Managing water and agroecosystems for food security

Abstract

Abstract This book is the 10th volume in the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series. The book is structured to systematically show the relationships between ecosystems, water and food security, and to elaborate an ecosystem approach to sustainable agriculture. It contains chapters on the drivers of food security (Chapter 2) and provides analyses on ecosystems, agroecosystems, ecosystem services and their valuation (Chapters 3 and 4). Next, there is an analysis of the role of water in agriculture as well as analyses of water use and scarcity (Chapter 5). This is followed by discussions of the specific challenges in drylands (Chapter 6) and wetlands (Chapter 7); each of these chapters provides more insight into the reasons why an integrated ecosystem approach is required and what this should entail, giving practical recommendations for those vulnerable ecosystems. A discussion of the contributions that can be made by increased water productivity to a better joint management of agroecosystems and water follows in the next chapter (Chapter 8). Subsequently, Chapter 9 presents various approaches to the enhancement of ecosystem services in agriculture, with many concrete examples, while Chapter 10 provides more detail of the ecosystem approach to water management. Finally, the last chapter (Chapter 11) ends the book with a synthesis that embeds the key recommendations into a landscape approach, links this to ongoing initiatives and identifies knowledge gaps for further research.