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.

Raised-bed plasticulture, an intensive production system used around the world for growing high-value crops (e.g., fresh market vegetables), faces a water-food nexus that is actually a food-water-energy-land-economic nexus. Plasticulture represents a multibillion dollar facet of the United States crop production value annually and must become more efficient to be able to produce more on less land, reduce water demands, decrease impacts on surrounding environments, and be economically-competitive. Taller and narrower futuristic beds were designed with the goal of making plasticulture more sustainable by reducing input requirements and associated wastes (e.g., water, nutrients, pesticides, costs, plastics, energy), facilitating usage of modern technologies (e.g., drip-based fumigation), improving adaptability to a changing climate (e.g., flood protection), and increasing yield per unit area.Compact low-input beds were analyzed against conventional beds for the plasticulture production of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), an economically-important crop, using a systems approach involving field measurements, vadose-zone modeling (HYDRUS), and production analysis. Three compact bed geometries, 61cm (width)× 25cm (height), 45cm× 30cm, 41cm× 30cm, were designed and evaluated against a conventional 76cm× 20cm bed. A two-season field study was conducted for tomato in the ecologically-sensitive and productive Everglades region of Florida. Compact beds did not statistically impact yield and were found to reduce: 1) production costs by $150–$450/ha; 2) leaching losses by up to 5% (1cm/ha water, 0.33kg/ha total nitrogen, 0.05kg/ha total phosphorus); 3) fumigant by up to 47% (48kg/ha); 4) plasticulture's carbon footprint by up to 10% (1711kg CO2-eq/ha) and plastic waste stream by up to 13% (27kg/ha); 5) flood risks and disease pressure by increasing field's soil water storage capacity by up to 33% (≈1cm); and 6) field runoff by 0.48–1.40cm (51–76%) based on HYDRUS model simulations of 10-year, 2-h storm events in other major tomato production regions of California and Virginia.Re-designing the bed geometries in plasticulture production systems to be more compact is an example of win-win production optimization not only for traditional farms in rural areas but also for urban and peri-urban farms which are located closer to city centers. Compact beds could enable more plants per unit area, thus requiring less land area for the same production. Needing less area facilitates urban and peri-urban farming where land values can be high. Urban and peri-urban farming has several benefits, including reductions in transportation energy as production is closer to market and the ability for city wastewater to be reused for irrigation instead of freshwater withdrawals. Compact beds allow plasticulture to have smaller water, chemical, energy, carbon, waste, and economic footprints without impacting production. Improving agricultural systems in this way could enhance economic and environmental viability, which is essential for a sustainable food-water-energy-land-economic nexus.

Located in the basalt desert of northeastern Jordan, Early Bronze Age (EBA) Jawa is regarded as one of the major settlements in the Middle East during the 4th millennium BCE. In addition to a sophisticated water storage system, the existence of three complex agricultural terrace systems based on runoff and floodwater irrigation in the close vicinity was recently revealed.This paper investigates the impact of these water management strategies on harvest yields and the scale of the ‘on-site’ crop production at Jawa by applying a crop simulation model (CropSyst). Simulations for the cultivation of winter barley, winter wheat and lentils were performed for the period from 1983 to 2014. To simulate the different runoff irrigation schemes, a curve-number-based rainfall-runoff model was applied. To estimate the number of people that could have been supplied by the local food production, simple calculations based on metabolic calorie requirements and agricultural and pastoral production rates were conducted.This study shows that the runoff farming systems of EBA Jawa are relatively effective under current rainfall conditions. Even during dryer seasons, the simulated crop yields are much higher under runoff irrigation/floodwater irrigation than under non-irrigated conditions. On average the crop yields increase by 1.5 to 6 times, depending on crop type and runoff irrigation level. Moreover, a marked decrease in crop failures could be observed. The total crop and animal production could have satisfied the nutritional requirements of about 500 to 1000 persons per year. Considering the estimated maximum population for EBA Jawa, ranging from 3400 to 5000 people (Helms, 1981), local production did not meet the basic needs of all inhabitants. This indicates that trade might have been an important branch of Jawa's economy in order to supplement food resources. Moreover, former population estimates for ancient Jawa might be overstated.