WATER FOR IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT:
Finding a Flow For All

Theatrette, New Parliament House, Canberra,
16 August 2006

Woman operationg a
treadle pump.

This was another of the Crawford Fund’s provocative free annual development conferences.

The Crawford Fund’s annual conferences highlight an important aspect of feeding and greening the world and we believe that this year’s event will be another in our series of thought provoking, well attended and nationally reported events.

This year we chose to emphasise the challenges of providing irrigation water for agriculture during the next 20 years; the potential impact of water shortages, including the effects of climate change, on the distribution and productivity of food crops in the Asia-Pacific region and Australia; and the need for ongoing international agricultural research to mitigate these effects and identify options for the future.

The overview was global. In our region, water shortages are already apparent. At the river basin level, we focussed on the Yellow River, the Mekong, the Indo-Gangetic and our own Murray-Darling Basin

Background and context

Uttar Prades farmer with a tractor
driven pump.

Most of the world’s water is saline, frozen or located in deep underground aquifers where it is not readily available for use by humans. Less than 1% of the world’s water is accessible for direct human use as fresh water in rainfall, runoff, lakes and shallow aquifers. About one quarter of the terrestrial precipitation (rainfall and snowfall) is appropriated by humans in non-irrigated grazing land, cultivated land and forests. The source of water for most human diversions (irrigation, industry, municipal uses etc) is runoff. There are about 40,000 cubic kilometres of runoff each year. Some of this is geographically inaccessible, and some is floodwater; only about 12,500 cubic kilometres (“available runoff”) is potentially available for human use. About 54% of this is withdrawn for human use. In summary, human use of rainfall and available runoff combined constitutes about 30% of the replenishable fresh water supply.

The Theun-Hinboun hydropower
project, Lao PDR's largest source
of foreign exchange.

Most of the human use of renewable fresh water is for agriculture. 250 million hectares of irrigated agriculture (five times more than in 1900; 55% in Asia) account for about 80% of global fresh water consumption, about 70% of Australia’s consumption and 86% of developing countries’ consumption. The global irrigation demand is slowly increasing and it is projected to increase by 12% by 2025. This is placing pressure on water supplies, particularly where water supplies are already inadequate. In some countries, ground water is being depleted as human use (especially for irrigation) exceeds recharge rates. For example, 60% of the total irrigated area in India and 14 million hectares on the North China Plain are irrigated from groundwater, and in both cases groundwater levels are declining.

Dry season pump irrigation in
southern Laos.

In many parts of the world, not enough water is being left in rivers to provide environmental services, leading to tensions about conflicting demands for water. In a global assessment of environmental water needs, the International Water Management Institute, a key global research body working to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature, estimated that 20-50% of the water flow in the world’s rivers was required to maintain ecosystems in a “fair” or “moderately modified” condition. There are no “rules of thumb” – every river is different – but a figure of 40% is sometimes advocated as the minimum environmental demand. Demand for domestic and industrial purposes is much less than for agriculture or the environment, but grew four times faster than demand for agriculture during 1950-1995. And in many river systems where supply is limited, there are conflicts between the demands of upstream and downstream users.

Looming over the water demand-supply equation are the uncertain effects of climate change. Global climate models cannot yet accurately predict the effect of global warming on future rainfall and runoff, but changes in river flows during the last 100 years provide empirical evidence of change. Effects are likely to vary from region to region, and already there are signs that water shortages may intensify in some water-scarce regions.

Aims:

Diesel pump.

This year we:
1. raised awareness of the challenges of efficient and sustainable water use in irrigated agriculture and food security. The focus was on irrigation water for world food supplies (globally and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region), and the tension between water for food and for environmental services; and
2. examined the opportunities that international agricultural research for development can offer in addressing these challenges.

SPEAKERS

Frank Rijsberman

Keynote Speaker:
Dr Frank Rijsberman has been Director General of the International Water Management Institute (www.iwmi.org), since 2000. He is also a professor at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft and at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. Rijsberman earned his Ph.D. in water resources planning and management from Colorado State University. He has 25 years of experience in natural resources planning and research for fresh water resources, coastal zones, soil erosion and environmental management, and has worked on projects across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

The event brought together other international and national leaders and specialists in the broad range of issues of interest in Australia and globally related to irrigated agriculture and the best use of water for agriculture and the environment. These included:

• The Hon. Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs
• The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Parliamentary Secretary with special responsibility for water policy
• Dr Mark Rosegrant, Director, Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA
• Professor Li Rui, Director, CAS Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Yangling, Shaanxi, China
• Dr Tushaar Shah, IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program, India
• Dr Philip Hirsch, Director, Australian Mekong Resource Centre, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney
• Dr Wendy Craik, Chief Executive, Murray-Darling Basin Commission
• Professor Wayne Meyer, Chief Scientist, CRC for Irrigation Futures
• Dr Bryson Bates, Coordinator, CSIRO Climate Change Program
• Dr John Radcliffe, National Water Commissioner

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS AND ABSTRACTS

Click here for biographical details of speakers and chairpeople

Click here for Speakers Power Point Presentations

PROGRAM

The full program appears below:

SPONSORS

The Crawford Fund wishes to thank its supporters and sponsors for the event including:

• Alliance of the CGIAR Centres
• AusAID - the Australian Agency for International Development
• Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
• Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
• Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage
• CRC for Irrigation Futures
• CSIRO Land and Water
• CSIRO Livestock Industries
• Grains Research and Development Corporation
• International Water Management Institute
• Land & Water Australia
• Murray-Darling Basin Commission
• National Water Commission
  

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