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A Holistic View of Global Croplands and Their Water Use for Ensuring Global Food Security in the 21st Century Through Advanced Remote Sensing and Non-Remote Sensing Approaches
(2010) Thenkabail, Prasad
"This paper presents an exhaustive review of global croplands and their water use, for the end of last millennium, mapped using remote sensing and non-remote sensing approaches by world’s leading researchers on the subject. A comparison at country scale of global cropland area estimated by these studies had a high R2-value of 0.89–0.94. The global cropland area estimates amongst different studies are quite close and range between 1.47–1.53 billion hectares. However, significant uncertainties exist in determining irrigated areas which, globally, consume nearly 80% of all human water use. The estimates show that the total water use by global croplands varies between 6,685 to 7,500 km3 yr−1 and of this around 4,586 km3 yr−1 is by rainfed croplands (green water use) and the rest by irrigated croplands (blue water use). Irrigated areas use about 2,099 km3 yr−1 (1,180 km3 yr−1 of blue water and the rest from rain that falls over irrigated croplands). However, 1.6 to 2.5 times the blue water required by irrigated croplands is actually withdrawn from reservoirs or pumping of ground water, suggesting an irrigation efficiency of only between 40–62 percent. The weaknesses, trends, and future directions to precisely estimate the global croplands are examined. Finally, the paper links global croplands and their water use to a paradigm for ensuring future food security."
Linking Poverty Reduction and Water Management
(2007) Soussan, John; Noel, Stacey; Harlin, Joakim; Schmidt, Susanne
"This paper analyses the relationship between water management and poverty reduction. All aspects of poverty are considered: this is reflected in the analysis of water’s potential contribution to all of the MDGs, not just those that refer explicitly to water. The basic contention advanced, and supported through reference to a wide range of case studies, is that water management is a good investment: not only can it contribute to poverty reduction, but it can do so in ways that are affordable and, in many cases, generate wealth. This potential is often not understood: the political prominence of water issues is all too often not translated into investment priorities. In particular, water management actions are poorly represented in PRSPs and in other key development strategies intended to focus national efforts on poverty reduction and attaining the MDGs."
Learning to Voice? The Evolving Roles of Family Farmers in the Coordination of Large-Scale Irrigation Schemes in Morocco
(2010) Faysse, Nicolas; Errahj, Mostafa; Kuper, Marcel; Mahdi, Mohamed
"In Morocco, large-scale irrigation schemes have evolved over the past twenty years from the centralised management of irrigation and agricultural production into more complex multi-actor systems. This study analysed whether, and how, in the context of state withdrawal, increased farmer autonomy and political liberalisation, family farmers currently participate in the coordination and negotiation of issues that affect them and involve scheme-level organisations. Issues related to water management, the sugar industry and the dairy sector were analysed in five large-scale irrigation schemes. Farmer organisations that were set up to intervene in water management and sugar production were seen to be either inactive or to have weak links with their constituency; hence, the irrigation administration and the sugar industry continue to interact directly with farmers in a centralised way. Given their inability to voice their interests, when farmers have the opportunity, many choose exit strategies, for instance by resorting to the use of groundwater. In contrast, many community-based milk collection cooperatives were seen to function as accountable intermediaries between smallholders and dairy firms. While, as in the past, family farmers are still generally not involved in decision making at scheme level, in the milk collection cooperatives studied, farmers learn to coordinate and negotiate for the development of their communities."
Participation, Politics, and Panaceas: Exploring the Possibilities and Limits of Participatory Urban Water Governance in Accra, Ghana
(2014) Morinville, Cynthia; Harris, Leila M.
"Water governance debates have increasingly recognized the importance of adaptive governance for short- and long-term sustainability, especially with respect to increasing climate unpredictability and growing urbanization. A parallel focus on enhancing community participation pervades international development recommendations and policy literature. Indeed, there are often implicit and explicit connections made between the participatory character of water governance institutions and their adaptive capacity. The social-ecological systems literature, however, has also urged caution with respect to embracing panaceas, with increasing calls to be attentive to the limitations of proposed “solutions.” We discuss the parallels between the adaptive governance, comanagement, and participatory resource governance literatures and analyze efforts to encourage such participation in urban water governance through Local Water Boards in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on interview data, participant observations, and a survey of 243 individuals, we explored what participatory spaces have been opened or foreclosed as well as the possibilities for adaptive urban water governance in Accra. Applying insights from recent debates about panaceas, we argue that discerning the potential and limits for sustainable resource governance and associated development goals requires that participatory mechanisms be subjected to systematic and contextual analysis."
