Water in the Green Economy - Global Water Partnership

PERSPECTIVES PAPERBox 6: Achieving green growth – the roleof food securityIn sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 80% ofthe population are smallholder farmers, with fewexceptions all the effort and investment bygovernments and development agencies over thepast 50 years have failed to improve productivityand stimulate growth in agriculture. Attentionhas focused on improving seed varieties, usingfertilizers, and building agricultural extensionservices and on restoring water and ecosystemsto reverse anthropogenic damage. But farmersrarely adopt productivity enhancing technologieswhen the links to cash markets are poor. So thereare few incentives to grow more than householdneeds and in such circumstances people becometrapped in subsistence farming and in poverty.Pushing productivity is necessary but notsufficient. It is equally important to considerhow to deal with crops once they are harvested;how to develop agricultural value chains whichlink farmers and consumers; how to improvepostharvest handling, value addition processing,and develop thriving and profitable market-drivenfood sectors. These are the ‘pull’ factors whichdrive most modern market economies and in turndrive productivity and growth. Fewer farmers maybe needed as productivity increases but morepeople will be needed to work along the valuechain. So employment shifts from farming toagriculture in its broadest sense. In the UK forexample, less than 4% of the population work infarming whereas up to 25% work in the foodindustry. The opportunities are there and the twinpressures of scarce water resources and agrowing consumer demand for safe, quality foodproducts with sound provenance can provide theconditions for both growth and sustainabledevelopment – the very essence of the greeneconomy.Kilimo Trust, 2012River basins are a natural and logical place for spatialplanning and making visible upstream/downstreameffects on resource use. Stimulating business developmentwill require a trans-disciplinary approach whichbrings together the different sectors and stakeholderlevels. By focusing on responsible business developmentthis would encourage ‘river basin developmentand management planning’ rather than the moretraditional focus on water and ‘river basin managementplanning’. This would bring together privateinvestors to work with spatial planners and watermanagers in a more constructive dialogue. Thedevelopment of new business could be guided by theparticipatory processes of IWRM. This would enablebusinesses to assess the reliability of available waterresources from an investment perspective and wouldenable planners to elaborate strategies for managingdrought and flood risks and indicate clear limitationsfor investors.However, moving from a conservative approach tosustainability to something more dynamic will requirea strong and flexible framework to guide developmentinitiatives. Froebrich (2011) suggests using the IWRMapproach together with ‘Basis-Boost-Balance’ as auseful framework for achieving growth (Box 8).Such frameworks are in their infancy and whateveremerges, for the developing world boosting innovationand business must be at the centre of development.Tools will be needed to quantify the magnitude ofproduction upstream with restrictions downstream ina manner that is easily communicated to stakeholders,decision makers, and planners. Shared understandingand agreements between business development and10