Agriculture accounts for most of the renewable freshwater resource withdrawals in Malawi, yet food insecurity and water scarcity remain as major challenges. Despite Malawi’s vast water resources, climate change, coupled with increasing population and urbanisation are contributing to increasing water scarcity. Improving crop water productivity has been identified as a possible solution to water and food insecurity, by producing more food with less water, that is, to produce “more crop per drop”. This study evaluated crop water productivity from 2000 to 2013 by assessing crop evapotranspiration, crop production and agricultural gross domestic product (Ag GDP) contribution for Malawi. Improvements in crop water productivity were evidenced through improved crop production and productivity. These improvements were supported by increased irrigated area, along with improved agronomic practices. Crop water productivity increased by 33% overall from 2000 to 2013, resulting in an increase in maize production from 1.2 million metric tons to 3.6 million metric tons, translating to an average food surplus of 1.1 million metric tons. These developments have contributed to sustainable improved food and nutrition security in Malawi, which also avails more water for ecosystem functions and other competing economic sectors.

Agriculture accounts for most of the renewable freshwater resource withdrawals in Malawi, yet food insecurity and water scarcity remain as major challenges. Despite Malawi’s vast water resources, climate change, coupled with increasing population and urbanisation are contributing to increasing water scarcity. Improving crop water productivity has been identified as a possible solution to water and food insecurity, by producing more food with less water, that is, to produce “more crop per drop”. This study evaluated crop water productivity from 2000 to 2013 by assessing crop evapotranspiration, crop production and agricultural gross domestic product (Ag GDP) contribution for Malawi. Improvements in crop water productivity were evidenced through improved crop production and productivity. These improvements were supported by increased irrigated area, along with improved agronomic practices. Crop water productivity increased by 33% overall from 2000 to 2013, resulting in an increase in maize production from 1.2 million metric tons to 3.6 million metric tons, translating to an average food surplus of 1.1 million metric tons. These developments have contributed to sustainable improved food and nutrition security in Malawi, which also avails more water for ecosystem functions and other competing economic sectors.

Climate change and variability will impact water availability and the food security of India. Trend analyses of historical data indicate an increase in temperature and changes in rainfall pattern in different parts of the country. The general circulation models (GCMs) also project increased warming and changes in precipitation patterns over India. This chapter presents examples of model applications in water management and crop yield simulation in India, focusing on climate change impact assessment. Simulation models have been successfully applied for rotational water allocation, deficit irrigation scheduling, etc. in different canal commands. Application of a universal soil loss equation in a distributed parametric modeling approach by partitioning watershed into erosion response units suggests that by treating only 14% of the watershed area, a 47% reduction in soil loss can be achieved. Simulation studies conducted using different hydrological models with different climate change projections and downscaling approaches showed varied hydrological responses of different river basins to the future climate change scenarios, depending on the hydrological model, climate change scenarios, and downscaling approaches used. Crop yield modeling showed decreases in irrigated and rainfed rice (Oryza sativa L.) yields under the future climate change scenarios, but the decrease is marginal for rainfed rice. Maize (Zea mays L.) yields in monsoon may be adversely affected by a rise in atmospheric temperature, but increased rain can partly offset those losses. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yields are likely to be reduced by 6 to 23% and 15 to 25% during the 2050s and 2080s, respectively. A combined bottom-up participatory process and top-down integrated modeling tool could provide valuable information for locally relevant climate change adaptation planning.

Paper for presentation at the 27th SSEA/6th ASSS Conference held on October 20-25, 2013 in Nakuru, Kenya | To evaluate the performance of drought tolerant maize varieties under different water harvesting technologies (zai pits, tied ridges and conventional), the treatments were laid out in a split plot design with water harvesting methods as the main plots, and maize varieties as the sub-plots. Four maize varieties were evaluated under the three water harvesting technologies. Maize yields in zai pits and tied ridges treatments were significantly higher than for conventional treatment. Maize constitutes a major component of the diet in the region, with more than 70% of maize cultivated by farmers in small holder units of less than 20 hectares of land.

Recycling of food-by-products is very important subject. Many trials have been done to reuse by-product, however, almost trials have not been to install the commercial process due to their treatment costs and their qualities. To convert biodegradable stuff is one of their trail fields. However, their products have disadvantage of high cost and low properties against water-resistance. To minimize costs and to improve waterproof property, we used zein-containing corn gluten meal and succeeded in making solid materials by injection molding. We turned the materials into pellets with an extruder, and then molded the pellets into seedling culture pots with an injection molder. This study project was carried out jointly with Showa Sangyo Co., The Japan Steel Works and National Food Research Institute. In this project we were able to successfully reduce costs and to obtain solid molded products for practical use by adopting the injection molding method, which has many advantages in productivity (low costs, high moldability, flexibility to make various shapes of molds). At present, we are working to assess the biodegradable molded material actually applied and to improve materials for different purposes.

