Publication: Moving Beyond ‘More Crop per Drop’: Insights from Two Decades of Research on Agricultural Water Productivity
Loading...
Files in English
318 downloads
Date
2019-04-29
ISSN
Published
2019-04-29
Editor(s)
Abstract
Concern over increasing water scarcity has led to the introduction of the concept of agricultural water productivity and an emphasis on interventions to achieve ‘more crop per drop’. Yet, a strong debate continues on how the concept is to be defined and used. Drawing largely from the irrigation literature, the origins of the concept and its methodological developments are reviewed, and its use in applied work over two decades is discussed. Based on this analysis of conceptual and applied research, key insights into the concept’s contributions and limitations are presented, as well as opportunities for further refinements.
Link to Data Set
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
- Cited 20 times in Scopus (view citations)
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Beyond 'More Crop per Drop'(Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute, and Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017)This report aims to provide key highlights from two decades of IWMI research and the broader irrigation literature on agricultural water productivity, with an emphasis on the evolution and application of the concept, highlighting its contributions and limitations while identifying opportunities for further refinements in the way it is understood and applied. Chapter two describes the origins of the concept of agricultural water productivity and its methodological developments. Chapter three illustrates the different ways the concept has been operationalized in applied research, offers a description of the pathways—with their associated interventions, for improving water productivity, and discusses the contributions to broader development objectives. Based on these, and considering the broader literature, Chapter four presents a set of key lessons and insights from two decades of research on water productivity. Chapter five concludes by highlighting how a focus on agricultural water productivity has brought greater attention to critical water scarcity and management issues. Important strategic opportunities remain, however, for continued improvements in technologies and management practices, data sources, and interdisciplinary research to develop and apply more comprehensive approaches to address water scarcity concerns and, ultimately, make progress towards broader development objectives.Publication Beyond Crop per Drop(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-06-26)With growing water scarcity in many parts of the world and projections that indicate the need to increase agricultural production and, concurrently, agricultural water use, it is increasingly advocated to focus efforts on improving agricultural water productivity and efficiency—and thus achieve more crop per drop. Many international organizations concerned with water management are also promoting these efforts, and significant public and private investments are being made in both developed and developing countries. Yet some serious problems are associated with this approach. They include conceptual issues, the methods used for measuring agricultural water productivity and efficiency, and the application of these concepts and methods in different contexts—all of which influence the choice of interventions and the evaluation of their implementation. The report aims to shed further light on these issues: first, by clarifying some of the underlying concepts in the discussion of agricultural water productivity and efficiency; second, by reviewing and analyzing the available methods for assessing water productivity and efficiency, including single-factor productivity measures, total factor productivity indices, frontier methods, and deductive methods; and, third, by discussing their application and relevance in different contexts. As a background for this analysis, the report highlights the central role of water use in irrigated agriculture and its link with increasing water scarcity. An underlying framework of the analysis is the view of the water economy transitioning from an expansionary to a mature phase. The report further develops this framework to reflect water management issues in irrigated agriculture. The framework is then applied to make the case that, with increasing water scarcity, the ongoing efforts for improving agricultural water productivity and efficiency need to move beyond crop per drop approaches, because they are in many circumstances an insufficient and sometimes counterproductive attempt to adapt agricultural water management to a maturing water economy.Publication How to Assess Agricultural Water Productivity? Looking for Water in the Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency Literature(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-07)Given population and income growth, it is widely expected that the agricultural sector will have to expand the use of water for irrigation to meet rising food demand; at the same time, the competition for water resources is growing in many regions. As a response, it is increasingly recommended that efforts should focus on improving water productivity in agriculture, and significant public and private investments are being made with this goal in mind. Yet most public communications are vague on the meaning of agricultural water productivity, and on what should be done to improve it. They also tend to emphasize water as if it were the only input that mattered. This paper presents findings from a first attempt to survey the agricultural productivity and efficiency literature with regard to the explicit inclusion of water aspects in productivity and efficiency measurements, with the aim of contributing to the discussion on how to assess and possibly improve agricultural water productivity. The focus is on studies applying single-factor productivity measures, total factor productivity indices, frontier models, and deductive models that incorporate water. A key finding is that most studies either incorporate field- and basin-level aspects but focus only on a single input (water), or they apply a multi-factor approach but do not tackle the basin level. It seems that no study on agricultural water productivity has yet presented an approach that accounts for multiple inputs and basin-level issues. However, deductive methods do provide the flexibility to overcome many of the limitations of the other methods.Publication Assessing the Direct Economic Effects of Reallocating Irrigation Water to Alternative Uses : Concepts and an Application(2011-09-01)Irrigation water reallocations are playing an increasingly important role in both developed and developing countries. With growing urban and environmental water demands, rising costs for the development of new water supplies, and irrigated agriculture usually including the least economically valuable use of water, transfers of irrigation water to alternative uses are increasing. However, such reallocations are often controversial, and it is often questioned whether the