Presented by Andrew Noble at World Water Week 2014 in Stockholm at the Workshop on Water, energy, food and ecosystem security

1. Ensuring Food Security: An
Ecosystems Approach
Andrew Noble
CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and
Ecosystems
September 2014

2. Contents
 The challenges of ensuring food security
 An ecosystem based approach – selected
examples.
 Concluding remarks.

3. Challenges to the Food
System
U N I T I N G A G R I C U LT U R E A N D N AT U R E F O R P O V E R T Y R E D U C T I O N

4. Challenges facing the global food system
Population
growth and
demographic
change
Rising average
incomes
Resource
competition and
scarcity

5. Challenges facing the global food system
Need to reduce
GHG emissions
Environmental
change

6. We need to change the way we do Agriculture
that builds Resilience into our food systems

7. Global Risks Report 2014, World Economic Forum
‘Water crisis’ is
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
the third
highest global
risk
..extreme weather,
climate change and
biodiversity loss also
very high

8. Sustainable intensification through an
ecosystems approach
The status quo: Ecosystems and
natural capital are wholly
owned subsidiaries of our
agricultural production
systems.
The paradigm shift: Agricultural
production systems are a
wholly owned subsidiary of the
ecosystems and natural capital
they are dependent upon.

9. What would sustainable intensification look like?
 Maintain downstream flows
and water quality
 Minimal off-site movement of
pollutants
 Utilize natural infrastructure for
water storage, flood prevention
 Maintain habitat for pollinators
and conserve biodiversity,
forest cover and grasslands
 Sequester carbon to improve
soils and mitigate climate
change
 Maximize energy efficiency,
minimize water consumption,
resource reuse.
 ….

10. Towards an Ecosystems
Based Approach
U N I T I N G A G R I C U LT U R E A N D N AT U R E F O R P O V E R T Y R E D U C T I O N

11. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND RESILIENCE
Understand trade-offs and synergies, both short and long term, on how mixed use
landscapes can be managed for their multi-functionality.
Managing floodplains for livelihoods in Bangladesh
 Almost 30% of Bangladesh fish
come from flood plains.
 Building community based
organizations to increase fish
production using ecosystem
based approaches.
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
 Led to increases in catches and
important livelihood benefits to
landless farmers.
 Improved rice production using
less fertilizer and water.

12. Multiple use of reservoirs
Making use of the drawdown area in HP dams can
have positive impacts on food production.
Constructed wetlands provides refuges for fish and
other aquatic species

13. Draw Down Agriculture in Yali Falls
Energy – Agriculture Nexus
 Drawdown area of Yali reservoir is
used by farmers to grow cassava, but:
- risk of flooding is high at the end of the crop
season
- duration on land exposure is too short to
achieve maximum yield with the commonly
used variety (KM 94)
 Trials in the area on new cassava
variety KM98-7 with short crop duration
produced positive results:
• Increase yield and starch content
- 32 tons/ha vs 21 tons/ha
- 26% starch vs 21% starch
• Increased net benefit over $350
USD/ha to $850 USD/ha

14. Resource Recovery and Reuse – opportunities from
urbanization
Using solid waste from on site sanitation:
• Closing the nutrient loop and associated energy savings
from fertilizers.
• Can be converted to energy.
• Saves considerable energy in the treatment of these
sludge.
• Food security for the poor.

15. Introducing business models to turn waste into
an asset
 Solid waste and fecal sludge
composting in Asia and Africa
could save billions of US$ per
year, assuming a market for only
25% of the urban organic waste.
 Not a new concept, but many
pilots not viable or sustainable
Uniting agriculture  Business and nature models for poverty for resource
reduction
recovery & reuse (RRR) target
private and public investors and
business schools.

16. Waste Water in peri-urban agriculture
Water Energy Nexus
benefits:
Energy reduction in: Water
treatment, chemical fertilizer
production and transport.
Environmental benefits:
Reduced pollution of water
bodies, reduced nitrogen and
phosphorous demand,
reduced GHG emissions.
Improved food nutrition and
security

17. REVITALIZING DEGRADED ECOSYSTEMS
Reduce land degradation and increase resilience of small scale farming
communities in sub-Saharan Africa and other hot spots across the globe.
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) for amelioration of salt-affected
soils and income generation, Uzbekistan
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Uniting agriculture and nature 2009 2010 for 2011 2012 poverty 2013
reduction
Net income, USD/ha
Net profit from Licorice production
Natural conditions
Cultivated crop
Salt-affected soils in Syr Darya, Uzbekistan, 2005
Growing licorice on abandoned salt-affected soils can:
 Ameliorate salt-affected soils
 Return them to productive use
 Improve fertility of soils
 Generate high income for poor farmers

18. Managing resource variability and competing uses
Assist decision makers to reconcile natural variability, competition among sectors and
trade-offs, and the importance of equitably sharing these resources
Ganges Aquifer Management for
Ecosystems Services (GAMES)
Resolves water variability by accelerating
surface–subsurface interactions
Process:
 Extract groundwater before monsoon
 Fill sub-surface storage using distributed
recharge mechanisms during the
monsoon
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
Results:
 Increased water for dry season irrigation
 Reduced downstream flood impact
 Increased river flow in the dry season

19. CONCLUDING REMARKS
 Food security will be contingent on
how we manage our natural resource
– business as usual is not tenable –
we need a paradigm shift.
 Urbanization and rural migration
offers an opportunity to implement an
ecosystems approach.
 There are no magic bullets or quick
fixes to the challenges we face.
 To achieve this will require greater
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
perseverance, behavior change,
hard decisions and political will.

20. Thank you
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