Presented by IWMI's Alok Sikka at the 2016 Stockholm World Water Week, in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 31, 2016.

1. Building Climate Resilience into
Agricultural Water Management
Alok K Sikka
IWMI Representative-India
International Water Management Institute
New Delhi 1

2. Asia’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
• Asia-Heart of the hunger; about 525 million hungry people with the majority
being in farming households
• IPCC 5th Assessment Report observes climate change is already happening in
Asia and impacts are already being felt
• Average annual temperatures could rise by more than 2°C and more rainfall
likely at higher latitudes by mid 21st century
• More likelihood of extreme rainfall events related to monsoons
• Increased water related risks -drought, flood, hails, cyclones and related water
and food shortages.
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ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WGIIAR5-Chap24_FGDall.pdf

3. Climate Change and Asian Agriculture
• Asian agriculture is extremely vulnerable to
climate change due to low adaptive capacity,
increasing demand, degrading land and water
resources
• Impacts on food security will vary by region,
with many regions to experience a decline in
productivity
• The net cereal production in South Asian
countries is projected to decline at least
between 4 to 10% by the end of this century
• Agricultural water demand in arid and semi-
arid regions of Asia estimated to increase by
at least 10% for temperature increase of 1°C
• Building climate resilience through water and
land management is a major challenge
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Source: Rama Rao et al.,2016

4. Building Resilience - Key to
Sustainability
Capacity of a system to adapt & grow in the
face of unforeseen changes and bounce back
Resilience
Sustainability
Integrating NRM in climate
resilient farming system
Productivity
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NIRCA (National Institute on Climate Resilient Agriculture, ICAR)
CCAFS is promoting climate smart villages

5. Smart Interventions
• Building resilience by
enhancing storage (in situ,
surface and groundwater)
• Improving irrigation efficiency
and water productivity
• Laser land leveling, zero-
tillage & conservation
agriculture
• Conjunctive use of good and
poor quality GW / wastewater
• Crop diversification
• Water reform – policy,
governance and institutions
DSR
BBF CA
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6. • UTFI - an innovative approach to transfer flood
water to groundwater for irrigation:
opportunity for managing extreme events
• Drought monitoring & management
• South Asia Drought Monitoring System (SADMS)
uses multisource remote sensing observations
and Integrated Drought Severity Index (IDSI) for
– Historical drought risk mapping and assessment,
drought frequency, and duration;
– Useful in drought mitigation and decision-making
process
• Water budget based stakeholder groundwater
management
Smart Interventions – contd.
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utfi.iwmi.org
dms.iwmi.org

7. The Way Ahead
• Vulnerability assessment and risk mapping at micro level
• Demonstrate and promote locally appropriate climate resilient water
and land management practices in a farming system perspective
including institutional and policy options
• Early warning of droughts, floods and other climatic risks
• Develop Village/ Local Area climate risk and adaptation plans and its
integration into development programs
• Incentivize adoption of climate resilient interventions
• Internalization of climate scenarios in design and operation of water
infrastructures
• Strengthening of capacity for adaptation and mitigation
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8. Thank you
a.sikka@cgiar.org
See: http://iwmi.org
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