Water scarcity: from options to actions - what does it take?

ICARDA at the NENA Land & Water Days on 3 April 2019: The topic, presentations, and discussions planned for this session have a direct relevance to the overall theme of the Land and Water Days event, with a special focus on the ways and means to promote information and knowledge sharing and management to address water scarcity challenges. The objective of this session is to communicate and discuss ways of packaging and utilizing research findings, including big data, on water management in agriculture, and to turn indigenous knowledge and traditional technologies and practices into innovations to help meet the challenges of water scarcity and food security in dry areas. The session will also discuss innovative approaches to increase water use efficiency and productivity in agriculture, including biophysical interventions, integrated systems, collective action processes, gender mainstreaming in agricultural research for development, and networking.

The context

This session was proposed to address common goals and support institutions working in water and agricultural sectors, so they can improve the livelihoods of the resource-poor in dry areas. This can be undertaken by enhancing food and nutrition security, conserving natural resources, and supporting the effective management of water scarcity through research and partnerships to achieve sustainable increases in agricultural productivity and income, while ensuring the more efficient and equitable use of ecosystem services.

Conventional agriculture and water management practices are not sufficient to manage the rapid and increasing effects of development challenges, including climate change, which increasingly affect people‘s livelihoods. There is, however, a lot that can be gleaned from the knowledge behind traditional interventions, which can help produce innovative solutions. This is especially true in the field of water management and agriculture.

This session, jointly organized by ICARDA, IWMI, IOM, and FAO, will demonstrate how accessing and using information, knowledge and data management of the use of water resources for agriculture can help to improve technologies and practices to meet the challenges of water scarcity and food security in the dry areas, including related issues such as forced displacement and migration. Additionally, the session will open the discussion for innovative approaches to increase water use efficiency and productivity in agriculture and challenges facing the region in this regard, including biophysical interventions, system integration, collective action processes, gender mainstreaming, and networking.

With this session, the organizers will:

1. Demonstrate how big data and data management can modernize water technologies and agricultural practices in the region, including gender mainstreaming in agricultural research for development;
2. Probe linkages between traditional/indigenous knowledge and modern water technologies and practices, with a special focus on the importance of socio-economic data – including qualitative data to gather traditional knowledge;
3. Explore new approaches for information and knowledge sharing in a collective intelligence manner;
4. Develop enhanced partnerships to scale-up innovative approaches for improving water management and productivity in agriculture.

For more information about the session: [email protected]

For more information about ICARDA: [email protected]