Globally, 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity. An estimated 2 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, and more than 820 million people face hunger. Water and food and nutrition security are intrinsically linked. Future demands for water for food are threatened by climate change, technological development, urbanisation, rising global population and incomes. There must be an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems, and production to attain food and nutrition security. Currently, agriculture consumes an estimated 85–90% of freshwater resources in Africa. There is a need to encourage policy-makers, researchers and farmers to co-design appropriate models and technologies to improve water productivity for food and nutrition security. However, a limitation to the realisation of water and food security has been the availability of contextualised information on new knowledge, innovations, and applications.

This webinar seeks to initiate a conversation on the synthesis of existing knowledge, case studies and best practices related to agricultural water use and water productivity from the global South and other key global regions.