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Karen Villholth, International Water Management Institute

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University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis

The document summarizes the role of groundwater in global food security. Some key points: - Groundwater irrigation currently provides 43% of irrigation water globally and supports 10% of global food production. - An estimated 15.5-18.5% of global groundwater irrigation relies on non-renewable groundwater resources, threatening future food security. - The document analyzes data on groundwater depletion rates, irrigation intensities, food production dependent on groundwater, and potential for increasing sustainable groundwater irrigation in Africa and elsewhere. - It concludes that urgent action is needed to address increasing reliance on non-sustainable groundwater for food production and potential solutions involve broader food and water policies.

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The Role of Groundwater in Global Food Security Karen G. Villholth Principal Researcher, South Africa Aditya Sood Nirosha Liyanage IWMI Tingju Zhu, IFPRI Water Policy for Food Security - A Global Conference Delivering Solutions for Sustainable Water Systems World Food Center, UC Davis, California, USA, Oct 05-06, 2015
• Groundwater sources provide 43% of all water used for irrigation (Foster et al., 2015) • 10% of the world’s agricultural food production depends on using mined groundwater (World Water Commission, 2000) Earlier estimates of the role of groundwater in global food production
Agriculture is the largest GW user 67% 22% 11% globally van der Gun, 2012
Global GW abstraction Unit: mm/yr in 0.5° * 0.5° grid cells ….coincides with…. Wada et al. (2012)
……. Global GW irrigation intensity Siebert et al. (2010)
…. and limited renewability of GW Döll et al. (2005)
The hidden drought 300 m !
When GW depletion is felt
Concept of GW drought From Calow et al. (1997)
SPAM data/map Food Production and Harvested Area PCR-GLOBWB data/map Groundwater Abstraction & Depletion FAO data/map Percentage of Irrigated Area by Groundwater FINAL PRODUCT Food Production and Harvested Area dependent on GW abstraction and GW depletion (2005) How much food derives from GW? Grid maps of Agricultural Water Demand & Total Water Demand
Regional breakdown Unpublished
Crop Group Crop Name Beverage and spice crops Arabica coffee Cocoa Robusta coffee Tea Cereals Barley Maize Pearl millet Rice Small millet Sorghum Wheat Other cereals Leguminous crops Bean Chickpea Cowpea Lentil Pigeon pea Other pulses Non-food Crops Cotton Tobacco Other fiber crops Crop Group Crop Name Oilseed Crop Coconut Groundnut Oil palm Rapeseed Sesame seed Soybean Sunflower Other oil crops Other Crops Rest of crops Roots and Tubers Cassava Potato Sweet potato Yams Other roots Sugar Crops Sugar beet Sugarcane Vegetables and Fruits Banana Plantain Temperate fruit Tropical fruit Vegetables Crop aggregation
Some key figures • Groundwater irrigated areas globally comprise about 83.1 mill. ha, or about 41% of total irrigated areas • Of the groundwater irrigated areas, 15.5 to 18.5% are supplied by depleting aquifers • GW depletion rate in agriculture: 129.3 km3/yr, accounting for 78.1% of total GW depletion
100% 43.5% 13.0% 14.0-17.0% 6.1-7.4% 1.8-2.2% + 43% -> 10% -> Contribution of GW to global food production From GW abstraction From GW depletion
Regional distribution Food production (106 t) Food production from GWD as a fraction of Region From GWD From GWD (% of total) From irrigation From irrigation and rainfed Irrigated production Total production Australia/Oceania 0.06 0.0% 28.58 96.28 0.2% 0.1% Central Asia 0.12 0.1% 23.57 151.96 0.5% 0.1% East Asia 30.55 22.3% 595.02 1997.86 5.1% 1.5% Latin America and the Caribbean 0.66 0.5% 287.38 1063.58 0.2% 0.1% Near East/North Africa 10.94 8.0% 113.04 207.72 9.7% 5.3% OECD 32.77 23.9% 310.35 1593.73 10.6% 2.1% Other European Countries 0.56 0.4% 16.09 277.09 3.5% 0.2% South Asia 61.32 44.7% 605.73 904.33 10.1% 6.8% Sub-Saharan Africa 0.20 0.1% 62.76 518.41 0.3% 0.0% Total or average 137.17 100.0% 2042.52 6810.96 6.7% 2.0%
