World Water Day - Agriculture's role in the challenge of food security and water efficiency

World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a way of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating the sustainable management of freshwater resources.  It aims to raise awareness across a broad range of business domains and government sectors to solve water and energy challenges in a coordinated way.  The theme of World Water Day 2014 is “Water and Energy” and it underlines the plight of the poorest of the poor, who suffer from a lack of access to water, sanitation and modern forms of energy. 

Agriculture is the largest global consumer of water accounting for about 70% of consumption.  It is expected that this situation will be further compounded by the effects of global warming which will have a severe effect on developing countries where agricultural systems are most vulnerable to climatic conditions and where small increases in temperature are detrimental to crop production.  It is, therefore, important to improve the more efficient use of water in agriculture. This will require an integrated approach to water resources management to encourage an efficient and equitable use of the resource, and to ensure sustainability.  Dr. Obokoh, CEO, AfricaBio says “that in commemorating World Water Day 2014 it was important to mention that agricultural biotechnology can help address the challenge of food security and water efficiency by developing drought-resistant crops and the implementation of low or no-till farming to conserve soil moisture.”  She added that, “the development of crop varieties with increased drought tolerance, by conventional breeding methods or by genetic engineering, is also an important strategy to meet the global demand for more food with less water.”

A number of conventional breeding programs are underway to develop drought tolerant plants.
The development of drought tolerant crops by genetic engineering, on the other hand, requires the identification of key genetic determinants underlying stress tolerance in plants, and introducing these genes into crops. But whether it is by conventional or genetic methods, it is essential to test newly developed varieties to multiple stresses, and to carry out extensive field studies in a large range of conditions that assess drought tolerance and yield increase.

Another major challenge is the increasing difficulty and expense in obtaining approvals for field trials of GM plants. As a number of measures are in place to ensure the safe and responsible design of field tests, excessive precaution should not become a barrier to making sure we use all the tools available to us for a more sustainable agriculture.

Source: AfricaBio #IFAMAFRICA