| With contributions from (2008) | |||||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||||
| In many parts of the world, water scarcity is increasing, and many people see reducing the amount of water for agriculture as one way to make more water available for cities and industries, and also for the environment. This drives the demand to produce enough food for future generations with the same or less water than is presently available to agriculture, i.e., there is a need to increase water productivity (ratio of mass or value of product to volume or value of water depleted or diverted) without compromising food security. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate whether this is possible and to identify research needs to increase crop water productivity, such that food security can be ensured and farmers ’ livelihoods enhanced without increasing water diverted for agriculture over that in 2000. Available information indicates that crop water productivity varies a good deal from one spatial scale to another. Adequate data and information are lacking for a complete assessment of crop water productivity, especially at scales larger than the field level and in economic terms. Quantifying crop water productivity reveals gaps | |||||||||||||
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