FAO Session on “Water: Source of food security

IFAP at the 3rd World Water Forum

Presentation by Mr. Nicola Stolfi, CIA and IFAP

Kyoto, Japan 19 March 2003

I would like to point out the controversial discussion about what will be the future of irrigation considering the ever growing lack of water.


Although there is an unanimous agreement on the worldwide penury of water, such authorities as FAO, UN and World Bank take radically distinct stands regarding the reasons for this calamity and the strategies to follow for a proper solution.


The scarcity of water is in fact considered as a result of meterological alterations, severe pollution or, for the most extremists, it is caused by agricultural practice. For example the United Nation believes that the so called “agricultural drought” is caused by two factors: on one hand the growth of population and the need for more food and water for irrigation of the cultivated fields; and on the other hand, the intensive cultivation of those agricultural varieties, such as rice, sugarcane and lettuce, or meat production that have an elevated need of water.


Consequently a different worldwide “policy” is proposed depending on the diagnosis. It is important to clarify a fundamental issue, that water is an essential and precious limiting factor only in the agricultural sector, particularly in arid zones. In fact, while agriculture absorbs 70% of the world water resources, the irrigated lands that constitute only 20% of the total agricultural lands yield 40% of the world agricultural products.

The agricultural organizations members of IFAP believe that irrigation systems are more efficient and widespread when the following conditions are fulfilled. There should be larger investments, substantial institutional, technological changes and marketing facilities should occur and extension services should be implemented to help farmers in the transition from dry to wet agricultural practices.

To guarantee water availability, the annual investments in water services should be more than doubled: from the present 80 billions dollars to 180 billions. To sustain such heavy investments, particularly in the poor or developing countries, the rules for international funds should be reformed and it will be necessary to have recourse to private capitals. This can be done by investing in building and maintenance of water distribution network, in creation of small basins for water detection and plants for multiple use of water.

Following the principle that water is and should remain a right for all human beings it is necessary to impose a rating system for water that can progressively cover the costs of operation and maintenance, according to the economical possibilities of all users considering their social inequalities. A special treatment must be taken for the poor population.

In this perspective, it would be convenient to support the local entrepreneurs able to adopt solutions and technologies that correspond to the needs of the more disadvantaged areas and populations, while respecting their local and traditional knowledge.

The agricultural organizations look forward to an integrated national water resources management system regulated by governments. The organizing and functional solutions will be necessarily different in each country and each territorial area. However these should consent the planning of water supply from different sources with environmentaly sustainable methods and quantities, the allocation of water resources according to the political and social objectives, the efficiency of use of water, the control of waste waters and their treatment in case of reuse.

The principal aim of public action should not only be to increase water supply, rather to guarantee a more equitable allocation of it. It is necessary to pass from the management of supply to the more complex and difficult task of management of water demand, in those countries where there is a need and of the research of quality objectives. .

In this perspective the role of the water consumer is crucial. The management choices, in fact, cannot remain the exclusive competency of the managerial boards, but should be decided in cooperation and partnership with stakeholders, particularly with farmers, who should be involved in the decision making process. This is what we call the participatory approach.

Participation of farmers and other stakeholders in decision making should not be limited to a consultative role. When Farmers’ Organizations do not participate in the decision making process, the reason is either they are not trusted or they did not have enough capacity to get involved actively. Farmers therefore need to be organized and build up their capacity to participate in the decision making process.

National governments have the responsibility to set up programs to strengthen technical, financial and educational capacities of local associations to enable them to participate and create their own water management association for maintenance and running of water sources.

It is necessary to extend the irrigation systems that guarantee a distribution without loss of water due to evaporation or inefficient networks by using pressured distribution or micro irrigations. It is also necessary to create in the irrigated lands an efficient system of drainage to avoid the high level of salts contained in the irrigation water, that combined with the superficial presence of waterproof layers, creates severe soil problems.

IFAP Agricultural Organizations believe that research plays an important role in improving drainage and irrigation systems, for example could be very usefull to increase the drought tolerance characteristics of plants and to promote soil moisture conservation measures also through biotechnologies, that does not imply necessarily genetically modified organisms techniques. Research and development on this matter should be conducted by public authorities in order to avoid that the multinational companies monopolize the market.

A significant part of international funds should be invested in training and creation of competencies, for farmers in the fields of irrigation practices, safeguard of natural resources, promotion of water saving etc. that have a major part in determining and optimising the outcome of investments in irrigation for agricultural use.