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September 06, 2018

Water footprint – Asia’s unique challenges and opportunities

by Raghavan ‘Ragha’ Sampathkumar

From the Yangtze to the Brahmaputra, through to the mighty Mekong, Asia has some of the biggest river ecosystems in the world. These rivers are the foundation of such an exceedingly varied biodiversity in the world, approximately 36 biodiversity hotspots, to be precise.

A report from the United Nations says, “around 200 million people in the Asia-Pacific region directly depend on the forest for their non-timber forest products, medicine, food, fuel as well as other subsistence needs. Biodiversity and ecosystem services contributed to rapid economic growth from 1990 to 2010, benefiting its more than 4.5 billion people.”
 


Yet, despite this, the region also is the largest with regards to population. It is one of the youngest also, which is leading to increase in food demand, particularly in favour of protein, and other high-value food products. All these demanding side-factors place enormous pressure on the supply-side of the food industry.

One example of this is palm oil, sourced from Malaysia and Indonesia. This product is often criticised for its ecological footprint and faces enormous challenges from the importing markets on account of environmental sustainability criteria. Water footprints are one of the most important parameters, not just for palm oil, but for all crops that are grown and exported from Asia, including rice and wheat. There are further challenges across three “Ps” viz, policies such as pricing; perception towards water and, of course, political concerns also playing a major role in the issue.

India also suffers from similar issues to Asia, yet they have rectified these issues somewhat, to ensure a profitable, efficient mode of production. India’s agricultural segment alone consumes approximately 80 percent of the country’s water use. But, in most of the provinces it is free, leading to rampant indiscriminate use.

Pricing policies must therefore be tweaked to adjust and set a minimal pricing for water, along with measures such as micro-irrigation, crop diversification, crop rotation, using varieties with improved agronomic traits can improve overall WUE.

Read the full article in the Milling and Grain magazine online, HERE.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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