Depletion and degradation of land and water
resources is posing serious challenges to
producing enough food and other agricultural
products to sustain livelihoods and meet the
needs of both rural and urban populations.
Since increased food production will have
to come from the same limited land and
water resources, the focus will have to be on
increasing agricultural and water productivity
with efficient and optimal use of available
resources. This will require adoption of
improved agriculture practices, bringing more
area under irrigation along with modernisation
of existing irrigation systems, institutional
reforms and strengthening of irrigated
agriculture. In this connection, the role of
more enabled Water Users’ Associations
(WUAs) in meeting increasing demands in the
face of more competitive and volatile markets
and increasing (frequencies and intensities)
extreme events induced by climate change will
be crucial.
Globally, about 40% of the world’s total food
supply comes from irrigated land and as the
population grows, demand for food will also
grow (See figure 4). Only a tiny minority of
the required increase in food production can
come from expanding development of arable
land, or by increasing the number and types of
crops grown per year. The remaining must be
met via yield increases and better water-use
efficiency.
Figure 4: Cultivated and irrigated areas in the world
The Fourth Industrial Revolution—a fusion of
cloud-connected technologies, Big Data, and
biotech—is changing the way we do business,
travel, communicate, and even how we eat
and produce food. The agriculture industry
has already seen two revolutions of its own,
with scientists and manufacturers dabbling in
mechanization, plant breeding, and genetics.
Now, this technological shift has sparked the
AgriKultuur |AgriCulture
rise of smart farms and what is being called
the Third Green Revolution. The term Green
Revolution refers to a series of research,
development, and technology transfers that
happened between the 1940s and the late
1970s. The initiatives involved:
• Development of high yielding varieties of
cereal grains
• Expansion of irrigation infrastructure
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