PR | IFPRI4; CRP5 | EPTD | CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)

PR | EPTD | CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) | Journal article | IFPRI3; ISI; GRP22; WLE; CRP5

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)

B. Clothier et al., 'Investing in water for food, ecosystems, and livelihoods. Preface', 2014

IFPRI4 | PR | Book chapter | EPTD

Water is essential for life on Earth, yet little is known about how water acts as a trophic currency, a unit of value in determining species interactions in terrestrial food webs. We tested the relative importance of groundwater and surface water in riparian food webs by manipulating their availability in dryland floodplains. Primary consumers (crickets) increased in abundance in response to added surface water and groundwater (contained in moist leaves), and predators (spiders and lizards) increased in abundance in response to added surface water, in spite of the presence of a river, an abundant water source. Moreover, the relative magnitude of organism responses to added water was greatest at the most arid site and lowest at the least arid site, mirroring cricket recruitment, which was greatest at the least arid site and lowest at the most arid site. These results suggest that water may be a key currency in terrestrial dryland food webs, which has important implications for predicting ecosystem responses to human‐ and climate‐related changes in hydrology and precipitation.

H. Wolter, 'International Water Conference: dialogue on water, food and environment, Hanoi, Vietnam, 13-16 October 2002', Dialogue Secretariat, 2014

The proliferation of food, feed and biofuels demands promises to increase pressure on water competition and stress, particularly for Thailand, which has a large agricultural base. This study assesses the water footprint of ten staple crops grown in different regions across the country and evaluates the impact of crop water use in different regions/watersheds by the water stress index and the indication of water deprivation potential. The ten crops include major rice, second rice, maize, soybean, mungbean, peanut, cassava, sugarcane, pineapple and oil palm. The water stress index of the 25 major watersheds in Thailand has been evaluated. The results show that there are high variations of crop water requirements grown in different regions due to many factors. However, based on the current cropping systems, the Northeastern region has the highest water requirement for both green water (or rain water) and blue water (or irrigation water). Rice (paddy) farming requires the highest amount of irrigation water, i.e., around 10,489 million m3/year followed by the maize, sugarcane, oil palm and cassava. Major rice cultivation induces the highest water deprivation, i.e., 1862 million m3H2Oeq/year; followed by sugarcane, second rice and cassava. The watersheds that have high risk on water competition due to increase in production of the ten crops considered are the Mun, Chi and Chao Phraya watersheds. The main contribution is from the second rice cultivation. Recommendations have been proposed for sustainable crops production in the future.