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Rethinking the Approach to Groundwater and Food Security

Year of publication 2003

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 59

Author Marcus Moench, Jacob Burke, Yarrow Moench;Land and Water Division

Product type Book (series)

ISBN 9251049041

Series title FPMA Bulletin

Series number 1020-1203

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The global reproduction of food, notably cereal crops, appears to have been remarkably resilient to the vagaries of climate. The unsung hero in this production chain may well be groundwater. When rainfed agriculture fails, the fallback is usually groundwater. First it is accessed to smooth over the dry periods, and then it becomes a habit. Therefore, staying within strict resource limits would seem to be the obvious piece of management advice. That sensibile advice was given in the late 1950s; i n the meantime the green revolution occurred and 40 years later the resource limits on many key aquifiers have been exceeded. High-quality groundwater that had taken thousands of years to emplace has gone in a few decades, leaving agriculture, municipalities and rural communities competing for the recoverable groundwater that remains. This paper explains why conventional approaches to groundwater management may need to be re-thought.

Language English

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