FAO Director-General urges stronger commitment to tackle water scarcity

Rome – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu called for stronger global cooperation to address water scarcity, one of the defining challenges of the 21st Century, at the opening of the First Plenary Assembly of the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) today.

Held during the 30th Session of the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG), the Assembly marked a milestone by bringing together FAO Members and WASAG partners to adopt the WASAG Strategy 2026–2031, agree on priorities for future action, and mobilize support. It also showcased WASAG’s collaborative work through practical solutions, including saline agriculture led by partners from the Kingdom of the Netherlands and indigenous drought-resilient opportunity crops.

In his opening remarks, the Director-General noted “more than 3 billion people already live in agricultural areas with high or very high water scarcity. By 2050, it is foreseen that water scarcity will affect the lives of billions more.”

Water scarcity is a global challenge that affects every region, not just those traditionally water-scarce. It also affects countries with abundant rainfall due to water pollution or lack of effective infrastructure to deliver water to farmers and other users.

Qu highlighted that during his recent visit to rangelands in North America, he heard directly from ranchers about the impact on their land and their livelihoods. Water scarcity threatens food security, livelihoods and the stability of rural communities everywhere – and women, small-scale farmers, Indigenous Peoples and other vulnerable groups are often the most affected.

Agrifood systems are central to driving the transformation needed to improve water productivity. As the largest user of freshwater, agriculture also has the greatest potential to be part of the solution.

Many of these solutions already exist, including more efficient irrigation, healthier soils that retain more water, drought-resilient and nutritious crops, saline agriculture for areas affected by seawater intrusion, the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence to guide water management, and stronger water governance for efficient and effective management of water resources, he said.

Instead, the current challenge is to implement these solutions at scale, and women farmers and ranchers have an important role to play. The International Year of the Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026 and the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 celebrate their vital contribution to agrifood systems while highlighting the need to ensure that women farmers and ranchers have equitable access to water, land, technology, finance and knowledge.

Improving water management and strengthening resilience are essential to achieving the Four Betters - better production; better nutrition; a better environment; and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Director-General thanked WASAG Members and partners, expressing his appreciation to Morocco for its commitment and to Switzerland for its financial support, with representatives from both countries in attendance. He also acknowledged the continued coherency and cooperation of all WASAG Members and partners, calling for stronger accountability, implementation, and measurable impact.

A commitment launched in 2016

Agriculture accounts for an estimated 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, which have increased at nearly twice the rate of population growth over the past century. With food demand expected to increase by 50 percent by 2050, there is an urgent need to address water scarcity now and in the coming decades.

WASAG was launched by FAO in 2016 during the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Marrakesh, Morocco. Its vision is a food-secure and resilient world in the face of increasing water scarcity within a changing climate.

Subsequent developments culminated in the High-Level Rome Water Dialogue on WASAG, held during the World Food Forum 2024, which resulted in the adoption of the Rome Water Declaration on Water Scarcity in Agriculture and the establishment of a Member-led Steering Committee and a Technical Advisory Committee to provide, respectively, strategic leadership and technical guidance to WASAG.