Water use

Rice fields in Seville, Spain. Agriculture uses 70% of globally available fresh water; preserving water quality and conserving available supplies are a top priority for agriculture.
Rice fields in Seville, Spain. Agriculture uses 70% of globally available fresh water; preserving water quality and conserving available supplies are a top priority for agriculture.

Water pressure

"The biggest pressure we will face is growing food for a growing world population, and we are going to need water to do that". - Tim Hess, Agro-Hydrologist at Cranfield University (UK).

 

Optimising the Water Supply

Agriculture uses 70% of the water extracted from ground and surface sources. About 20% of the world’s cropped area is irrigated, and this land produces 40% of food grown. It is vital that agricultural use of water is optimised, and that water draining from farmland does not contaminate water supplies.

It is expected that to meet food production needs in 2030, agricultural water withdrawal for irrigation will be approximately 14% higher than today.

Irrigation is essential to feeding the world. Although only 17% of the world's cropland is irrigated, it produces over 33% of our food, making it roughly two and a half times as productive as rain-fed agriculture.

 

Water use facts  

  • Developing country domestic water use: 20-50 litre/person.
  • European domestic water use: 200 l/person.
  • 1 kg of grain needs 1,000 litres of water to grow to maturity.
  • Typical US diet for one person requires about 5,400 litres of water.
  • On average, growing food takes 70 times as much water as used for domestic purposes.
  • Agriculture accounts for about 70% of all fresh water use globally (ie, it uses the same amount of water as 13 billion people would in their homes).
  • Percentage of world farmland irrigated: 1963 – 11.4%.
  • Percentage of world farmland irrigated: 2003 – 20.4%.