Water And Food

Question 1

What percentage of global freshwater withdrawals does irrigated agriculture account for?

Answer 1

Over 70% (shirklomanov 2000)

Question 2

To what extent does irrigation increase food production?

Answer 2

It can double crop yields

Question 3

How is irrigation an adaptive strategy?

Answer 3

It’s an adaptive strategy to rising food demand and more variable rainfall under climate change. Water scarcity threatens this.

Question 4

Who will most be affected by climate change in terms of lack of precipitation?

Answer 4

Warming in Indian Ocean and an increasingly “el Nino like” climate = reduced main season precipitation across parts of the Americas , Africa and Asia

Question 5

What will the impact of climate change be complicated by?

Answer 5

• the globalisation of the grain market
• increasing demand for biofuels
• rising consumption in India and China

Question 6

What slightly lessens the way water scarcity determines food scarcity?

Answer 6

Technological sophistication can determine a farms productivity more than its climatic endowments

• fertiliser
• pesticides
• enhanced plant varieties
• mechanisation

= poor farmers in the tropics less able to cope with changes in climate

Question 7

What method do Lobel et al. Suggest for communities to cope with climate change?

Answer 7

Produce sorghum instead of corn: lower water requirements, higher temp tolerances

However this would be hard to implement: is there a market for sorghum instead of corn?

Question 8

What solutions to the climate change + increasing population = more hunger do brown and funk (2008) suggest?

Answer 8

• investing in agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and improved crop varieties
• reducing agricultural subsidies in the developed world
• food aid policies that protect local markets
• better land use

Question 9

What did oxfam state in 2009?

Answer 9

Reduction of world hunger requires governments to address its underlying causes, such as inequitable access to land and water

Food security is therefore also dependent on effective governance

Question 10

How does the government help improve food security in Brazil?

Answer 10

Hey have a food security programme where the government help farmers supple food to the poor via public welfare programmes

Question 11

How does climate change destroy crops?

Answer 11

Increase in frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, tropical cyclones

Question 12

What do oxfam suggest as alternatives to food aid?

Answer 12

• improving employment
• cash payment schemes
• disaster risk reduction to mitigate impacts of floods/droughts