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Leading Economists rank Water and Food research among the top ten investment priorities for governments

Colombo – 7/6/04. A panel of eight of the world’s most distinguished economists has ranked opportunities to address hunger and malnutrition together with water and sanitation – as being amongst the top ten most cost effective priorities that governments can invest in to improve global welfare. The panel, which included three Nobel Laureates, was brought together under the Copenhagen Consensus Project, an initiative originated by the Environmental Assessment Institute.

Papers were commissioned from acknowledged authorities in different policy fields who were asked to propose solutions, based on their cost benefit ratio, for tackling the ten leading development challenges facing the world today. The challenges included water and sanitation, diseases, malnutrition, climate change and subsidies and trade. Professor Frank Rijsberman, Director General of the Colombo based, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) was invited to present the Water and Sanitation Challenge paper, which scored highly amongst the priorities ranked by the experts. The three opportunities for investment proposed by Prof. Rijsberman to address this challenge were; Small-scale water technology for livelihoods (ranked sixth). Community managed water supply and sanitation (ranked seventh), and research on Water productivity in food production (ranked eighth).

“The panel’s decisions clearly show that investments in urban water services and rural water management should be at the forefront of policy decisions if real progress is to be made in improving people’s livelihoods in the developing world. Providing safe water and good sanitation is fundamental to people’s health and welfare, but finding sustainable solutions to produce more food with less water whilst safe-guarding the environment is equally important”, states Prof. Rijsberman.

In his paper Rijsberman presents some convincing arguments. Three quarters of the world’s poor dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. As the demand for food increases, so to is the demand for water which is leading to increased competition with other users such as the environment. Whilst investments in large-scale irrigation systems have helped to feed growing populations in some countries, in many cases the poorest have not seen the benefits. Rijsberman points to the considerable opportunities to be gained if more attention is given to developing public private partnerships between governments and farmers that adopt a bottom up approach to water management. Over the past three decades much of the agrarian wealth in India has been created by the 20 million pumps which now serve the needs of 60 million smallholder farmers. Rijsberman argues the case that irrigation expansion has to be accompanied hand in hand by effective regulation and improved policies that prevent over-use and mismanagement of water resources. In India, agriculture has reduced groundwater levels in some places by as much as 100 – 150 meters in just one generation due to uncontrolled expansion of groundwater extraction.

Rijsberman also advocates the need to promote small scale irrigation technologies such as drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting. These are low cost approaches that increase the control farmers have over scarce water supplies. While there is clear evidence from Asia that community based small scale interventions have had a significant impact on poverty and malnutrition, one of the real challenges ahead is to promote the widespread use of these technologies in Africa.

According to Rijsberman many of the challenges and opportunities he cites in his paper are already being addressed under the CGIAR’s (Consultative Group on International Agricultural research) Challenge Program on Water and Food, a global research effort that aims to find ways of producing more food using less water. The Challenge Program is taking a highly innovative approach to addressing water scarcity. New salt and drought resistant strains of crops are being developed together with farming practices that use less water. Research is being undertaken that examines the re-use of wastewater for peri-urban agriculture which turns the challenge of dealing with urban waste water into an opportunity - a nutrient rich resource for improving farmer’s livelihoods. Research is also underway into developing sustainable small holder agriculture in wetlands which provides livelihoods for poor farmers whilst maintaining the biodiversity of the wetlands.

“Agriculture uses up to 90% of developed water resources and in the coming decades there will be increasing demands from all sectors as the world’s population grows. The main challenge is to reduce the gap between the have's and have not's which means mobilizing the financial and political support that guarantees access to safe water for poor people for growing food as well for using in the household.”

The CGIAR network of agricultural research centers is at forefront of the response to many of challenges prioritised in the Copenhagen Consensus Project. As well as leading the global research effort on improving water productivity in food production, the CGIAR is squarely focused on addressing malnutrition. Research into the development of new agricultural technologies and the provision of micro-nutrients in crops is already well-advanced. Ends.

Notes for Editors:
1. Full results of the Copenhagen Consensus Project can be viewed at www.copenhagenconsensus.com
2. The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food http://www.waterforfood.org/
3. The International Water Management Institute http://www.iwmi.org