Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Land and Water Division

AQUASTATFAO’s global information system

on water and agricultureby

Karen FRENKENCoordinator for the AQUASTAT Programme

Twenty-first Session of the African Commission on Agricultural StatisticsAccra, Ghana, 28-31 October 2009

ObjectiveTo provide users interested in global, regional and national analysis with the most accurate, reliable, consistent and up-to date information available on water resources and agricultural water management

Water withdrawal

by sectorin Africa

Agriculture86%

Municipalities10%

Industry4%

Water and agriculture

Litres per day per capita

Essential Abundant

Drinking 2 4

Domestic 40 400

Food (evapotranspiration) 1 000 5 000

Some key questions• Is there enough water to feed the world

in the near future (water balance, competition with other sectors)?

• What are the performances of the irrigation sector? How do they change with time?

• How does irrigation contribute to food security and to the achievement of the MDGs and WSSD targets?

• What is the impact of irrigation on the environment?

Country surveys

Dissemination - Web, publications, CD-rom

← Water resources and irrigation master plans← National yearbooks, statistics and reports← Expert information - questionnaire

→ Data→ Country profiles, regional synthesis→ Spatial data→ Thematic studies

Literature review

Critical analysis & data processing – Database management system

Standardization

Feedback and approval fromnational authorities/institutions

Modeled data – GIS and RS

Use

r fe

edba

ck

How information is gathered in AQUASTAT

Thematic research

Comments provided by experts/institutions

AQUASTAT productsDatabaseCountry profilesRegional overviewsMaps and GIS productsWater resourcesAgricultural water useInstitutionsGlossaryPublications

The database and the variables

Category Number of variables

Geography and population 11Climate and water resources 13Water use 20Irrigation and drainage 27Environment and health 4Total 75

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/dbase/index.stm

Only very few are being dealt with by agriculture or statistics offices

AQUASTAT Database Query

AQUASTAT Database Query

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/data/query/index.html

Area under agricultural water management

Area equipped for irrigation Area with other forms of agricultural water management

Area equipped forfull control irrigation

Equippedlowlands

Spateirrigation

Non-equipped flood recession

Non-equipped cultivatedwetlands and inland

valley bottomsSurface

Sprinkler

Localized

Equipped wetlands and inland valley bottoms

Equippedflood recession

Other

Variables in the white areas are available in the AQUASTAT database

Irrigation and water management

2010 World Census of AgricultureTheme 2: Irrigation and water

managementIssues to consider in particular:• Area equipped for irrigation versus actually irrigated

area• Physical area under irrigation versus cropped area under

irrigation to determine irrigated cropping intensity CIirr

• Different water control types: full control irrigation, partial control irrigation, other form of water management

• Informal, urban, and peri-urban irrigation; while the area can be considerable, it is often not captured in official statistics

• Source of irrigation water: surface water, groundwater, non-conventional sources; important for state of water resources

• Irrigated versus rainfed crop yield (global figure: irrigation covers 20% of cropland and contributes 40% to total production)

• Payment for water: per area, per volume, for O&M; important to know when talking about water scarcity and water saving

Page 83-86

Country profiles1. Geography, climate and population2. Economy, agriculture, food security3. Water resources and use4. Irrigation and drainage development5. Water management, policies and legislation

related to water use in agriculture6. Environment and health7. Prospects for agricultural water management8. Main sources of information

Regional overviews

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/index.stm

Institutions:Addresses and links to around 300 institutions in the field of agricultural water resources management, presented by country

Glossary:Definitions for around 300 terms related to water resources and agricultural water management, including terminology, origin, comments and typology in English, French and Spanish

Some challenges Sub-national level information Information by river basin Non-availability or unreliability

of some major indicators Definitions Data linked to reference Validation of data Ways to update and frequency Time series Information dissemination Sustainability of monitoring

process in relation to national monitoring capacities

Examples of AQUASTAT projects, workshops, research:

“Strengthening national water monitoring capacities with emphasis on agricultural water management”, in Benin and Ethiopia, Italian-funded

“Somalia water and land information management (SWALIM)”, EC-funded

“Capacity development on the integration of gender analysis in water and land tenure management”, in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Timor-Leste, Spanish-funded

Workshops on “Understanding and improving the methodologies used for the estimation of water resources and use”, in collaboration with regional organizations (ECOWAS, ECLAC, ESCAP, etc.), first one will be held in Santiago de Chile on 1-2/12/2009.

Collaboration with CAWTAR “Improvement of the collection, analysis and dissemination of gender disaggregated information related to water and agriculture” in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia

Capacity building

FAO’s global perspective studies “Agriculture towards 2015/30” and “Agriculture towards 2030/50”

The 3–yearly World Water Development Report (2003, 2006, 2009, next will be 2012)

Comprehensive assessment report on “Water for food, water for live: a comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture”.

MDG Water Indicator 7.5 “Proportion of renewable water resources used”

...

Data provider for international flagship

publications

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/maps/index.stm

Maps and GIS products

FAOSTAT on area equipped for irrigation, WCA 2010, global strategy for improvement of agricultural statistics

UNSD on standardization and harmonization of water-related data and definitions

UN-Water on the development of a UN Federated System on Key Indicators

University of Frankfurt and Bonn on the “Improvement of national and sub-national irrigation data”

GWSP on the preparation of a global map of dams and reservoirs

...

Collaboration with other information systems

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/maps/index.stm

http://www.fao.org/nr/aquastat

Thank you

Merci