How can we adapt our water systems for food security?

Today is World Food Day. This year's theme is "Water is life, water is food. Leave no one behind."

In Africa alone, agriculture accounts for the highest percentage of total water withdrawal – up to 81 percent . Persistent and severe droughts, aggravated by climate change, are causing increasingly severe water shortages in Africa’s farming systems. Investing in improving sustainable water management in the agriculture sector can help food systems adapt by increasing productivity, resilience, and resource-use efficiency. It also makes economic sense – for Sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of action on climate adaptation of agriculture and food systems is less than a tenth of the cost of inaction.

In this edition of the Adaptation Update, we shine a light on climate adaptation solutions that harness water management to build more sustainable and climate-resilient food systems.

Water Adaptation for Food Security in Action

In Africa, the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is working with partners to help farmers adapt their water management to the changing climate through the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) :

• In the Zambezi River Basin, we are supporting the African Development Bank Group together with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in bringing digital technologies that provide access to climate-related early warning systems and other data-enabled climate smart agriculture services to farmers
• In Zambia, we are working with 世界银行 and Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) to help smallholder farmers learn about and train their peers to use climate smart agriculture techniques like rainwater harvesting to cope with increasingly intense droughts
• Through the African Youth Adaptation Solutions (YouthADAPT) Challenge , an annual competition co-led by GCA, the African Development Bank Group and Climate Investment Funds , we are helping youth-led enterprises Irri-Hub and Mumita Holdings scale up innovative solar-powered drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting techniques to reach more smallholder farmers in Kenya and Cameroon

In the Spotlight: Locally Led Adaptation Solutions for Water and Food Security

GCA's Local Adaptation Champions Awards spotlight and reward inspiring, innovative, and scalable locally led efforts to address climate change impacts and build effective resilience. Last year's winners empowered communities to implement solutions to strengthen their water and food security:

• Kenya's Adaptation Consortium helped a pastoral community access funding to invest in a bore hole with a portable pump , strategically located in drought grazing areas so that livestock keepers could access water
• Rangamati Hill District Council empowered their community to implement a plan to install a solar powered tube well , which now provides drinking water and irrigation for their fruit, mango, and lychee orchards
• Community Development & Advocacy Forum Nepal built an underground water canal to channel water towards agriculture fields for year-round irrigation, and upstream rainwater harvesting ponds to conserve water while also managing and recharging groundwater
• Swayam Shikshan Prayog supported women in shifting from farming water-intensive cash crops to growing food in organic, water-efficient, and low-cost ways that put their family's food security first

We recently announced the 20 inspiring finalists for the 2023 Local Adaptation Champions Awards , Among the nominees are locally led initiatives championing water adaptation techniques to strengthen food security:

• Co-created by the Centre For Environment Concerns - India and farmers in India, the System of Water for Agriculture Rejuvenation (SWAR) employs a moisture diffuser embedded at the plant-root level and data from a portable moisture probe to aid irrigation plans and avoid overwatering while reducing water application by up to 50%
• In Oaxaca, Mexico, Espacio de Encuentro de la Culturas Originarias, A.C. engages communities in developing and implementing climate adaptation solutions like garden irrigation systems
• Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) helps bolster rural resilience against climate change in India through, among other techniques, soil and water conservation measures to aid irrigation during periods of scant rainfall, and micro-irrigation technology to address water-scarce conditions and utilize village water budgeting

Did you know?

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 95% of farmed land relies on rain.

Thank you for reading!

Interested in learning more about adapting food and water systems to climate change? Find out more at?https://gca.org/ and explore our Global Hub on Locally Led Adaptation and Water Adaptation Community