Stark choices lie ahead for a world in need of water to produce an ever-greater amount of food.
Chandra Madramootoo, dean of agriculture and environmental sciences at McGill University in Montreal, said billions of people in India, Egypt and China face acute water shortages that in some cases already require strict allocation.
By contrast, water allocation issues in Alberta are not quite so onerous.
“If one thinks that southern Alberta has to make this choice between water for urban cities or for rural areas, just imagine how much more difficult it is for other countries … that are not as blessed or as fortunate in their natural resources as we are,” Madramootoo told a May 31 water conference in Lethbridge.
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India faces water shortage, pollution and electrical blackouts because of water scarcity.
Egypt, with a strict allocation of water from Sudan, must use waste water and drainage water capture to supply growing water needs.
China has undertaken the largest ever water transfer project from south to north with its Three Gorges Dam so that it can feed its billions.
“The challenges are enormous,” said Madramootoo, who is also president of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage.
“They’re not going to be solved just by a group of individuals, and these are some of the reasons why the international commission on irrigation … is working aggressively with partners in both the developed and developing countries to try and increase the research, the capacity, the transfer of technology and institutional mechanisms to cope with water scarcity to meet the demands of water for food and agriculture.”
Food prices have now exceeded the highs reached in 2008, according to United Nations data, and food production will have to double over the next 25 years to feed a world population of nine billion predicted by 2050.
That’s where irrigation comes in, Madramootoo said.
Seventeen percent of the world’s 3.705 billion acres of cropland is irrigated and produces 40 percent of the world’s food.
“And so this is a very important point to note, as we think about the importance of irrigation, the role of irrigation and how can we protect irrigation and even expand our irrigated base, I think is something we ought to give thought to, in light of all the other challenges.”
Madramootoo said irrigation was crucial to the success of the green revolution, and genetics, biotechnology and better agronomics have also increased crop production significantly.
However, Madramootoo said research has found that most of these yield increases occurred between 1960 and 1990.
Progress has slowed since then, which indicates the need for increased emphasis on research.
“There is a need for a global resurgence in irrigation development,” he said.