Climate change will not only affect crop biomass production but also crop quality. While increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are known to enhance photosynthesis and biomass production, effects on the chemical composition of plants are less well known. This is particularly true for major crop plants with respect to harvestable yield quality. Moreover, it remains open, how these effects on quality may be realized under field conditions and how management (e.g. plant N nutrition) or environmental factors (e.g. water availability) will alter impacts of elevated CO2. Here we report on a series of free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments with wheat and barley and with maize in which effects of elevated CO2 combined with different levels of N supply (wheat and barley) and with drought stress (maize) on grain and biomass quality characteristics were investigated. Winter wheat and winter barley (1st experiment) and maize (2nd experiment) were grown in the field each for two growing seasons under ambient and elevated CO2 concentration (FACE, 550μmol mol-1). Wheat and barley were grown under adequate N supply and under 50% of adequate N as sub-treatments. In the maize experiment rain shelters were used to create two different levels of plant water supply (well-watered and drought stress – about 50% of well-watered) as sub-treatments. Treatment effects on elemental composition and a variety of quality characteristics of the plant material at final harvest were investigated. This included a detailed analysis of wheat grain protein components and of different fiber fractions of maize. Compiled results of the relative effects of elevated CO2, N and drought stress treatments on different quality parameters of the crops are presented.

The conventionally managed cereal-based cropping systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of South Asia are energy intensive that overwhelm the farm profits and the environmental footprint. This research addresses a complex nexus between yield-energy-water-GHG footprints-economics of conservation agriculture (CA)-based intensified maize-wheat-mungbean rotation. This study evaluated the effect of long-term CA (2012–2020) with optimum nutrient management (2017–20) on energy budgeting, productivity, water and C-footprints, Water productivity (WP), and economics of the CA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system. CA-based permanent bed- and zero tillage flatbed with preceding crop residue retention were compared with the conventional till with preceding crop residue incorporation. These treatments were factored over three-nutrient management alternatives, i.e., GreenSeeker®-guided-N, site-specific nutrient management (SSNM), and recommended fertilizers' dose (Ad-hoc), were compared with farmers' fertilizers practices (FFP). Permanent bed and zero tillage treatments registered higher systems' productivity (18.2 and 12.0%), net returns (44.7 and 34.7%) and water productivity (35.6% and 22.1%), and C-sequestration (54.8 and 62.3%), respectively, over conventional till. Permanent bed- and zero tillage treatments increased the systems' net energy (NE), energy use efficiency (EUE), energy productivity (EP), and energy intensity (EI) by 22.6 and 14.0; 10.1 and 5.6; 9.7 and 5.4; 28.3 and 24.0%, respectively, over conventional till. Conventional till recorded higher net CO2-eq emission (26.5 and 27.2%), C-footprint (20.8 and 14.5%), and water footprint (27.3 and 18.0%) than permanent bed- and zero tillage treatments. SSNM increased the system's productivity, water productivity, and energy use efficiency, while reducing the system's water- and C-footprints and net CO2-eq emission. Thus, adopting permanent beds as a crop establishment method with SSNM could be a feasible alternative to attain higher productivity, profitability, and resource use efficiency in the maize-wheat-mungbean system in northwest India.

The report aims to provide critical input to the Mekong River Commission's (MRC) regional Climate Change and Adaptation Initiative (CCAI) which was launched shortly after the formulation of this project. The CCAI is a collaborative regional initiative designed to address the shared climate change adaptation challenges of LMB countries in response to the potential effects of climate change on the socio-economic characteristics and natural resources of the LMB region. MRC has identified need for a more informed understanding of the potential impacts from climate change. To contribute to this aim, the purpose of this report is: 1. To present the framework of climate change analysis and its application to the Basin Development Plan (BDP) Scenarios; 2. To present the results from the application of the Decision Support Framework (DSF) models of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in order to analyse the impacts of climate change and selected BDP Scenarios on flow regimes; 3. To present climate change impacts on floods and fisheries in the LMB; 4. To present the impact of climate change on the productivity of major crops grown in the basin and their consequences on the overall food security of the basin considering future population growth. 5. To present the results of applying simple adaptation strategies related to agriculture and food security; and 6. To determine further studies necessary to identify suitable adaptation strategies for dealing with such impacts.