Irrigation to alleviate
hunger and poverty
I
Felix Reinders
Agricultural Research Council-Institute for Agricultural Engineering
rigated agriculture is one of the important
components of the world food security
together with nutrition and plays a major
role in the reduction of rural poverty. The
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of
United Nations has three main goals which are:
(i) the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and
malnutrition; (ii) the elimination of poverty and the
driving forward of economic and social progress
for all; and (iii) the sustainable management and
utilization of natural resources, including land,
water, air, climate and genetic resources for the
benefit of present and future generations.
FAO define food security as follows: “When all
people at all times have access to sufficient, safe
and nutritious food to meet dietary needs for a
healthy and active life”. The challenge is to achieve
a sustainable food system, which allows increased
food production while reducing poverty and
hunger and over-exploitation of natural resources.
The benefits of irrigation can be attributed to
greater production, higher yields, sustainable
intensification, reduced reliance on weather
conditions, lower risk, and increased farming
activity year-round.
It is estimated that there are 702 million people,
or 9.6 percent of the global population, living in
extreme poverty in 2015, based on the new 1.90
USD/day threshold, down from 902 million people,
or 12.8 percent of the global population in 2012
(World Bank 2015).
Internationally, food security has slowly, but
markedly, improved during the past years.
The 2013 Global Food Security Index (Figure
1) provides a worldwide perspective on which
countries are the most and least vulnerable to
food insecurity.
Figure 1: Food security index 2013 (The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited)
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