Climate Change, and Water and Food Security: Policies Within Water–Food–Energy Nexus

This chapter has attempted to focus on the effects of climate change that are likely to affect the food and water security needs of global community. We, as a global community of researchers and policy-makers, must initiate joint efforts to develop innovative technologies, values of good governance of collaboration rather than competition and globally acceptable policies to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Since agriculture is one of main contributors of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, agricultural community and food industry need to play a positive and supportive role in curbing greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide to the atmosphere. Farmers need to adopt carbon sequestration farming practices and cutting-edge tools to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. The development of climate-smart solutions including digital farming, improved plant technologies, innovative irrigation methods like drip irrigation, reduced tillage and good nutrient management practices for crop production will reduce agriculture’s impact on climate change. Digital tools and precision agriculture techniques to make on-site decisions to grow more food on less acreage, offering the potential to reduce the number of acres, are needed to feed a growing population. This chapter presents the results of two case studies, one conducted in India and second in the Midwestern part of the USA. These studies investigated the effect of climate change on crop productivity and water security. The results of both studies indicated that future research needs to focus on optimizing input use efficiency to sustain natural resources for attaining food and water security. Elevated CO2 emissions from agriculture and increasing temperatures should become the focus of future research to mitigate climate change. On-farm management systems (tillage, crop rotations, irrigation practices, and nutrient and pest management) and resource conservation technologies need to be developed for local landscapes in different regions of the world. Incentive-based policies need to be developed for the adoption of future farming and water use systems, and innovative practices must be shared among countries to assure food security.