22 August 2012: The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO) has released a new report, making recommendations on the structure of the FAO water scarcity programme. It explores definitions of water scarcity, drivers of scarcity, conceptual frameworks for coping with water scarcity, water accounting, policy and management response options, and principles for action.

The report, titled “Coping with Water Scarcity: An Action Framework for Agriculture and Food Security,” includes inputs from a meeting of FAO staff and experts in December 2009, in Rome, Italy, which addressed: definitions of water scarcity; conceptualizing water scarcity in meaningful ways for decision-makers; quantification of water scarcity; policy and technical responses to water scarcity to ensure food security; and criteria and principles for establishing priority responses to water scarcity.

The report highlights the importance of water for agriculture, noting that, globally, 70% of water withdrawal is used for agriculture, and agriculture accounts for 90% of consumptive water use. Identifying the policy and management options to address water scarcity as either supply enhancement or demand management, the report discusses policies including water storage, reducing runoff, recycling drainage water and wastewater use, increasing efficiency and crop-per-drop, switching to higher value crops, and quotas or tariffs.

The report concludes that six principles are necessary to develop strategies to address water scarcity: knowledge – strategies must be based on understanding the drivers of water scarcity; impact – cost-benefit analysis and systematic decision criteria must be used to assess policy approaches; capacity – ensuring the right water governance, and that institutional capacity is present; context-specificity – responses have to be adapted to local conditions; coherence – water, agriculture and food security policies must be aligned; and preparedness – change must be anticipated through adaptive management. [Publication: Coping with water scarcity: An action framework for agriculture and food security] [FAO Press Release] [UN Press Release]