Mission and Vision
Free access to knowledge and communication are key to tackle the challenges of the future such as coping climate change and achieving food security by enhancing cooperation among water, agriculture and energy sector. Securing and further developing crucial knowledge with regard to agricultural water management in the context of climate change and food security and making this knowledge accessible to users worldwide is the mission of agriwaterpedia. Empowering practitioners and experts in development cooperation to make informed decisions and sharing their knowledge so that everyone can benefit from the wealth of experiences is the driver.
Agriwaterpedia is a knowledge platform under development so far, knowledge is currently entered by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH only.
It is envisaged in the future to facilitate knowledge sharing and communication with practitioners, water, agriculture and energy experts, universities, civil society, the public and private sector by empowering them to work cooperatively as one community to seize the opportunity to foster capacity building worldwide.
Agriwaterpedia aims to remove knowledge and communication barriers so that theoretical knowledge can benefit from the lessons learnt from practitioners and vice versa. Existing practical knowledge from the 90ties can be reflected with latest scientific insights to catalyze sustainable development in agricultural water management under the existing challenges of climate change and food security.
The agriwaterpedia community will be open to all organizations and individuals gathering information and exchange goals and ideals. As a Web 2.0 based social expert community agriwaterpedia will enable individuals, civil society, the private and public sector to enter into dialogue and to work cooperatively in a workspace, identify best practices and educate the public on agricultural water management for food security.
While focusing on these potentials that arise from a global cooperative approach, agriwaterpedia may become a sustainable, worldwide leading knowledge and working platform on agricultural water management for food security in climate change to tackle the water, energy and food security Nexus.
About agriwaterpedia
Water means life, and it is the most crucial factor – besides soil and energy – to produce food. Of all production factors, water will become one of the most limiting resources due to climate change and other man-made effects. This is critical in a world that faces further population growth while being confronted with diminishing resources. As of today, fresh water of good quality is scarce in many regions. Profound and in-depth expert knowledge is key to successfully safeguard the supply of water and develop sustainable solutions for its use, but sources of information are dispersed or not accessible at all.
Agriwaterpedia is an initiative to foster the provision of approaches and good practices and to draw data from experiences and lessons learnt from a variety of development countries. The platform is also an instrument to trigger communication and actively promote knowledge exchange.
Agriwaterpedia is a major step to close the knowledge gap and a tool to discuss strategies and challenges related with agricultural water use on a global scale. Initiated by GIZ, it was launched during World Water Week 2012 on 28 August 2012.
However, Agriwaterpedia is still under development. During this stage, you will be able to gather information and knowledge posted by GIZ and to use the working space to get in contact with other experts and share your views and experience.
It is envisaged to fully open the future wiki platform (internet based workingspace) where you will be able to write, create, revise and disseminate articles related to agricultural water management for food security under climate change with regard to development cooperation. The access to knowledge is fostering the nexus approach on water, energy and food security.
The platform is intended to secure crucial knowledge with regard to agricultural water management in the context of climate change and food security and make this knowledge accessible to users worldwide. It provides practitioners and experts in development cooperation with approaches and good practices and draws data from experiences and lessons learnt from a variety of development countries. The platform is also an instrument to trigger communication and actively promote knowledge exchange.
Agriwaterpedia aims at a better integration of expert knowledge for supporting knowledge transfer: for example, functioning approaches to agricultural water management are documented and can be discussed and further developed with relevant actors coming from partner governments, civil society, private industry and energy experts.
History of agriwaterpedia
Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of the global water consumption. Providing food security for the world’s 7 billion people clearly is one of the biggest challenges we are facing, and there are still 1 billion people that suffer from hunger and malnutrition. During the next 40 years, the world population will grow with additional 2 billion people. There is an increasing pressure on water due to a variety of factors. According to estimates recently released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), additional 50 to 60 per cent of water will be required by 2030 to meet the growing demand for the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel. In the future, more water will also be needed for human consumption as well as industrial production. On the other hand, the current consumption rate has to be significantly reduced by at least 10 per cent to safeguard ecosystems like wet lands and maintain the ecological status-quo. The most severe challenge will be posed by climate change, along which precipitation and consequently water availability will alter in many regions.
To meet these challenges, water smart solutions will be needed like water spreading weirs to increase water availability and reduce energy input while improving food security. In a world with growing population and a strong trend for urbanization, the NEXUS approach, interlinking water, energy and food security while supporting adaptation to and mitigation of climate change is strongly fostering solutions of this kind.
Sustainable solutions require knowledge. Until the early 1990ties, development cooperation collected highly valuable experiences in agricultural water use in abundance. These reports and documents are not electronically available and thus lack deployment by potential users throughout the world. In the meantime, the focus of development cooperation had increasingly shifted the focus away from agriculture and agricultural water use. As a result of this, fewer experts are doing research and working on these issues, and their extensive knowledge is hardly accessible. However, their know-how and in-depth knowledge is extremely valuable when adapted to today’s challenges such as climate change
2011 - It all started beginning of 2011 when GIZ embarked on the project to provide knowledge regarding “Efficient water use for food security under climate change” to the public and increase communication in the field of agricultural water use among stakeholders. Aiming at the involvement of practitioners, water, agriculture and energy experts, universities, civil society and the public and private sector, a knowledge platform with interactive tools was selected to enhance the exchange and common discussion on sectoral and intersectoral views. Based on the experiences and technical features of “energypedia ”, the knowledge platform was implemented.
2012 – agriwaterpedia is launched during the Stockholm World Water Week in August. Interested partners are invited to bring in their experiences shaping the website, voice their interest and gather potentials for future cooperation.
