The Borlaug Blog

Every year, the month of March fills me with hope. As a woman of color, working on solving the world's water problems, March lets me celebrate two causes that I am absolutely passionate about: those of women and water. This March, however, is also bittersweet. It has been exactly a year since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our daily lives and offered us an early glimpse of how bleak our future could be if we don’t take timely climate action. Yet, today, as my parents get their first COVID-19 vaccination shots, I am again filled with hope that humanity can solve most of the world’s seemingly intractable problems if only we put our hearts and minds into it. And that’s exactly what our World Food Prize Laureates are urging our governments to do through this open letter– to eradicate hunger and poverty – through timely, concerted action.

In the context of the global challenges of climate change and food insecurity, I want to focus our attention on the centrality of water in solving our challenges. First, the impacts of water insecurity--simply expressed as too little, too much, too dirty, and water at the wrong place and the wrong time--has been felt by a majority of the world’s population. More than 4 billion people are already water insecure, and climate change is projected to exacerbate it further. Water insecure farmers are also food insecure farmers. 

Second, impacts of climate change on various components of the hydrological cycle are affecting all major water use sectors. Agriculture is particularly affected, given it is the largest consumptive user of water. Climate related disruptions in agriculture also have deep societal impacts as they threaten employment and livelihoods for over two-thirds of the populations in low-income countries, and threaten food security for all. 

Third, water related hazards, such as droughts and floods, disproportionately affect farmers and cause disruption in their production cycle. It is therefore not surprising that the majority of adaptation interventions are also water-related. Irrigation, soil water moisture conservation, in-situ water harvesting, construction of small water storage structures, water saving technologies, adoption of solar irrigation pumps, etc. are some of the most common adaptation strategies used by farmers around the world. This is also reflected well in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) pledges by a large majority of countries globally, where water related adaptation interventions feature prominently. CGIAR centers like IWMI play an important role in devising these water resilient solutions in partnership with farmers.

Yet, much of the adaptation action in agriculture remains incremental and does not reduce climate and related risks adequately. How do we make these actions transformative? Transformative adaptation aims to tackle the root causes of vulnerability, that has its origins in deep rooted exclusion, discrimination and colonial history of the countries in the Global South. This is where concepts of gender, equity and inclusion become important in tackling root causes of vulnerability. While all farmers today are facing climate impacts in their day-to-day lives, evidence is unequivocal that these impacts are being felt disproportionately by women farmers, Indigenous farmers and farmers from minority communities in many countries, because they do not often have assured land rights or needed social safety nets. Transformative adaptation in the water and food sector therefore also entails changes in existing power structures by making sure that traditionally excluded communities, like women, Indigenous people and ethnic minorities, have a say in the decision-making processes. As we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th of March and World Water Day on 22nd March, let us remind ourselves again about the importance of women and water in solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges like climate change.

March is also the birth month of Dr. Norman Borlaug – the father of Green Revolution – and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, which he was awarded for his contribution towards eradicating world hunger through enhancing crop productivity. As we stare at the climate crisis which is already upon us and affecting our daily lives (think of those forest fires in the U.S. and Australia, or those hurricanes and cyclones in the Pacific or Bay of Bengal), it is a timely reminder that there can be no halt in our march towards a world that is free of poverty and hunger. As scientists in the CGIAR system, we play an important role in this mission.