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Shift in thinking to address the 21st century hunger gap

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  • Malin Falkenmark

Abstract

The present water policy debate is dominated by the 30 yr old mission to secure water supply and sanitation to all people. The water needed to produce a nutritionally acceptable diet for one person is however 70 times as large as the amount needed for domestic water supply. The food security dilemma is largest in arid climate regions, a situation constituting a formidable challenge. It is suggested that an additional 5 600 km 3 /yr of consumptive water use will be needed to produce an adequate amount of food by 2050 – i.e almost a doubling of today’s consumptive use of 6800 km 3 /yr. Past misinterpretations and conceptual deficiencies show the importance of a shift in thinking. Combining the scale of the challenge and the time scale of the efforts to feed humanity and eradicate hunger leads to an impression of great urgency. This urgency strengthens the call for international research both for supporting agricultural upgrading, and for much better handling of issues of environmental sustainability. What stands out is the need of a new generation of water professionals, able to handle complexity and able to incorporate water implications of land use and of ecosystem health in integrated water resources management. It will for those reasons be essential and urgent to upgrade the educational system to producing this new generation. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007

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  • Malin Falkenmark, 2007. "Shift in thinking to address the 21st century hunger gap," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 21(1), pages 3-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:3-18
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-006-9037-z
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    1. Arrow, Kenneth & Bolin, Bert & Costanza, Robert & Dasgupta, Partha & Folke, Carl & Holling, C.S. & Jansson, Bengt-Owe & Levin, Simon & Mäler, Karl-Göran & Perrings, Charles & Pimentel, David, 1996. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 104-110, February.
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    1. Sharda, V.N. & Dogra, Pradeep & Sena, D.R., 2015. "Comparative economic analysis of inter-crop based conservation bench terrace and conventional systems in a sub-humid climate of India," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 30-40.
    2. Pradeep Dogra & V. Sharda & P. Ojasvi & Shiv Prasher & R. Patel, 2014. "Compromise Programming Based Model for Augmenting Food Production with Minimum Water Allocation in a Watershed: a Case Study in the Indian Himalayas," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(15), pages 5247-5265, December.
    3. Weihua Zhang & Chaofu Wei & Jia Zhou, 2010. "Optimal Allocation of Rainfall in the Sichuan Basin, Southwest China," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 24(15), pages 4529-4549, December.
    4. Emma Norman & Gemma Dunn & Karen Bakker & Diana Allen & Rafael Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, 2013. "Water Security Assessment: Integrating Governance and Freshwater Indicators," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(2), pages 535-551, January.
    5. Faramarzi, Monireh & Yang, Hong & Schulin, Rainer & Abbaspour, Karim C., 2010. "Modeling wheat yield and crop water productivity in Iran: Implications of agricultural water management for wheat production," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(11), pages 1861-1875, November.
    6. Madan Jha & Y. Kamii & K. Chikamori, 2009. "Cost-effective Approaches for Sustainable Groundwater Management in Alluvial Aquifer Systems," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(2), pages 219-233, January.
    7. Laishram Kanta Singh & Madan K. Jha & V. M. Chowdary, 2021. "Evaluation of water demand and supply under varying meteorological conditions in Eastern India and mitigation strategies for sustainable agricultural production," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1264-1291, February.
    8. J. Pachpute & S. Tumbo & H. Sally & M. Mul, 2009. "Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Rural Catchment of Sub-Saharan Africa," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(13), pages 2815-2839, October.
    9. Stephen Ngigi & Hubert Savenije & Francis Gichuki, 2008. "Hydrological Impacts of Flood Storage and Management on Irrigation Water Abstraction in Upper Ewaso Ng’iro River Basin, Kenya," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 22(12), pages 1859-1879, December.
    10. Cohen, Alasdair & Sullivan, Caroline A., 2010. "Water and poverty in rural China: Developing an instrument to assess the multiple dimensions of water and poverty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 999-1009, March.
    11. Hanjra, Munir A. & Qureshi, M. Ejaz, 2010. "Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 365-377, October.
    12. Descheemaeker, Katrien & Amede, Tilahun & Haileslassie, Amare, 2010. "Improving water productivity in mixed crop-livestock farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(5), pages 579-586, May.

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