Ministerial meeting on "water for food and agriculture"

IFAP at the 3rd World Water Forum

Kyoto, Japan 21 March 2003

by Mr. Jack Wilkinson, IFAP President

On the occasion of the present Ministerial meeting on “water for food and agriculture”, I would like, in the name of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), of which I am the President, to extend my gratitude to the co-organisers of this meeting namely The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, for giving us, Farmers of the world, the opportunity to express our views on such an important and crucial issue as water in such a high level meeting. My presence here today, as the President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), is a good sign that International fora tend to pay greater attention to civil society representatives voices. Our delegation of Farm leaders cannot but encourage such an approach. However, we hope that our participation in this conference will not be limited to a mere consultative role but rather, we are convinced that our voice should be echoed and reflected on the one hand in the design of your national policies agendas back home, and in the international development agendas on the other hand.

We are pleased that this Third World Water Forum is considered by, you Ministers, to be the logical continuation of a long international process that started with the Second World Water Forum in the Hague, followed by the International Freshwater in Bonn, the World Food Summit and finally the World Summit on Sustainable Development held last September in Johannesburg. We are pleased that you agreed to implement the recommendations adopted during these international events and to give agriculture such an important role in terms of its use in the management of the water resources.

There is no need to remind you that the Fresh water needs of agriculture keep on increasing and that the FAO predicts that it will be necessary to double world food production over the next 25 years, using essentially the same land area. By 2025, more than 3 billion people will face water scarcity. The world water situation is thus alarming. We have to reverse this trend.

Given this assumption, let me draw your attention on a few points which, we think, are of high importance to our fellow Farmers and which are often not given enough importance and support in the design and implementation of water policies be it at the national, regional or international levels.

Mr. Chairman, water security is a key dimension to poverty alleviation because it underpins food security. As you all know, most of the poor are located in rural areas and live from an agricultural activity. Therefore, particular attention should be given to the rural poor including Farmers because they are the first victims of water shortages. The priority of water policy is to ensure that the needs and interests of poor farmers and rural communities come first. The struggle against poverty must therefore be addressed through agriculture and rural development. A key element to winning this struggle is access to water resources. Special development programs related to access to water are needed and resources have to be channelled towards Southern countries.

Protecting the quality of water is a prerequisite for sustainable development. The responsibility of protecting water cannot be put only on farmers. All stakeholders and water users groups must share the responsibility of protecting this scarce resource.

To protect the quality of water, we, Farmers propose to establish voluntary agreements between local/regional authorities or water stations on the one hand and the farmers on the other hand.

Farmers need secure water supply rights in order to provide them with equitable access to water resources and plan their operations in a decent way.

There must be transparent legal frameworks. However, there should be wide recognition that water policies should not devise new sets of water rights and obligations without taking into account local socio-economic, cultural an hydrological context.

Water is not just a simple good. It has a specific nature and cannot be considered as a tradable good. Even if public authorities face difficulties to finance access and management of the water, total privatisation of water access is not acceptable. One solution envisaged to address these structural financial impediments is the promotion of public/private partnerships. Such partnerships should make possible investments to finance the working and maintenance of the distribution networks. These partnerships would be a concrete action of implementation and follow up to the Johannesburg Summit process.

Water and ecosystems are interlinked. Water management activities affect ecosystems, which in turn affect the livelihoods of the people that depend on them. Users in a basin are interdependent. Therefore, we farmers, fully support an integrated approach for managing this valuable resource with the promotion of international river basin cooperation.

In order to be equitable and sustainable, water management and development has to be conducted on a participatory basis through consultation frameworks.

All water users and stakeholders including farmers, men and women, young and old, both in developed as well as in developing countries, should have a say in decision making pertaining to water management. This participative approach contributes to increase the effectiveness of river basin organisations because it increases the motivation of local communities in order to enhance their living conditions.


The success of the participative approach cannot be achieved without us, Farmers, getting organised and building our own capacities to participate in decision -making processes. IFAP has committed it self to meet this challenge by strengthening its capacity building work with Farmers’ organisations in the industrialised countries helping to strengthen the organisations of their colleagues in the developing countries. We will also strengthen partnerships with others working in the field of agriculture and water management, particularly at the regional and country level.

However, we need your help in allowing farmers to participate in sustainable agricultural programs of government in particular in those pertaining to water access and management in agriculture.

Farmers urge national governments to give water priority in their national budgets. Some countries allocate 9% of their budgets to water while others allocate only 2%. Governments need to set clear priorities in terms of water use.

Finally, last but not least, the United Nations background paper on water, written for the Johannesburg Summit set indicative targets of improving water use efficiency in agricultural sector by 5 percent 2010 and by 10 percent by 2015. In order to achieve this target, Farmers call for:


- The establishment of stewardship programs for those farmers that use environmentally friendly techniques without putting prejudice on their income.

- Maintaining water supply systems should be the primary responsibility of the public sector. And where there is a need for private capital investment, the charge to farmers for supplying the water must not exceed the cost.


-Introduction of fair water prices based on cost recovery for maintenance of water supply systems.

- The use of appropriate technologies adapted to local conditions and made accessible to producers. Building on traditional and indigenous knowledge should not be neglected.

-Strengthening of water research and extension services through partnerships between the scientific community and the farmers in order to benefit fromtheir traditional and indigenous knowledge.

-Mobilisation of all sources of funding ranging from public to private investment assistance in order to bridge the gap between current ($70-80 billion) and required levels of expenditure. In particular, we ask for an increase in development assistance as a complement to domestic sources of funding. We call for the achievement of the 0.7 percent target of GDP for ODA. There is a need for increased coordination of donors and international financial institutions to avoid duplication of resources. Therefore, we propose the creation of an international Solidarity fund in each country to support sustainable water management initiatives.

Finally, we call for additional financing for sustainable water infrastructure from international financial institutions (IFIs).


This third water forum is the continuation of an international process that has started in Morocco a few years ago, as a recognition of the importance of water issues worldwide. We hope that the different sessions on water and agriculture including the present one, will open the doors to implementation of the different recommendations and the building of innovative partnerships. Farmers have a major contribution for an efficient management of water resources be it for agricultural purposes or other domestic uses. National governments and the international community have to support these efforts which aim at achieving the sustainable development and use of our natural patrimony.


Thank you for your attention.