Achieving Food Security in the future while using water resources in a sustainable manner will be a major challenge for us and the next generations. Agriculture is a key water user and a careful monitoring of water productivity in agriculture and exploring opportunities to increase it will be required. But how can we monitor the performance of water use in agriculture? FAO is developing a publicly accessible near real time database using satellite data that will allow monitoring of agricultural water productivity.
Key Publications
Water Accounting and Auditing: A Sourcebook
FAO, together with other organizations, recommends water accounting and auditing as being fundamental to initiatives that aim to cope with water scarcity. This sourcebook wants to provide advice on the application and use of water accounting and auditing, helping users planning and implementing processes that best fit their needs.
Coping with water scarcity -An action framework for agriculture and food security
This report presents the conceptual framework, reviews a series of policy and technical options, and establishes a set of principles that should serve as a basis for the development of effective food security policies in response to growing water scarcity
The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW)
The report analyses a variety of options for overcoming constraints and improving resource management in systems at risk. In each location, a mix of changes in institutional and policy measures will have to be combined with greater access to technologies for better management of land and water resources.