Water: more nutrition per drop: towards sustainable food production and consumption patterns in a rapidly changing world

The report highlights key facts, conditions and trends regarding water internationally. It explores water's relationship to sustainable food production and consumption patterns. It also highlights key water-food-nutrition-environment-livelihood trends, provides response options, and illustrates important policy directions.Five key issues for policy debate are identified within the report: increasing water productivity in both rain fed and irrigated areas will require a combination of agronomic, economic and social interventions facilitating the diffusion and use of new technologies for increasing water productivity will depend on providing incentives to producers, further research and making technological development socially acceptable identifying and influencing unsustainable consumption patterns will need to account for the complex mix of social forces that influence food preferences the protection of aquatic ecosystems against water depletion implies an urgent need for the identification of minimum ecological service criteria identifying unsustainable agricultural subsidies and trade barriers will help to establish the degree to which free trade can help to solve regional food deficiency problems Highlighting the links between production, nutrition, ecology and poverty, the report illustrates how production patterns, consumption patterns and consumer preferences have synergistic relationships and must therefore be contended with concurrently. It emphasises the need for a fundamental change in the thinking about water use so that: its impact on agricultural productivity can be increased water use for food, nutrition and livelihood security can be promoted consumption patterns that support sustainable production can be promoted water can be co-managed to meet both agricultural and ecosystem demands a strong poverty focus can be developed through the promotion of low-cost technologies and management The report identifies two basic challenges in meeting these aims. First, a better understanding of the relationship between managed "environmental flows" and ecosystem health must be grasped. Second, creating the institutional mechanism to incorporate these environmental flows into management regimes should be implemented.This working document was produced by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) for a side event organised by the Swedish Government at the 12th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), New York, April 2004.