Ecuador is facing several threats to its food and water security, with over a tenth of its population currently undernourished and living in poverty. As a response, its government is incorporating new patterns of land use and developing regional water infrastructure to cope with the related challenges. In this study, we assess to what point these efforts contribute to integrated water and food security in the country. We investigated the period 2004–2013 in the most productive agricultural region - the Guayas river basin district (GRBD) - and analysed the impacts of different scenarios of agricultural change on local water security. Our approach integrates MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism) with the hydrological SWAT model. Freshwater allocation is evaluated within all the water cycle from its source (natural systems) to the final users (societal systems). Water security is assessed spatiotemporally in terms of water stress for the population living in poverty. Water productivity is obtained in relation to agricultural production and nutrition. The multi-scale analysis shows that whereas at river basin district level the median annual streamflow has a similar magnitude than rainfall stored in soil, these two parameters differ spatiotemporally at subbasin level. The study finds the greatest challenge in achieving water security is the south-east and central part of the GRBD, due to water scarcity and a larger population living in poverty. However, these areas are also simultaneously, where the greatest crop water productivity is found. We conclude that food production for both domestic consumption and market-oriented exports can be increased while meeting ecosystem water demands in all the GRBD regions except for the east. Our integration of methods provides a better approach to inform integrated land and water management and is relevant for academics, practitioners and policymakers alike.

During the past three decades, the Pisque watershed in Ecuador's Northern Andes has become the country's principal export-roses producing area. Recently, a new boom of local smallholders have established small rose greenhouses and joined the flower-export business. This has intensified water scarcity and material/discursive conflicts over water use priorities: water to defend local-national food sovereignty or production for export. This paper examines how including peasant flower farms in the capitalist dream – driven by a ‘mimetic desire’ and copying large-scale capitalist flower-farm practices and technologies – generates new intra-community conflicts over collective water rights, extending traditional class-based water conflicts. New allocation principles in Ecuador's progressive 2008 Constitution and 2014 Water Law prioritising food production over flowers' industrial water use are unlikely to benefit smallholder communities. Instead, decision-making power for peasant communities and their water users' associations on water use priority would enable water user prioritization according to smallholders' own preferences.

The institutional reform of the State established in Ecuador during the last decade has aimed at regaining control of specific sectors such as the consumptive use of water. Since 2014, regulation, consumption, and use of water, especially in agriculture, have been analyzed through policies and fiscal instruments. This research presents itself in the context of the simulation of scenarios using positive mathematical programming, to analyze the economic impact of pricing policies on agro-food farms. Policies of fixed costs, water blocks, and volumetric prices are evaluated. The results show that the existing fixed costs do not reduce water consumption. In contrast, the scenarios of water blocks and volumetric prices impact on the behavior of farmers. The tendency of water consumption to the application of volumetric prices demonstrates that banana farms have a greater tolerance to the increase of water costs. On the other hand, the response to an increase in cost in the case of cacao, sugar cane, and rice depends on the productivity of farmers. The negative effects can lead to the abandonment of agriculture. Thus, volumetric policies are more efficient in reducing water consumption as well as in recovering the costs of the irrigation system.

As befits a CGIAR Challenge Program , the CPWF has welcomed a wide range of stake holders and partners in accord with their ability to achieve program goals. Decision on research investments (project selection) have been based on a competitive grants in which proposal quality was evaluated by an interdependent external panel. The usual weakness of a competitive grants approach - lack of coherence in research agenda has been address by Basin Focal Projects and synthesis research.

There are many options for enhancing food production from fish in managed aquatic systems.The most appropriate technology, however, will vary from place to place, and the conditions under which one technology is prefered over another are still not well defined.

Biofuels in Ecuador were born with the purpose of achieving an effective substitution of imports of petroleum derivatives. The objective of this research is to analyze the impact that biofuel production has on water, food, and energy, and its contribution to reducing the growing dependence on fossil fuels in the transportation sector in Ecuador. The analysis focuses on ethanol produced from sugar cane, which is used to produce Ecopaís gasoline. The methodology is composed of three parts. For the first part, Geographic Information Systems were used; for the second, the FAO Penman-Monteith method; and, finally, in the third, the energy consumption was obtained through secondary information. As a result, taking the year 2019 as a reference, ethanol became the ninth product with the largest amount of land suitable for agriculture, and the seventh with the most irrigated areas in a country that suffers from malnutrition. Countries with a tropical climate and highly dependent on imports of petroleum derivatives are tempted to implement policies to promote biofuels. However, due to the risks that this renewable fuel represents on food security, other options for reducing its energy dependence should be exhausted.

This reports summarizes and synthesizes activities and achievements of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) through the end of 2007. The CPWF is an intiative of the CGIAR designed to take on the global challenge of water scarcity and food security. It is an international, multi-institutional researchfor- development initiative that brings together scientists, development specialists and river basin communities, and seeks to create and disseminate international public goods (IPGs) helpful in achieving food security, reducing poverty, improving livelihoods, reducing agriculture–related pollution, and enhancing environmental security. The CPWF conducts its research on water and food in nine ‘benchmark’ river basins, organized around five different themes. This work is being implemented through competitive-call projects, Basin Focal Projects (BFPs), small grant projects and synthesis research. This report is one example of the latter. Projects and outputs Part of the CPWF’s work has focused on increasing water productivity in rainfed environments. Achievements include the further development of conservation agriculture for no-till sowing into crop residues; “slash and mulch” to replace “slash and burn” practices in hillside agriculture; water harvesting systems for dryland locations; understanding livelihood vulnerability and farmers’ coping strategies; and developing and encouraging the distribution—through community ‘participatory’ varietal selection and seed schemes—of drought-tolerant sorghum, wheat, and other crops. Progress has also been made in increasing water productivity in irrigated and salt-affected environments, especially where water is scarce and there are opportunities to increase its productivity. Examples include the development and testing of salt-tolerant germplasm for rice and other crops to make more effective use of salt-affected areas; understanding how to use wastewater in irrigated peri-urban agriculture to produce safe and nutritious vegetables; and developing aerobic rice germplasm and management practices to produce more rice with less water.

Water management studies often overlook community diversity, different stakeholders’ values, and frames to claim water rights. Using a political-ecology approach, this article examines an irrigation system in Ecuador’s highlands via Fraser’s principles of justice (recognition, representation, redistribution). Large flower companies and indigenous smallholders frame their arguments differently to legitimize water allocation claims. Framing is effective when it resonates with other stakeholders’ values. Some unexpected findings are explained: most of the water is still used by large companies since communities took control; rules regarding water use differ greatly among sectors in the system; and small flower producers have been appearing recently.

Water management studies often overlook community diversity, different stakeholders’ values, and frames to claim water rights. Using a political-ecology approach, this article examines an irrigation system in Ecuador’s highlands via Fraser’s principles of justice (recognition, representation, redistribution). Large flower companies and indigenous smallholders frame their arguments differently to legitimize water allocation claims. Framing is effective when it resonates with other stakeholders’ values. Some unexpected findings are explained: most of the water is still used by large companies since communities took control; rules regarding water use differ greatly among sectors in the system; and small flower producers have been appearing recently.