The current study introduces a conceptual socio-hydrological-based framework for the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. The proposed conceptual framework aims to investigate how farmers' dynamic agricultural activities under different socio-economic conditions affect the WEF systems. The WEF nexus model has been integrated with an Agent-Based Model, reflecting the farmers’ agricultural activities. Furthermore, the agent-based model benefits from Association Rule Mining to define farmer agents’ agricultural decision-making in various conditions. The processes within the WEF nexus are simultaneously physical, socio-economic, ecological, and political. Indeed, there are interrelated interactions among the mentioned processes in ways that have not yet been properly delineated and mapped. Thus, to obtain sustainable outcomes, the current study investigates trade-offs among natural resources and social systems in the WEF nexus approach. The proposed socio-hydrological WEF nexus framework may provide more in-depth future insights for policy-makers through capturing bidirectional feedbacks among farmers and WEF systems. In other words, the proposed framework can help policymakers to capture the dynamic impacts of agricultural activities by farmers on the WEF nexus, which may vary due to different socio-economic conditions.

S. Marjanizadeh, Charlotte de Fraiture, W. Loiskandl, 'Food and water scenarios for the Karkheh River Basin, Iran', 2014 | Increasing population and income and a wheat self-sufficiency policy are already stressing Iran's strategic Karkeh River Basin. Examining three scenarios to the year 2025, the authors of this study find: (1) business as usual leads to an aggravation of groundwater overdraft and may jeopardize the ecosystem services provided by the Hawr Al Azim marsh area; (2) giving priority to environmental flow requirements and restoring groundwater tables leads to a shortfall in wheat production; but (3) reducing agricultural water demand could maintain a certain level of food production. Appropriate policy could minimize the tradeoffs between food self-sufficiency, sustainable water use and farmers' income

To date, the land–water–food nexus has been primarily addressed from an ecological, hydrological or agronomic angle, with limited response to the governance interface between the input resources. Likewise, in widely used heuristic frameworks, such as the social–ecological system (SES) framework, governance interactions between resources are not sufficiently addressed. We address this gap empirically, using the case of Tajikistan, based on a farm household survey analysis of 306 farmers. The results indicate that land system variables contribute to the willingness to cooperate in irrigation management. Specifically, formal land tenure has a positive effect on farmers paying for water as well as on the likelihood of their investing time and effort in irrigation infrastructure, which is decisive for Tajikistan’s food and fiber production. Irrigation system variables show that, e.g., being an upstream user increases the likelihood to contribute to labor maintenance efforts. We further discuss how decisions with respect to the land sector could be designed in the future to facilitate cooperation in other resource sectors. Further, we conclude from a conceptual perspective that the SES framework integrating a nexus perspective can be adapted: either (1) by adding a second-tier “governance nexus” variable inside the governance variable of an irrigation system; or (2) by adding a land resource unit and system outside the irrigation system.

This paper attempts to understand and explore the problem of eutrophication in the context of agriculture with the help of a nexus perspective. Eutrophication is significantly linked to water and energy resources with theoretically well-defined trade-offs and threshold levels. While looking at the linkages between water and land resources comprehensively, our paper questions the present approach to designing and implementing watershed management, and analyses the effects of agricultural intensification, especially in dry regions. Eutrophication is the process by which excessive nutrient loads in water bodies lead to undesirable water-quality problems and the degradation of the overall aquatic ecosystem. Due to limited information and knowledge on water and soil quality in most countries, farmers continue to use fertilizers at an increasing rate and agricultural run-off has been carrying ever more nitrogen and phosphorus into water bodies. This is likely to become a vicious cycle of eutrophication affecting food and water security. Of late, soil- and water-conservation interventions, like watershed development, are further reducing run-off. It is argued that there is a need to rethink the assumptions under which watershed interventions are designed and implemented.

Food production in 2050 will be sufficient, globally, but many of the poor will remain food insecure. The primary cause of food insecurity will continue to be poverty, rather than inadequate food production. Thus, policies and investments that increase the incomes of the poor will remain the best ways to extend food security to all. Investments that promote growth in sustainable agriculture and provide non-farm employment opportunities in rural areas of lower income countries will be most helpful. There will be sufficient water, globally, to achieve food production goals and sustain rural and urban livelihoods, if we allocate and manage the resource wisely. Yet, water shortages will constrain agricultural production and limit incomes and livelihood opportunities in many areas. Policies and investments are needed to extend and ensure access to water for household use and agricultural production. Challenges requiring the attention of policy makers and investors include increasing urbanization and increasing demands for land and water resources. Policy makers must ensure that farmers retain access to the water they need for producing food and sustaining livelihoods, and they must create greater opportunities for women in agriculture. They must also motivate investments in new technologies that will enhance crop and livestock production, particularly for smallholders, and encourage the private sector to invest in activities that create employment opportunities in rural areas.

In the coming 25-30 years global food production will have to be doubled in order to maintain food security at the global level. With respect to this to a certain extent the advantage is that food prices have increased over the past seven to eight years, and especially during the past two years. This may put farmers who are able to sell at least a certain part of their harvest in a better position, provided that the increase in production costs is at a lower level. On the other hand it puts the poor people in the cities of the emerging and least developed countries in an increasingly complicated situation as it will require more of them to remain able to purchase their food. In this paper we give a summarised overview of the role of water management for global food production and poverty alleviation. It turns out that to maintain food security in the near and medium‐term future a substantially larger increase in production will be required than continuation of the present trend. While this is quite an effort, one may expect that at least for the near future the costs will remain at the present high level and that they may even increase further.

Water, energy, and biodiversity are essential components for building a sustainable food system in a developing country like Nepal. Green Revolution technologies and the package of practices largely ignored the role of ecosystem services, leaving a large population of small farmers’ food- and nutrition-insecure. Biodiversity, especially, agrobiodiversity is in decline and this vital cross-cutting element is less discussed and interlinked in nexus literature. The interlinking food system with water–energy–biodiversity nexus, therefore, is essential to achieve a resilient food system. It ensures the vital structures and functions of the ecosystem on which it is dependent are well protected in the face of increasing socio-economic and climatic stress. This paper reviews the food system of Nepal through the lens of the food–water–energy–biodiversity (FWEB) nexus to develop a more robust food system framework. From this approach, food system foresight can benefit from different nature-based solutions such as agro-ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation and climate-resilient agro-ecological production system. We found that the FWEB nexus-based approach is more relevant in the context of Nepal where food and nutrition insecurity prevails among almost half of the population. Improvement in the food system requires the building of synergy and complementary among the components of FWEB nexus. Hence, we proposed a modified framework of food system foresight for developing resilience in a food system, which can be achieved with an integrated and resilient nexus that gives more emphasis to agro-ecological system-based solutions to make the food system more climate resilient. This framework can be useful in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 13, and 15 and can also be used as a tool for food system planning based on a broader nexus.