Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability
Water is a major factor limiting crop production in many regions around the world. Irrigation can greatly enhance crop yields, but the local availability and timing of freshwater resources constrains the ability of humanity to increase food production. Innovations in irrigation infrastructure have a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aadeef |
| _version_ | 1797748114517393408 |
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| author | Lorenzo Rosa Maria Cristina Rulli Kyle Frankel Davis Davide Danilo Chiarelli Corrado Passera Paolo D’Odorico |
| author_facet | Lorenzo Rosa Maria Cristina Rulli Kyle Frankel Davis Davide Danilo Chiarelli Corrado Passera Paolo D’Odorico |
| author_sort | Lorenzo Rosa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Water is a major factor limiting crop production in many regions around the world. Irrigation can greatly enhance crop yields, but the local availability and timing of freshwater resources constrains the ability of humanity to increase food production. Innovations in irrigation infrastructure have allowed humanity to utilize previously inaccessible water resources, enhancing water withdrawals for agriculture while increasing pressure on environmental flows and other human uses. While substantial additional water will be required to support future food production, it is not clear whether and where freshwater availability is sufficient to sustainably close the yield gap in cultivated lands. The extent to which irrigation can be expanded within presently rainfed cropland without depleting environmental flows remains poorly understood. Here we perform a spatially explicit biophysical assessment of global consumptive water use for crop production under current and maximum attainable yield scenarios assuming current cropping practices. We then compare these present and anticipated water consumptions to local water availability to examine potential changes in water scarcity. We find that global water consumption for irrigation could sustainably increase by 48% (408 km ^3 H _2 O yr ^−1 )—expanding irrigation to 26% of currently rainfed cultivated lands (2.67 × 10 ^6 km ^2 ) and producing 37% (3.38 × 10 ^15 kcal yr ^−1 ) more calories, enough to feed an additional 2.8 billion people. If current unsustainable blue water consumption (336 km ^3 yr ^−1 ) and production (1.19 × 10 ^15 kcal yr ^−1 ) practices were eliminated, a sustainable irrigation expansion and intensification would still enable a 24% increase in calorie (2.19 × 10 ^15 kcal yr ^−1 ) production. Collectively, these results show that the sustainable expansion and intensification of irrigation in selected croplands could contribute substantially to achieving food security and environmental goals in tandem in the coming decades. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:00:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2ec014efebdd4d9bbf96e92aae3a9beb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:00:22Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-2ec014efebdd4d9bbf96e92aae3a9beb2023-08-09T14:38:17ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262018-01-01131010400210.1088/1748-9326/aadeefClosing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainabilityLorenzo Rosa0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1280-9945Maria Cristina Rulli1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9694-4262Kyle Frankel Davis2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4504-1407Davide Danilo Chiarelli3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4707-3018Corrado Passera4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2176-4037Paolo D’Odorico5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0007-5833Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California , Berkeley, CA 94720, United States of AmericaDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan I-20133, ItalyThe Nature Conservancy, New York, NY 10001, United States of America; The Earth Institute, Columbia University , New York, NY 10025, United States of America; Data Science Institute, Columbia University , New York, NY 10025, United States of AmericaDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan I-20133, ItalyDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan I-20133, ItalyDepartment of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California , Berkeley, CA 94720, United States of AmericaWater is a major factor limiting crop production in many regions around the world. Irrigation can greatly enhance crop yields, but the local availability and timing of freshwater resources constrains the ability of humanity to increase food production. Innovations in irrigation infrastructure have allowed humanity to utilize previously inaccessible water resources, enhancing water withdrawals for agriculture while increasing pressure on environmental flows and other human uses. While substantial additional water will be required to support future food production, it is not clear whether and where freshwater availability is sufficient to sustainably close the yield gap in cultivated lands. The extent to which irrigation can be expanded within presently rainfed cropland without depleting environmental flows remains poorly understood. Here we perform a spatially explicit biophysical assessment of global consumptive water use for crop production under current and maximum attainable yield scenarios assuming current cropping practices. We then compare these present and anticipated water consumptions to local water availability to examine potential changes in water scarcity. We find that global water consumption for irrigation could sustainably increase by 48% (408 km ^3 H _2 O yr ^−1 )—expanding irrigation to 26% of currently rainfed cultivated lands (2.67 × 10 ^6 km ^2 ) and producing 37% (3.38 × 10 ^15 kcal yr ^−1 ) more calories, enough to feed an additional 2.8 billion people. If current unsustainable blue water consumption (336 km ^3 yr ^−1 ) and production (1.19 × 10 ^15 kcal yr ^−1 ) practices were eliminated, a sustainable irrigation expansion and intensification would still enable a 24% increase in calorie (2.19 × 10 ^15 kcal yr ^−1 ) production. Collectively, these results show that the sustainable expansion and intensification of irrigation in selected croplands could contribute substantially to achieving food security and environmental goals in tandem in the coming decades.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aadeefwater-energy-food nexussustainabilityirrigationcrop yield gapsfood productionenvironmental flows |
| spellingShingle | Lorenzo Rosa Maria Cristina Rulli Kyle Frankel Davis Davide Danilo Chiarelli Corrado Passera Paolo D’Odorico Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability Environmental Research Letters water-energy-food nexus sustainability irrigation crop yield gaps food production environmental flows |
| title | Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability |
| title_full | Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability |
| title_fullStr | Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability |
| title_short | Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability |
| title_sort | closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability |
| topic | water-energy-food nexus sustainability irrigation crop yield gaps food production environmental flows |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aadeef |
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