Water rights trading is an important way to solve the problem of water shortage by market mechanism. The allocation of water rights among ecological water, energy water, and grain planting water are the basis of the regional water rights trade. In this paper, the concept of coordinated development of water–ecology–energy–food is proposed. We build a water rights allocation model with fairness, efficiency, and coordinated development as the goal, to achieve water security for various industries. Taking Yinchuan city as an example, the results showed that compared with the current water rights the water rights of life increased by 1.07%, the water rights of ecology increased by 1.85%, the water rights of energy industry decreased by 1.09%, the water rights of food planting decreased by 3.27%, the water rights of other agriculture increased by 0.83%, and the water rights of the general industry increased by 0.65%. After the allocation of water rights, the cooperativity of water–ecology–energy–food increased by 7.56%, and the total value of water resources in various industries increased by 2.31 × 10⁸ CNY. A new water rights allocation model is developed in this paper, which can provide a reference for the allocation of water rights among regional industries.

The food habits of four species of Muglidae, consisting of Liza grandisquamus, L falcipinus, Mugil curema and , were investigated using the frequency of occurrence and numerical methods of analysis. Also, Relative Gut Length (RGL) of fish specimen measured was calculated from fish gut length. Generally, the food consisted mainly diatoms, blue - green & green algae and detritus. Other food items included annelid, crustacea, nematode, insect parts, dinoflagellates and unidentified organisms. M. curema had the least Species Richness Index (2.827) while L grandisquamus had the highest (4.088). The Shanon - Wiener Diversity Index ranged 0.91 in M. curema to 1.03 in L. falcipinus, while Shanon's Index (HI]) ranged from 2.095 (M. curema) to 2.372(L falcipinus).The male M. bananesis had the least mean RGL of 2.48 ~c 0.17 while female L. falcipinus and L grandisquamus had the highest mean RLG of 3.31 ~c 0.13. The food items observed and the RGL suggest that the muglids studied were herbivorous or omnivorous. | Includes:- 18 refs.

CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) | High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), 'Water for food security and nutrition A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security', , IFPRI, 2015

PR | IFPRI5;CRP5 | EPTD | CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)

Sarfraz Munir, Waqas Ahmad, Asghar Hussain, 'Effect of transboundary water agreements on water and food security of downstream riparian communities: a case study of Indus Waters Treaty', 2014 | Transboundary water conflicts are awfully crucial in their nature as they not only endanger the food and water security of the riparian communities but also jeopardize the security and existence of the conflicting nations. Any inappropriate action done by upper riparians directly affects the existence of lower riparians. Therefore they need special care to be dealt with. There are 261 international rivers, covering almost one-half of the total land surface which are shared between two or more nations. The management of international waters has been poorly defined in the international arena. In 1947, after the independence of subcontinent, the Indus Basin was divided into two parts between India and Pakistan. Soon after independence India started to halt the river supplies to Pakistan and closed all supplies to the canals which were crossing the India-Pakistan border. India agreed to restore some of the supplies to Pakistan in May 1948, when quite a pro-Indian temporary agreement was signed. It was, however, generally realized that Pakistan could not live without restoration of the full supplies and on this question there could be no compromise. Direct negotiations between the parties failed to resolve the dispute. Negotiations under the World Bank commenced in May 1952. The World Bank planned to divide Indus Basin Rivers into two parts the eastern rivers, under completely Indian control and the western rivers for unrestricted use by Pakistan. Pakistan was not fully convinced and refused to sign until 1958 but ultimately the Treaty was formalized in 1960 after some necessary modifications. Pakistan, on one hand, was deprived a substantial amount of its waters in the Indus Waters Treaty, but on the other, it also got the right of unrestricted use of western rivers. Pakistan also received some assistance (grants and loans) from the World Bank for construction of replacement works for some water storage and diversions. It is evident that the closure or diversion of river flows in the upstream reaches not only affect the downstream river ecology but also puts the downstream irrigated agriculture at stake. This paper highlights the effects of the IWT on water availability and irrigated agriculture in Pakistan. Study finds that though there are some deprivations of surface waters availability to the Pakistan under the IWT but at the same time there are also some improvements in canal water diversions, which are mainly due to the construction of water storage reservoirs. An increase in the cropped area and crop production also has been observed which owes to many other social, economical and technical factors but all this was not possible without reliable irrigation water supplies

