The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the largest water deficit in the world. It also has the least food self-sufficiency. Increasing food imports and decreasing domestic food production can contribute to water savings and hence to increased water security. However, increased domestic food production is a better way to achieve food security, even if irrigation demands an increase in accordance with projected climate changes. Accordingly, the trade-off between food security and the savings of water and land through food trade is considered to be a significant factor for resource management, especially in the MENA region. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the impact of food trade on food security and water-land savings in the MENA region. We concluded that the MENA region saved significant amounts of national water and land based on the import of four major crops, namely, barley, maize, rice, and wheat, within the period from 2000 to 2012, even if the food self-sufficiency is still at a low level. For example, Egypt imported 8.3&thinsp;million&thinsp;t&thinsp;yr<span classCombining double low lineinline-formula>ĝ'1</span> of wheat that led to 7.5&thinsp;billion&thinsp;m<span classCombining double low lineinline-formula>3</span> of irrigation water and 1.3&thinsp;million&thinsp;ha of land savings. In addition, we estimated the virtual water trade (VWT) that refers to the trade of water embedded in food products and analyzed the structure of VWT in the MENA region using degree and eigenvector centralities. The study revealed that the MENA region focused more on increasing the volume of virtual water imported during the period 2006-2012, yet little attention was paid to the expansion of connections with country exporters based on the VWT network analysis. © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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)

The paper addresses the sustainability of the European Union’s food consumption through a water footprint assessment of selected vulnerable agricultural imports from a two-pronged perspective: (1) the degree of the EU’s dependence on global green water resources embedded in the apparent consumption of selected water-intensive agricultural products and (2) the degree of commitment of countries of origin to sustainability policies. The study argues that the vulnerability of the EU’s agricultural imports to water risks can be estimated based on the amount of green water consumed in producing crops in the countries of origin. The results show that the EU’s consumption of agricultural goods is highly dependent on virtual water imports for all six selected vulnerable agricultural products, from the lowest footprint for bananas (5 mil. km3) to the largest for coffee (69 mil. km3). The analysis also points to a greater concern for quality issues in the countries of origin (56.53%) relative to management (26.52%) and availability issues (16.85%), but the latter are to arise in importance for sustainable production in the years to come. Our conclusions contribute to building up a responsible commitment towards (1) development of environmental policies and the design of practical measures by providing quantitative information that makes problems more clearly defined and tangible, and (2) assessing the outcome of policies and practical measures by understanding their effects on the sustainability of food consumption.

The food, energy, and water (FEW) sectors are heavily impacted by increasing vulnerability of natural resources. The concept of a FEW Nexus highlights resource interdependencies and the need for integrated decision making across FEW sectors. The objective of this paper is to identify how regional-scale FEW stakeholders in the Umatilla Basin, OR USA perceive the FEW Nexus and to co-produce a FEW Nexus conceptual model aimed to aid regional decision support. A five-stage qualitative stakeholder engagement process, which included the development of futures scenario narratives, allowed FEW stakeholders and researchers to learn from one another and recognize opportunities to adaptively manage FEW resources, particularly when faced with chronic and acute stresses in the region. The resulting conceptual model integrates individual FEW sub-sector adaptive management actions and identifies impacts from these actions to other FEW sub-sectors, compensating for different timescales and trigger points. The visualization of resource management actions and impacts via the conceptual model increased communication among FEW stakeholders and provided a structural framework for a decision support tool currently being developed for the region. While the conceptual model is based on a regional FEW Nexus, this nexus is heavily influenced by global forces particularly agricultural trade, transboundary water negotiations, changing climate conditions, and interstate energy production. Thus, the resulting conceptual model can be adapted from hyper-local to global because its modular design allows researchers and stakeholders to decide which sectors to include depending upon salient FEW issues and scales.