on issues such as irrigation using brackish water, virtual water trade, allocation of water resources, consequences of excess precipitation on crop yields, strategies to increase water productivity, rainwater harvesting, irrigation water management, deficit irrigation, and fertilization, environmental and socio-economic impacts, and irrigation water quality. Articles covered several water-related issues across the U.S., Asia, Middle-East, Africa, and Pakistan for sustainable food production. The articles in the special issue highlight the substantial impacts on agricultural production, water availability, and water quality in the face of increasing demands for food and energy.

In the goals of the United Nations for the sustainable development of societies in the third millennium, the approach of water and food nexus is considered one of the important interdisciplinary perspectives in the direction of the dynamic balance of production and consumption of resources. Due to the consumption of more than 90% of the country's water resources in the agricultural sector, access to accurate statistics of this field is vitally important in creating a balance between water production and consumption in the water-food nexus approach. In such a way, the presentation of incorrect statistics or statistics with many errors, especially by official authorities, by entering into different models developed by researchers, will lead to distorted results, wrong decisions and ultimately economic and environmental damages and social tensions. In this research, with the approach of using the connections of ecosystems, water-food nexus was investigated; Thus, the correlation between the presented statistics of the production sector and the water consumption sector was analyzed by using water-food nexus with the method of uncomplicated calculations. Based on the information, the inconsisitency of the statistics provided by different departments is evident. According to the statistics of crop production in 2014-2015 and 2019-2020, the undercultivated area in the agricultural sector in 2019-2020 has grown by about 1% compared to 2014-2015, and in 13 provinces the undercultivated area has increased and in other provinces the undercultivated area in the agricultural sector has decreased. Water consumption in the agricultural sector has grown by about 10%, so that in 23 provinces, water consumption in the agricultural sector has increased and in 8 provinces, water consumption in the agricultural sector has decreased. This difference is due to the change in the cultivation pattern and the crop selected by farmers in the country. Also, according to the amount of programmable water that has been announced by the Ministry of Energy, in 12 provinces, the amount of programmable water is not enough to meet the Pure water consumption for crops, and even in some provinces, the amount of programmable water is only enough to supply garden products. This important and basic finding implies and emphasizes the need to solve the problems of statistics of different authorities of the country.

One of the needs of a sustainable decision-making system in agriculture is to determine the role of energy in the food production cycle. Wind energy turbines can be built in agricultural fields for groundwater exploitation and reduce the cost of energy supply for the pumping system. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of wind energy and economics on sustainable planning of agricultural water resources. A multiobjective framework was developed based on the nondominated sorting principle and water cycle optimizer. Maximization of benefit per cost ratio for the total cropping pattern and minimization of energy consumption for the growing season were addressed as the objectives of the nonlinear problem. The prediction of biomass production was made by simulating a hybrid structure between the soil moisture balance in the root zone area and the development of the canopy cover of each crop. The results showed that the objectives of the problem have been met by irrigation planning using climatic constraints and drought stresses. About 35% of the total water requirement of plants with a higher harvest index (watermelon, melon, etc.) is in the maturing stage of the shade cover. HIGHLIGHTS The role of wind energy variables has been considered in the agricultural yield production.; A multiobjective framework was developed based on the nondominated sorting principle and water cycle optimizer.; The proposed optimization method showed that the total water productivity increased significantly by 38%.;

International water law, which regulates the uses of international watercourses that are situated partly in different States, is a highly topical sector of law. In 2014, two conventions covering the subject matter entered into force globally. At the same time, a water-food-energy nexus has become part and parcel of the development canon that emphasises the importance of the complex relationship between water, energy and food. In this article, it is discussed whether international water law supports the water-food-energy nexus approach, which aims to reconcile the different water uses in international basins. The analysis also covers the human rights to water and food from the nexus viewpoint. The legal regime of the Mekong River is used as an example of the possibilities and challenges of the nexus approach in international water law. It is concluded that despite its deficiencies international water law provides a very useful platform for the cooperation between States and different sectors that aim at guaranteeing water, food and energy security.