Analysis the water–food–energy nexus is the first step to assess the decision maker in developing and evaluating national strategies that take into account the nexus. The main objective of the current research is providing a method for the decision makers to analysis the water–food–energy nexus of the crop production system at the national level and carrying out a quantitative assessment of it. Through the proposed method, indicators considering the water and energy consumption, mass productivity, and economic productivity were suggested. Based on these indicators a water–food–energy nexus index (WFENI) was performed. The study showed that the calculated WFENI of the Egyptian summer crops have scores that range from 0.21 to 0.79. Comparing to onion (the highest scoring WFENI,i.e., the best score), rice has the lowest WFENI among the summer food crops. Analysis of the water–food–energy nexus of forty-two Egyptian crops in year 2010 was caried out (energy consumed for irrigation represent 7.4% of the total energy footprint). WFENI can be applied to developed strategies for the optimal cropping pattern that minimizing the water and energy consumption and maximizing their productivity. It can be applied as a holistic tool to evaluate the progress in the water and agricultural national strategies. Moreover, WFENI could be applied yearly to evaluate the performance of the water-food-energy nexus managmant.

Tajikistan’s agricultural sector suffers from a highly inefficient use of water and energy resources. As a country that is heavily dependent on energy-intensive pumping irrigation, wastage of water and electricity has severe impact on the country’s energy and food security. The recent opening of potential energy exports further highlights these practises. Water User Associations (WUAs) can mitigate the delicate balance between water, energy and food in Tajikistan. Although they are often still underdeveloped, WUAs can address challenges that hinder agricultural energy efficiency. This paper suggests some low and no-cost technical and policy solutions.

Recent years have shown increased awareness that the use of the basic resources water, food, and energy are highly interconnected (referred to as a ‘nexus’). Spatial scales play a major role in nexus analyses, and can be related to the physical characteristics and dependencies between nexus resources. In fact, water, food and energy are very different in terms of absolute magnitude of production, as well as in the extent to which they are traded. The differences in trade extent can partly be explained by physical differences: high value, high density, geographically concentrated resources are traded more. We show how input-output dependencies are more relevant at local to national scales, whereas the continental and global scales are important due to physical and virtual trade. We combined various insights into an overview of which spatial scales are most relevant for each nexus resource, based on physical characteristics, input-output dependencies, virtual trade, and potential future changes due to socio-economic trends, climate change impacts and climate change mitigation.

El presente trabajo es un resumen en que el agua, está presente en todo alimento, ya sea fruta, pescado, carnes rojas, verduras, hortalizas, alimentos líquidos y otros, así mismo este componente que está en porcentaje mayoritario, es la que reacciona con las grasas, carbohidratos, proteínas, minerales y vitaminas, las cuales tienen funciones específicas en el cuerpo humano. Todo alimento tiene un porcentaje determinado como su actividad de agua, así el agua tiene dos tipos de agua siendo agua ligada y agua libre, siendo este último el que mayor cantidad o porcentaje, está presente en cada alimento. Cada alimento tiene una actividad de agua, siendo tres tipos: Tipo 1, Tipo 2 y Tipo 3, el cual tiene determinados valores: 1.00 – 0.80, 0.25 – 0.80 7 menor de 0.25, cada alimento tiene un determinado tiempo de vida útil, que está relacionado por el contenido de su actividad y porcentaje de agua libre, el cual esta registrada en sus gráficas correspondiente, porque cada alimento tiene un comportamiento diferente uno de otro (frutas, carnes, hortalizas, etc.). Así mismo dentro de la distribución del agua en los alimentos hay alimentos con alto contenido de agua (alimentos frescos como frutas, hortalizas, verduras, alimentos líquidos), alimentos con humedad intermedia (cereales, derivados de estos, derivados de carnes, derivados de leche, soya, bebidas, leguminosas, oleaginosas) y por último alimentos altamente secos (alimentos secos como: leche en polvo, café instantáneo, aceites vegetales, productos con humedad menor de 5% de agua libre). Un alimento bien procesado según el tipo de tecnología usada, tiene un largo tiempo de vida útil, porque para esto se realiza, estudios de prolongación de vida en anaquel, estas pruebas se realizan usando temperaturas altas forzando al alimento a condiciones extremas, de temperaturas, presión y tiempo. Así mismo en cada actividad de agua, existe un determinado microorganismo que se desarrolla, y altera la calidad del producto o alimento. | Trabajo academico