benefits resulting from these transactions are large enough to outweigh the associated costs. This paper reviews the experience with irrigation water transfers, including the involvement of the World Bank. It discusses the problems of assessing the direct economic effects of reallocations, with a focus on the foregone direct benefits in irrigated agriculture. Because foregone direct benefits cannot easily be directly observed, they need to be estimated. However, assessments have shown widely differing estimates -- even when the same methodology was used. The paper reviews the methodologies and model specifications used for estimating foregone direct benefits; illustrates the impact of different model specifications on the magnitude of estimates of foregone direct benefits based on an application in an example case; and draws conclusions with regard to future efforts in assessing reallocation effects, including calculating adequate compensation for farmers. Because estimating the direct benefits of irrigation expansion is methodologically equivalent to estimating foregone direct benefits from reduced irrigation water supplies, the findings have implications for a broader range of water allocation decisions.Publication Improving Wastewater Use in Agriculture : An Emerging Priority(2010-09-01)Wastewater use in agriculture is a growing practice worldwide. Drivers include increasing water stress, in part due to climate change; increasing urbanization and growing wastewater flows; and more urban households engaged in agricultural activities. The problem with this trend is that in low-income countries, but also in many middle-income countries, it either involves the direct use of untreated wastewater or the indirect use of polluted waters from rivers that receive untreated urban discharges. This poses substantial risks, in particular microbial risks to public health. To address these risks, the World Health Organization in 2006 issued new guidelines for the safe use of wastewater.This paper aims to highlight the growing importance of improving wastewater use in agriculture across the spectrum from lower to high-income countries. It presents an innovative approach linking key issues related to different aspects of wastewater irrigation to a country s level of economic development. Based on data presented in the World Bank s World Development Report, it differentiates between four country income levels to create a typology for analyzing current issues, trends, and priorities for improving agricultural wastewater use with a focus on reducing the risks to public health. It also presents the basic principles of the new 2006 World Health Organization Guidelines, and how to apply them. Beyond regulatory aspects, the paper also discusses other aspects that are important for achieving a more integrated approach to agricultural wastewater use, including institutional/planning, technological, economic/financial, and social issues. Finally, the paper provides recommendations for moving the wastewater irrigation agenda forward.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2024: Better Education for Stronger Growth(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-17)Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is likely to moderate from 3.5 percent in 2023 to 3.3 percent this year. This is significantly weaker than the 4.1 percent average growth in 2000-19. Growth this year is driven by expansionary fiscal policies and strong private consumption. External demand is less favorable because of weak economic expansion in major trading partners, like the European Union. Growth is likely to slow further in 2025, mostly because of the easing of expansion in the Russian Federation and Turkiye. This Europe and Central Asia Economic Update calls for a major overhaul of education systems across the region, particularly higher education, to unleash the talent needed to reinvigorate growth and boost convergence with high-income countries. Universities in the region suffer from poor management, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding and infrastructure. A mismatch between graduates' skills and the skills employers are seeking leads to wasted potential and contributes to the region's brain drain. Reversing the decline in the quality of education will require prioritizing improvements in teacher training, updated curricula, and investment in educational infrastructure. In higher education, reforms are needed to consolidate university systems, integrate them with research centers, and provide reskilling opportunities for adult workers.Publication World Development Report 1987(New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)This report, consisting of two parts, is the tenth in the annual series assessing development issues. Part I reviews recent trends in the world economy and their implications for the future prospects of developing countries. It stresses that better economic performance is possible in both industrial and developing countries, provided the commitment to economic policy reforms is maintained and reinforced. In regard to the external debt issues, the report argues for strengthened cooperation among industrial countries in the sphere of macroeconomic policy to promote smooth adjustment to the imbalances caused by external payments (in developing countries). Part II reviews and evaluates the varied experience with government policies in support of industrialization. Emphasis is placed on policies which affect both the efficiency and sustainability of industrial transformation, especially in the sphere of foreign trade. The report finds that developing countries which followed policies that promoted the integration of their industrial sector into the international economy through trade have fared better than those which insulated themselves from international competition.Publication World Development Report 2011(World Bank, 2011)The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Unlocking Africa's Agricultural Potential(Washington, DC, 2013-04)Transforming agriculture in Africa is not simply about helping Africa; it is essential for ensuring global food security. But Africa s agriculture is also of critical importance when it comes to meeting the world s future needs for food and fiber. With the global population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, food security producing enough food of sufficient quality and making it accessible and affordable for consumers around the world is one of the most important policy objectives .The United Nations estimates that global food demand will double by 2050, with much of that growth driven by developing countries. The world will then need to feed 2.3 billion more people, and given the deep transformation of growth trajectories in low-income countries, these populations will be increasingly affluent and will demand more, different, and better food. But how will the world meet this additional demand? Given Africa s productive potential, it must be a key contributor to feeding the world in the future. But to fully realize that potential will require overcoming many obstacles through innovative and transformative approaches.