Crop distribution Food production (106 t) Food production from GWD as a fraction of Crop group From GWD From GWD (% of total) From irrigation From irrigation and rainfed Irrigated production Total production Beverages 0.00 0.0% 0.63 15.32 0.0% 0.0% Cereals 60.41 44.0% 902.23 2260.27 6.7% 2.7% Leguminous crops 0.85 0.6% 9.25 60.63 9.1% 1.4% Non-food crops 4.03 2.9% 41.16 82.64 9.8% 4.9% Oilseed crops 2.65 1.9% 42.91 593.75 6.2% 0.4% Other crops 0.32 0.2% 1.68 29.60 19.0% 1.1% Roots and tubers 15.45 11.3% 109.17 723.58 14.2% 2.1% Sugar crops 43.04 31.4% 801.26 1613.48 5.4% 2.7% Vegetables and fruits 10.48 7.6% 134.21 1431.70 7.8% 0.7% Total or average 137.21 100.0% 2042.50 6810.97 6.7% 2.0%
PCR- GLOWWB model Accounting for non-renewable GW abstraction in global models New component added
Aquifer thickness Unpublished
Policy options • Increase food production in areas with GW irrigation potential from renewable GW: sub- Saharan Africa and eastern Indo-Gangetic plains • Use GW strategically: for drought mitigation, for supplementary irrigation • Demand and supply management of GW • GW governance • Encourage responsible consumerism • Increase prices for ‘luxury’ water-intensive foods
AFRICA Environmental requirements represent 30% of recharge 50% of recharge 70% of recharge Area (106 ha) 105.3 74.9 44.6 % of cropland 48.5% 34.5% 20.5% Proportion of cropland irrigable with groundwater (environmental groundwater requirements as (a) 70 %, (b) 50 % or (c) 30 % of the recharge) GW irrigation potential in Africa A factor of 20 increase in overall GWI area possible (from 2 to ≈ 40 mill ha.) Altchenko and Villholth (2015)
(a) Actual area irrigated with groundwater in 2005 expressed in ha. per cell adapted from Siebert et al. (2010) and (b) groundwater irrigation potential for scenario 2 for the year 2000 expressed as a percentage of the area irrigated with groundwater in 2005 GW irrigation potential in Africa Actual Potential Altchenko and Villholth (2015)
Groundwater drought risk Future climate (IPCC SRES A1B, 2081-2100)Present climate (1989-2008) Villholth et al. (2013)
Conclusions • Global food production depends on depleting GW for 2.0% of total, 6.7% of irrigated, and 15.4% of GW-irrigated fractions in 2005 • Reliance on non-sustainable GW for increasing parts of global food production requires urgent attention • Solutions to be found in broader global food policies and interventions in both developing and developed part of the world
How to potentially engage you • Graduate student fellowships: – U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security program – USAID Research and Innovation Fellowships (https://www.rifellowships.org/catalog/505) • Global Groundwater Initiative (GRIPP): – A multi-agency partnership to seek Sustainable Groundwater Solutions for Policy and Practice
Altchenko Y. and K.G. Villholth, 2015. Mapping irrigation potential from renewable groundwater in Africa – a quantitative hydrological approach. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1-13, Doi: 10.5194/hessd-19-1-2015. Calow, R.C., N.S. Robins, A.M. MacDonald, M.J. MacDonald, B.R. Gibbs, W.R.G. Orpen, P. Mtembezeka, A.J. Andrews, and S.O. Appiah, 1997. Groundwater management in drought-prone areas of Afica. Water Resour. Dev., 3, 2, 241 - 261. Döll, P. and M. Flörke, 2005. Global-scale estimation of diffuse groundwater recharge. Frankfurt Hydrology Paper 03, Institute of Physical Geography, Frankfurt University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 21 pp. Foster, S. G. Tyson, L. Konikow, E. Custodio, K. Villholth, J. van der Gun, and R. Klingbeil, 2015. Groundwater in Food Security. International Association of Hydrogeologists. Professional Strategic Overviews, 6 pp. Siebert, S., J. Burke, J.M. Faures, K. Frenken, J. Hoogeveen, P. Döll, and F.T. Portmann, 2010. Groundwater use for irrigation - a global inventory. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 7, 3977–4021. van der Gun, J., 2012. Groundwater and Global Change: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges. UN World Water Assessement Programme. WWDR. 38 pp. ISBN 978-92-3-001049-2 Villholth, K.G., C. Tøttrup, M. Stendel, A. Maherry, 2013. Integrated mapping of groundwater drought risk in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Hydrogeol. J., 21(4), 863-885. DOI: 10.1007/s10040-013-0968-1 Wada,Y., L.P.H. van Beek, and M.F.P. Bierkens, 2012. Nonsustainable groundwater sustaining irrigation: A global assessment. Wat. Res. Resear., 48, W00L06, doi:10.1029/2011WR010562. World Water Commission, 2000. A Water Secure World. Vission for Water, Life and the Environment. Vision Commision Report. World Water Commission, Marseille, 70 pp. References