Land and water are vital resources for sustaining rural livelihoods and are critical for rural development as they form the basis of agriculture, the main economic activity for rural communities. Nevertheless, in most developing countries, land and water resources are unevenly distributed due to historical and socio-economic imbalances, hence the need for land reform policies to address these disparities. However, redistributing land without considering the interconnectedness of land and socio-ecological systems can compound existing food and water insecurity challenges. This study used a mixed research method, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data, to develop a framework to guide policy and decision-makers to formulate coherent strategies towards sustainable land redistribution programmes and achieve the desired outcomes. The approach was vital for integrating the broad and intricate interlinkages between water, land, and environmental resources. Therefore, the framework is based on transformative and circular models for informing strategic policy decisions towards sustainable land redistribution. The focus was on South Africa’s land redistribution plans and the implications on water and food security and rural development. The developed framework is designed to ensure the sustainability of agrarian reform and rural economic development. It is framed to address land and water accessibility inequalities, promote water and food security, and enhance rural development. A sustainable land redistribution increases the adaptive capacity of rural communities to climate change, enhances their resilience, and provides pathways towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A mass-balance Ecopath model of coastal areas in the Caspian Sea has been constructed for a quantitative description of the trophic structure of the ecosystem. The model is used to estimate the important biological parameters and relationships among the different ecologically important groups. Twenty five species were used in the present analysis. The model is based on the data collected of Kilka fisheries, beach seining (Bony fish fisheries), and set Gillnet (Sturgeon Fisheries) and also dietary information. Total landings along the Iranian portion of southern Caspian coast reached 39647 t, including sturgeon (41 t), kilka (22873 t) and bony fishes (16733 t) in 2014. Two species of kilka (Common kilka and Anchovy) are important commercially in the Caspian Sea, together accounting in the past decade for > 60 % of the total catch, as well as being a crucial part of the food chain. The mean average trophic level was estimated at 3.17 by Ecopath software. In this research, the mean level were studied between eight species varied from 2.56 to 4.04, Sander lucioperca occupy the highest and the as vimba vimba was the lowest level. The ranges of total mortality varied from 0.5 to 2.56 per years. The food consumption rate was estimated about 101.56 per year Mixd trophic level index (MTI) showed small pelagic fishes as prey, have crucial role in feeding of pelagic predators population such as invasion of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, bream fish and benthic fish such as sturgeon. In general, niche overlap was greater in more species such as Alburnus chalcoides, Rutilus rutilus, Clupeonella cultriventris, Rutilus kutum and M. leidyi who consumed large amounts of plankton. In conclusion small pelagic fish exert a major control on the trophic dynamics of the Caspian Sea ecosystems and constitute midtrophic-level populations.

In today’s intrinsically connected world, the Water–Food–Energy–Climate Nexus (WFEC Nexus) concept provides a starting point for informed and transparent decision-making based on the trade-offs and synergies between different sectors, including aquatic ecosystems, food security, energy production, and climate neutrality. The WFEC Nexus approach is particularly applicable in regions requiring transboundary water management, such as Central Asia. Unfortunately, this region with unevenly distributed water resources—consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—is characterized by data scarcity, which limits informed decision-making. However, open-source geodata is becoming increasingly available. This paper aims to fill Central Asia’s WFEC Nexus data gap by providing an overview of key data. We collected geodata through an integrated survey of stakeholders and researchers, stakeholder consultation, and literature screening. Sixty unique datasets were identified, belonging to one of six thematic categories: (1) climate, (2) hydrology, (3) geography and topography, (4) geomorphology, (5) ecology, and (6) anthropogenic uses. For each dataset, a succinct description, including a link to the online source, is provided. We also provide possible applications of using the presented datasets, demonstrating how they can assist in conducting various studies linked to the WFEC Nexus in Central Asia and worldwide.

Sustainable agricultural development covers all aspects of agricultural production involving the water-food-energy nexus (WFEN) and considers the effects of agricultural activities on society, economy and ecology. Multi-objective optimization models play an important role in making tradeoff among multiple interests of stakeholders. Aimed at canal-based irrigated agricultural areas, water allocation highly depends on canal distribution, and the spatial location of irrigation regions determines their water-intake order, which usually induces serious water allocation inequality. The social, economic and ecological problems resulting from water inequality would deteriorate without intervention and seriously impact sustainable development. Thus, optimization models must consider water use equity, water-intake order as well as water equilibrium simultaneously. However, this will greatly increase computational efforts and solution difficulty. The problem becomes worse when uncertain factors are involved. In order to overcome these difficulties, a distributed multi-objective uncertain optimization model was established to help develop comprehensive strategies for agricultural sustainability. A novel robust solution method was proposed to offer an efficient way to handle stochastic and fuzzy uncertainties from the perspective of feasibility and optimality robustness. Finally, a case study was conducted to demonstrate the practical application of the developed model. The results offer managers insights on agricultural sustainable development.