Observations and key messages on Nature-Based Solutions for agricultural water management and food security
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Food and agricultural systems are under a set of pressures to feed an increasingly hungry population and to cope with an intensifying competition over natural, human and financial resources, all subject to impacts of climate change. The natural resource base is already degraded to significant levels, and ‘’business as usual’’ is no longer an option.
FAO has been emphasizing the need to accelerate a global transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems, advocating an integrated approach to ensure sustainability in production and subsequent value chains processes, taking into account the sustainable management of natural resources, and water resources in particular.
This document focuses on the management of water for agricultural use, which holds the largest share of total water demand for many countries as illustrated by
Figure 1. Moreover, for many countries, the prospects of improving water availability under changing climatic conditions remain a challenge, as both droughts and flood hazards are expected to increase.
Conventional interventions founded on ‘hard’ water engineering and infrastructural development provided valuable lessons but often showed that they compromise the very ecosystem services that are required for stable water flows. Hence, calls for a paradigm shift in water management are justified and should be a priority on the political agendas.