Thank you! Contact: k.villholth@cgiar.org

More Related Content

Karen Villholth, International Water Management Institute

  • 1. The Role of Groundwater in Global Food Security Karen G. Villholth Principal Researcher, South Africa Aditya Sood Nirosha Liyanage IWMI Tingju Zhu, IFPRI Water Policy for Food Security - A Global Conference Delivering Solutions for Sustainable Water Systems World Food Center, UC Davis, California, USA, Oct 05-06, 2015
  • 2. • Groundwater sources provide 43% of all water used for irrigation (Foster et al., 2015) • 10% of the world’s agricultural food production depends on using mined groundwater (World Water Commission, 2000) Earlier estimates of the role of groundwater in global food production
  • 3. Agriculture is the largest GW user 67% 22% 11% globally van der Gun, 2012
  • 4. Global GW abstraction Unit: mm/yr in 0.5° * 0.5° grid cells ….coincides with…. Wada et al. (2012)
  • 5. ……. Global GW irrigation intensity Siebert et al. (2010)
  • 6. …. and limited renewability of GW Döll et al. (2005)
  • 9. Concept of GW drought From Calow et al. (1997)
  • 10. SPAM data/map Food Production and Harvested Area PCR-GLOBWB data/map Groundwater Abstraction & Depletion FAO data/map Percentage of Irrigated Area by Groundwater FINAL PRODUCT Food Production and Harvested Area dependent on GW abstraction and GW depletion (2005) How much food derives from GW? Grid maps of Agricultural Water Demand & Total Water Demand
  • 12. Crop Group Crop Name Beverage and spice crops Arabica coffee Cocoa Robusta coffee Tea Cereals Barley Maize Pearl millet Rice Small millet Sorghum Wheat Other cereals Leguminous crops Bean Chickpea Cowpea Lentil Pigeon pea Other pulses Non-food Crops Cotton Tobacco Other fiber crops Crop Group Crop Name Oilseed Crop Coconut Groundnut Oil palm Rapeseed Sesame seed Soybean Sunflower Other oil crops Other Crops Rest of crops Roots and Tubers Cassava Potato Sweet potato Yams Other roots Sugar Crops Sugar beet Sugarcane Vegetables and Fruits Banana Plantain Temperate fruit Tropical fruit Vegetables Crop aggregation
  • 13. Some key figures • Groundwater irrigated areas globally comprise about 83.1 mill. ha, or about 41% of total irrigated areas • Of the groundwater irrigated areas, 15.5 to 18.5% are supplied by depleting aquifers • GW depletion rate in agriculture: 129.3 km3/yr, accounting for 78.1% of total GW depletion
  • 14. 100% 43.5% 13.0% 14.0-17.0% 6.1-7.4% 1.8-2.2% + 43% -> 10% -> Contribution of GW to global food production From GW abstraction From GW depletion
  • 15. Regional distribution Food production (106 t) Food production from GWD as a fraction of Region From GWD From GWD (% of total) From irrigation From irrigation and rainfed Irrigated production Total production Australia/Oceania 0.06 0.0% 28.58 96.28 0.2% 0.1% Central Asia 0.12 0.1% 23.57 151.96 0.5% 0.1% East Asia 30.55 22.3% 595.02 1997.86 5.1% 1.5% Latin America and the Caribbean 0.66 0.5% 287.38 1063.58 0.2% 0.1% Near East/North Africa 10.94 8.0% 113.04 207.72 9.7% 5.3% OECD 32.77 23.9% 310.35 1593.73 10.6% 2.1% Other European Countries 0.56 0.4% 16.09 277.09 3.5% 0.2% South Asia 61.32 44.7% 605.73 904.33 10.1% 6.8% Sub-Saharan Africa 0.20 0.1% 62.76 518.41 0.3% 0.0% Total or average 137.17 100.0% 2042.52 6810.96 6.7% 2.0%
  • 16. Crop distribution Food production (106 t) Food production from GWD as a fraction of Crop group From GWD From GWD (% of total) From irrigation From irrigation and rainfed Irrigated production Total production Beverages 0.00 0.0% 0.63 15.32 0.0% 0.0% Cereals 60.41 44.0% 902.23 2260.27 6.7% 2.7% Leguminous crops 0.85 0.6% 9.25 60.63 9.1% 1.4% Non-food crops 4.03 2.9% 41.16 82.64 9.8% 4.9% Oilseed crops 2.65 1.9% 42.91 593.75 6.2% 0.4% Other crops 0.32 0.2% 1.68 29.60 19.0% 1.1% Roots and tubers 15.45 11.3% 109.17 723.58 14.2% 2.1% Sugar crops 43.04 31.4% 801.26 1613.48 5.4% 2.7% Vegetables and fruits 10.48 7.6% 134.21 1431.70 7.8% 0.7% Total or average 137.21 100.0% 2042.50 6810.97 6.7% 2.0%