Insights from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture
(2006) Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture
From Introduction: "This Assessment finds that there is enough land, water and human capacity to produce enough food for a growing population over the next 50 years, so in this sense the world is not 'running out' of water. But the Assessment also finds a multitude of water, food and environmental issues that add up to a crisis. Water is a constraint to acquiring food for hundreds of millions of people. Important aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are damaged or threatened. The competition for scarce water resources is intense. And in many basins there is not enough water to meet all the demands—or even for rivers to reach the sea. These local problems could grow in number and severity, or shrink, depending on whether and how they are addressed. "What is clear is that today’s water management challenges—and tomorrow’s—differ greatly from those of 50 years ago, or even 25, and thus require new approaches. Those approaches will be broader, looking into the opportunities in rainfed, irrigated, livestock and fisheries systems—and in preserving, even restoring, ecosystems. They will build water systems for many purposes and manage them to provide a wide range of ecosystem services. They will be more participatory and involve informed multi-stakeholder dialogues to deal with the many trade-offs. And they will embrace diverse interests and institutions to increase the equity of water’s use. These are the hopes emanating from this Assessment of water for food and for life."
Irrigation Practices in Ethiopia: Characteristics of Selected Irrigation Schemes
(2007) Girma, Michael M.; Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
"This report is prepared based on a collaborative research project titled 'Impact of Irrigation on Poverty and Environment'. The overall project focuses on understanding the crucial role that water, in conjunction with other factors, needs to play to reduce poverty and food insecurity, while maintaining an environmental balance. The research promotes irrigation development that will enhance positive impacts such as poverty alleviation and minimize negative impacts such as environmental degradation. In this report, documentation and information for 12 irrigation systems totaling about 22 sites/schemes have been identified. The common characteristics of these schemes have been provided in this report, with a view of having comprehensive information on the selected case study sites based on rapid appraisal, secondary data and site visits."
Smallholder Irrigators, Water Rights and Investments in Agriculture: Three Cases from Rural Mozambique
(2013) Veldwisch, Gert Jan; Beekman, Wouter; Bolding, Alex
"In the context of the prevalent neo-liberal discourse on rural development through improved markets, involvement of companies and a strong reliance on foreign investors this article examines the vulnerable position of smallholder irrigators and their water rights. Through the parallel analysis of three contrasting cases of smallholder irrigation in Mozambique and a comparison with formal Mozambican law, it is shown that a big gap exists between formal water rights and water rights in practice. For each case, it is shown how land and water rights are connected and how a successful defence of land rights provides a good basis for a defence of smallholder water rights. Furthermore, as productivity and efficiency arguments are prominent and influential, those smallholders who are able to turn their use into the production of economic value manage best to materialise their claims on both land and water. The paper concludes with recommendations to strengthen the position of smallholders in response to increasing threats of land and water grabbing."
The Right (?) of Access (?) to Water Supply and Sanitation (?): A Polemic about Mixing Issues
(2006) Matz, Manfred
"Twenty-five years of on-the-ground experience in water policy advisory service has taught SIWI’s Manfred Matz a lot. One lesson he has learned is that, not surprisingly, water professionals may say one thing but mean another. In this article, Mr. Matz describes how something as simple as terminology can cause confusion for those inside and outside of the water sector."
The Patronage of Thirst: Exploring Institutional Fit on a Divided Cyprus
(2012) Zikos, Dimitrios; Roggero, Matteo
"We explore the links between Cyprus’s colonial past, divided present, and current water scarcity. With reference to the concept of fit, we tackle the question of whether we can observe fit in settings where institutions for collective action work differently than we would expect. We perform a secondary analysis of interview materials on Cyprus's water conflicts, extracting arguments for and against different solutions to water scarcity. Two perspectives on fit emerge: 'island fit', which supports island-wide institutions; and 'patronage fit', which embodies institutions that link Cypriots to their respective patrons Turkey and Greece. The analysis reveals a preference for island-wide institutional arrangements. However, rather than resting on biophysical considerations, such preference is linked to the feeling of unity of the two communities inhabiting Cyprus. We therefore observe institutions that face a trade-off between fitting to social groupings and fitting to biophysical circumstances."
Conceptualizing Large Scale Common Pool Resources through the SES Framework: Resource and Institutional Dynamics in the Rhine Watershed
(2013) Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio; Fleischman, Forrest; Perez Ibarra, Irene; Thiel, Andreas; van Laerhoven, Frank
"In this paper we develop a case study of water governance in the Rhine River to examine the relevance of Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory for two contexts that have not been extensively tested before: large scale trans-boundary water management, and pollution problems."

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