How do societies reform their agricultural water management towards new priorities for water, agriculture, and the environment?

Abstract

Concerns about sustainability, climate change and increasing inter-sectoral competition for water and land are pressing societies to set a new course in economic development, agriculture, water distribution and the environment. Although changes in societal priorities are an important driver of agricultural water management reform, the extent of reform is constrained by social and biophysical limits. Existing frameworks offer limited insight how reforms in agricultural water management accommodate shifted societal priorities, and how these reforms might unfold across policy domains, farming practices and land and water resources. In this paper, we define the concept of “reorientation” as a shift in broader societal priorities that drives reform of agricultural water management. We discuss 21 reorientation examples around the world. The examples reveal much diversity in the starting point of a reorientation, the degree to which a reorientation has unfolded, the role of governments, and the scales involved in a reorientation. We end the paper with a call for analytical frameworks and empirical studies to generate insights how societies reform their agricultural water management towards ambitious sustainable production and consumption modes.