Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Land and Water Division AQUASTAT FAO’s global information system on water and agriculture by Karen FRENKEN Coordinator for the AQUASTAT Programme Twenty-first Session of the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics Accra, Ghana, October 2009

Objective To 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 sector in Africa

Water and agriculture Litres per day per capitaEssentialAbundant Drinking 2 4 Domestic Food (evapotranspiration)

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 from national authorities/institutions Modeled data – GIS and RS User feedback How information is gathered in AQUASTAT Thematic research Comments provided by experts/institutions

AQUASTAT products Database Country profiles Regional overviews Maps and GIS products Water resources Agricultural water use Institutions Glossary Publications

The database and the variables Category Number of variables Geography and population11 Climate and water resources13 Water use20 Irrigation and drainage27 Environment and health 4 Total75 Only very few are being dealt with by agriculture or statistics offices

AQUASTAT Database Query

Area under agricultural water management Area equipped for irrigation Area with other forms of agricultural water management Area equipped for full control irrigation Equipped lowlands Spate irrigation Non-equipped flood recession Non-equipped cultivated wetlands and inland valley bottoms Surface Sprinkler Localized Equipped wetlands and inland valley bottoms Equipped flood recession Other Variables in the white areas are available in the AQUASTAT database Irrigation and water management

2010 World Census of Agriculture Theme 2: Irrigation and water management Issues 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 CI irr 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 profiles 1.Geography, climate and population 2.Economy, agriculture, food security 3.Water resources and use 4.Irrigation and drainage development 5.Water management, policies and legislation related to water use in agriculture 6.Environment and health 7.Prospects for agricultural water management 8.Main sources of information  Regional overviews

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

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

Thank you Merci