KEY POINTS
- The World Bank Group has released a major report titled “Nourish and Flourish: Water Solutions to Feed 10 Billion People on a Livable Planet.”
- The report warns that current water management only supports food for less than half the world’s population, calling for a global rebalancing of agricultural water use.
- Strategic water management could generate up to 245 million long-term jobs, with a significant impact expected in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- To bridge the gap, an estimated $24 billion to $70 billion in annual investment is required through 2050 to modernise and expand irrigation systems.
MAIN STORY
The World Bank Group was reported to have issued a call on Thursday for a global rebalancing of water use in agriculture to meet future food demands sustainably. According to a statement from the World Bank Online Media Briefing Centre, the new report emphasizes that addressing both excessive water use in stressed regions and inadequate utilization in water-abundant areas is critical.
The bank projected that by 2050, the global food system must be capable of feeding 10 billion people, a feat currently impossible under existing management practices.
The report introduced a framework linking water availability with food production and trade, categorizing countries by their water stress levels and trade status. Mr. Paschal Donohoe, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer of the World Bank Group, was quoted as saying that the management of water for food has profound implications for jobs and economic growth.
The framework identifies where expanding rain-fed agriculture can boost production and where irrigation investments can unlock growth, particularly in regions like Africa where water is abundant but underutilized.
Furthermore, the World Bank stressed that public funding alone is insufficient to meet the required investment scale. Mr. Guangzhe Chen, Vice-President for Planet, noted that while governments already spend about $490 billion annually on agricultural subsidies, redirecting a portion of this could “crowd in” private capital. The Bank remains committed to doubling its annual agribusiness financing to $9 billion by 2030 and mobilizing an additional $5 billion annually through its AgriConnect initiative to support smallholder farmers.
THE ISSUES
The report identifies a dual crisis: overuse in some countries leads to ecological collapse, while underuse in others results in poverty and food insecurity. A major hurdle is the current subsidy model, where billions are spent on support that does not necessarily promote water efficiency. The World Bank argues that without a shift toward blended finance and public-private partnerships, the innovation required to modernize irrigation and protect ecosystems will remain out of reach.
WHAT’S BEING SAID
- “The way we manage water for food will have profound implications for jobs, livelihoods, and economic growth,” stated Paschal Donohoe.
- “Public funding alone would be insufficient to deliver the innovation and scale required to expand irrigation,” the World Bank report noted.
- “By making smarter choices about where crops are grown… we can strengthen resilience and safeguard critical resources,” Donohoe added.
BOTTOM LINE
The Bottom Line is that the world is running out of “easy” water for food. By demanding a rebalance of how water is allocated and traded, the World Bank is signaling that the era of inefficient agricultural subsidies must end to make way for a $70 billion-a-year modernization plan that treats water as a finite economic asset.
