The United Nations Food Systems Summit aimed to chart a path toward transforming food systems toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the essentiality of water for food systems, however, the Summit has not sufficiently considered the role of water for food systems transformation. This focus is even more important due to rapidly worsening climate change and its pervasive impacts on food systems that are mediated through water. To avoid that water “breaks” food systems, key food systems actors should 1) Strengthen efforts to retain water-dependent ecosystems, their functions and services; 2) Improve agricultural water management; 3) Reduce water and food losses beyond the farmgate; 4) Coordinate water with nutrition and health interventions; 5) Increase the environmental sustainability of food systems; 6) Explicitly address social inequities; and 7) Improve data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages.

CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) | Rosegrant Mark W. et al., 'Water for agriculture Maintaining food security under growing scarcity', In Food Security, Volume Two – Producing enough food, Part Two – Water, land, and climate change, ed. Mark W. Rosegrant, IFPRI, 2014

PR | IFPRI4; CRP2 | EPTD; PIM | CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

This chapter examines the links between water, food and society in Africa. Agricultural transformation to promote growth, eliminate poverty and hunger and sustain ecosystems is one of the central pillars of current development agenda in Africa. Achievement of this agenda will crucially depend on sustainable water management. However, agri-food systems and water resources are under greater pressure than ever before due to demographic, economic and climatic changes. The nature and scale of these changes suggest that only a holistic and integrated management of all shades of water resources, green, blue and grey, will allow Africa to eliminate hunger and poverty. Research-based technical solutions as well as institutional and policy measures are proposed that would allow available water resources to be sustainably used to promote climate-resilient farming systems, improve agricultural productivity and food security and spur the development of viable food value chains needed for agricultural and rural transformation.

Timothy O. Williams, 'Managing water for food and agricultural transformation in Africa: key issues and priorities', pp.pp.470-487, 2020