  • 19. Policy options • Increase food production in areas with GW irrigation potential from renewable GW: sub- Saharan Africa and eastern Indo-Gangetic plains • Use GW strategically: for drought mitigation, for supplementary irrigation • Demand and supply management of GW • GW governance • Encourage responsible consumerism • Increase prices for ‘luxury’ water-intensive foods
  • 20. AFRICA Environmental requirements represent 30% of recharge 50% of recharge 70% of recharge Area (106 ha) 105.3 74.9 44.6 % of cropland 48.5% 34.5% 20.5% Proportion of cropland irrigable with groundwater (environmental groundwater requirements as (a) 70 %, (b) 50 % or (c) 30 % of the recharge) GW irrigation potential in Africa A factor of 20 increase in overall GWI area possible (from 2 to ≈ 40 mill ha.) Altchenko and Villholth (2015)
  • 21. (a) Actual area irrigated with groundwater in 2005 expressed in ha. per cell adapted from Siebert et al. (2010) and (b) groundwater irrigation potential for scenario 2 for the year 2000 expressed as a percentage of the area irrigated with groundwater in 2005 GW irrigation potential in Africa Actual Potential Altchenko and Villholth (2015)
  • 22. Groundwater drought risk Future climate (IPCC SRES A1B, 2081-2100)Present climate (1989-2008) Villholth et al. (2013)
  • 23. Conclusions • Global food production depends on depleting GW for 2.0% of total, 6.7% of irrigated, and 15.4% of GW-irrigated fractions in 2005 • Reliance on non-sustainable GW for increasing parts of global food production requires urgent attention • Solutions to be found in broader global food policies and interventions in both developing and developed part of the world
  • 24. How to potentially engage you • Graduate student fellowships: – U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security program – USAID Research and Innovation Fellowships (https://www.rifellowships.org/catalog/505) • Global Groundwater Initiative (GRIPP): – A multi-agency partnership to seek Sustainable Groundwater Solutions for Policy and Practice
  • 25. Altchenko Y. and K.G. Villholth, 2015. Mapping irrigation potential from renewable groundwater in Africa – a quantitative hydrological approach. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1-13, Doi: 10.5194/hessd-19-1-2015. Calow, R.C., N.S. Robins, A.M. MacDonald, M.J. MacDonald, B.R. Gibbs, W.R.G. Orpen, P. Mtembezeka, A.J. Andrews, and S.O. Appiah, 1997. Groundwater management in drought-prone areas of Afica. Water Resour. Dev., 3, 2, 241 - 261. Döll, P. and M. Flörke, 2005. Global-scale estimation of diffuse groundwater recharge. Frankfurt Hydrology Paper 03, Institute of Physical Geography, Frankfurt University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 21 pp. Foster, S. G. Tyson, L. Konikow, E. Custodio, K. Villholth, J. van der Gun, and R. Klingbeil, 2015. Groundwater in Food Security. International Association of Hydrogeologists. Professional Strategic Overviews, 6 pp. Siebert, S., J. Burke, J.M. Faures, K. Frenken, J. Hoogeveen, P. Döll, and F.T. Portmann, 2010. Groundwater use for irrigation - a global inventory. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 7, 3977–4021. van der Gun, J., 2012. Groundwater and Global Change: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges. UN World Water Assessement Programme. WWDR. 38 pp. ISBN 978-92-3-001049-2 Villholth, K.G., C. Tøttrup, M. Stendel, A. Maherry, 2013. Integrated mapping of groundwater drought risk in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Hydrogeol. J., 21(4), 863-885. DOI: 10.1007/s10040-013-0968-1 Wada,Y., L.P.H. van Beek, and M.F.P. Bierkens, 2012. Nonsustainable groundwater sustaining irrigation: A global assessment. Wat. Res. Resear., 48, W00L06, doi:10.1029/2011WR010562. World Water Commission, 2000. A Water Secure World. Vission for Water, Life and the Environment. Vision Commision Report. World Water Commission, Marseille, 70 pp. References