Current agricultural water management practices, characterised by overuse in some countries and underuse in others, can only sustainably support food production for less than half the global population, a new report from the World Bank Group warns.

The ‘Nourish and flourish: Water solutions to feed ten-billion people on a livable planet’ report points out that, by 2050, ten-billion people will need to be fed.

Addressing both overuse, which depletes water in stressed regions, and underuse, which leaves available water and productive capacity untapped in water-abundant regions, will be essential to meet that demand sustainably, the report highlights.

“The way we manage water for food will have profound implications for jobs, livelihoods and economic growth. “By making smarter choices about where crops are grown, how water is allocated and how trade supports food security, we can strengthen resilience, expand opportunity and safeguard the resources which we all rely on,” says World Bank Group MD and chief knowledge officer Paschal Donohoe.

The report introduces a new framework for agricultural water management that links water availability with food production and trade.

“By categorising countries based on water stress and their food import or export status, the framework helps identify where expanding rainfed agriculture can increase food production, where irrigation investment can unlock jobs and growth, where water use must be rebalanced to protect ecosystems and future productivity, and where trade offers a more sustainable path than local production.”

While rebalancing water use across the global food system is key to meeting future food demand sustainably, the report indicates that it could also generate 245- million long-term jobs, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

However, realising these outcomes will require stronger private-sector participation and financing, alongside public investment, supported by effective policies, institutions and regulations to boost food production, create jobs and support sustainable growth.

“Public funding alone cannot deliver the sustained services, innovation and scale needed to expand irrigation, improve performance and maintain results,” says Donohoe.

Farmers, the primary users of irrigation and its main investors, are already willing to co- invest when access to finance, quality equipment, markets and digital tools reduces the risks and transaction costs they face.

“When investment in infrastructure and natural resources, business-enabling policies, and private capital mobilisation come together, the impact can be greater than the sum of its parts,” says World Bank Group VP for Planet Guangzhe Chen.

“By linking global evidence with country realities, this framework can help policymakers navigate trade-offs and adapt food production to [current] water and climate realities, delivering food, jobs and resilience together.”

Expanding irrigation where water is available and modernising existing systems are estimated to require an additional $24-billion to $70-billion a year until 2050.

According to the report, governments already spend about $490-billion a year on agricultural support, mostly in the form of subsidies.

Redirecting a portion of current spending, combined with regulatory reform, blended finance, and public-private partnerships, will crowd in private capital, including co- investment by farmers, and support financially sustainable water and food security.

The World Bank Group works with countries, companies, partners and people to translate these insights into action by combining policy reform, public investment and private capital to strengthen food systems, create jobs and protect natural resources.

It has committed to doubling yearly agribusiness financing to $9-billion by 2030 and mobilising an additional $5-billion a year under the AgriConnect initiative to help smallholders move from subsistence to surplus.

Through the Water for Food and Water for the Planet pillars of its Water Strategy Implementation Plan, the World Bank Group addresses the twin challenges of water and food security by strengthening food production systems and improving farmer livelihoods.