Sustainable Water and its Optimal Use in Agriculture
By: Dr Turki Faisal Al Rasheed
Your Highness, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting me to participate in the water and sanitation seminar under the auspices of UN-ESCWA Technology Centre . I will be speaking about sustainable water and its optimal use in Agriculture (crop per drop).
Water is life. Growing pressure on water resources from different aspects, population and economic growth, climate change, pollution, and other challenges, has major impacts on our societies, economies, and the environment.
Aquifers in the region are overused, causing widespread decline in groundwater levels.
The world’s water problems stem from our failure to meet basic human needs, ineffective or inappropriate institutions and management, and our inability to balance human needs with the needs of the natural world
Agriculture uses approximately 70% of the world’s freshwater supply. However, agricultural water use is under growing pressure as demands for water increase; competition among cities, farmers, and the environment grows; and as concerns grow over large-scale overdraft of groundwater and water contamination from agricultural runoff. New threats include the challenges of climate change, which is likely to alter both water availability and agricultural water demands.
Thus, we need to look at ways of increasing water productivity in food production: greater focus is needed on the goods and services provided by that water use, e.g., water-use efficiency and productivity, crop per drop or output per drop.
Water optimization is the ratio between the amount of water that is used for an intended purpose and the total amount of water input within a spatial domain interest.
Thus, the growing need for sustainable water and its optimal use in agriculture around the world has fueled a search for effective ways of delivering it.
Addressing water challenges will minimize the risk of food crisis, migration, and possibly another Arab Spring or regional conflicts.