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How We Work: Water, Farms and Irrigation
 Irrigation for agriculture is the largest single withdrawal of fresh water in the world. © Photos.com Water and Farms -
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Growing More Food
More than 9 million people die each year because of hunger and malnutrition. That staggering number is expected to increase in coming years as the world’s population grows, thereby making the challenge of producing more food ever-more difficult.
With much of the planet’s arable land already under cultivation, and with limited expectations for increasing crop yields by using fertilizers, many experts are hoping that rising food demands can be met by adding irrigation to agricultural areas that are presently dry-farmed. As a result, an increase of 14 to 17 percent in irrigated water withdrawal is projected by 2030.
Irrigated agriculture already is the world’s largest user of water, accounting for 70 percent of global water withdrawals. Agricultural water extractions have caused some of the planet’s largest rivers to go dry before reaching the sea – including the Yellow River in China, the Ganges and Indus in India, the Amu Dar’ya and Syr Dar’ya in Central Asia, and the Colorado and Rio Grande in the United States and Mexico
Improving Water Productivity
Food production may be a thirsty business, but it doesn’t have to damage freshwater ecosystems. One central approach to more sustainable irrigation is the concept of more “crop per drop.” The Conservancy is also working to go beyond more crop per drop and towards allocating more water productivity to freshwater systems through environmental flow transactions and by collaborating with global and regional irrigation institutions so as to reconcile the needs of farms and rivers at the river basin scale.
Together, we can initiate a new way of thinking — where people seek to manage every drop of water for the benefit of all living things.
