The Feminization of Agriculture

Male outmigration from rural, primary agricultural areas and the globalization of agri-food systems have both been linked to a significant increase in women’s work and responsibilities in agriculture, a phenomenon referred to as the ‘feminization of agriculture’. While the term has been broadly used to bring attention to the increasing number of women, relative to men, in agricultural employment, little attention has been paid to what the ‘feminization of agriculture’ means for women’s empowerment and their roles in agriculture more generally. Similarly, there is no clear understanding of how this will impact the agricultural sector and what the consequences for food and water security are. This chapter reviews the global evidence surrounding the “feminization of agriculture” and provides a critical discussion of the implications for women’s empowerment and for food and water security.

Managing Water for Food and Agricultural Transformation in Africa

This chapter examines the links between water, food and society in Africa. Agricultural transformation to promote growth, eliminate poverty and hunger and sustain ecosystems is one of the central pillars of current development agenda in Africa. Achievement of this agenda will crucially depend on sustainable water management. However, agri-food systems and water resources are under greater pressure than ever before due to demographic, economic and climatic changes. The nature and scale of these changes suggest that only a holistic and integrated management of all shades of water resources, green, blue and grey, will allow Africa to eliminate hunger and poverty. Research-based technical solutions as well as institutional and policy measures are proposed that would allow available water resources to be sustainably used to promote climate-resilient farming systems, improve agricultural productivity and food security and spur the development of viable food value chains needed for agricultural and rural transformation.

Circumventing Water Scarcity in the Jordan Basin

This chapter examines trends in water resources used in Jordan and Israel. Specifically it illustrates how these two economies have circumvented significant limits in their natural freshwater resource endowment to enable continued economic and population growth despite static or declining water availability. Using the concept of resource decoupling, it identifies four specific mechanisms by which economies can decouple their water needs from water availability, including economic diversification, food imports, agricultural water productivity, and nonconventional water resource development. Each of these mechanisms are illustrated for the two countries, including technical and political processes shaping their adoption. The chapter also critiques existing conceptualizations of decoupling relative to the water-specific model, highlighting the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of scarcity, flows, and substitutability of water at a global scale. Finally the chapter nests decoupling within the market modes framing this volume, before evaluating the risks and trade-offs inherent in decoupling strategies.

Food, Water and the Consequences of Society Not Valuing the Environment

The first purpose of this chapter is to highlight the impact of the food system on environmental and human health. The delivery of secure affordable food is a political imperative. Unfortunately, the food system that delivers it is environmentally blind. Food prices do not effectively reflect the value of food and often seriously mislead on the costs and impacts of food production. For example, actual food production takes place in a failed market—the value of environmental services such as water and the supporting ecosystems are not taken into account. The second purpose is to summarize and expose the political economy of the different ‘market’ modes of the food system. It is shown that there are weak players such as underrewarded and undervalued farmers who support society by producing food and stewarding our unvalued environment. The inadequacies of accounting systems are also critiqued.

Lab-Grown Meat

The alternative protein industry has attracted much media attention. It has become increasingly clear that current meat production systems are unsustainable except in grass-fed low-volume production systems. The new alternative meat industry seeks to introduce new technologies that produce ‘meat’ sustainably. By using IT-terms such as 1.0 to 4.0, this analysis classifies traditional herding and grazing systems as 1.0, feedlot production as meat 2.0, plant-based meat alternatives as meat 3.0, and cultured meat alternatives as meat 4.0. An overview of current developments in the meat 3.0 and 4.0 industries highlights the recent technological advances. The environmental and health benefits of meat 3.0 and 4.0 are discussed and the cultural and business implications. Finally, the consequences of meat 4.0 for a sustainable planet and its social foundations are revealed, identifying the billion livelihoods that depend on meat 1.0 and 2.0 production. The alternative protein industry could have disruptive effects as well as benefits to the planet and society.

Successes and Problems with Measuring Water Consumption in Beef Systems

Beef production is considered to have a large water footprint, with values ranging from 3.3 to 75,000 L H20/kg. The water consumption in beef production is primarily associated with feed, estimated to be about 98%, with other requirements representing less than 1%. However, beef production is a complex system where cattle are often raised in different areas using a range of resources over their lifetime. This complexity is demonstrated using three countries with very different environments and production systems, namely Australia, Brazil, and Kenya. To achieve efficient water use in beef systems, and food systems more generally, a classification system that reflects how animals are managed, slaughtered, and processed is required. Methods for assessing water use in livestock systems, from production to consumption, need to be standardized, whilst also including the alternative uses, multiple uses, and benefits of a certain resource in a specific location.

Cape Town’s Contested Hierarchy of Demand for Agricultural and Municipal Water in a Rainfed Economy 2017–2018

The article provides an analysis of the stakeholders involved in policy decision making on water utilization, especially during the Water Crisis of 2017–2018. It looks at this through the prism of the meetings and key informants of the South African Parliament Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, the City of Cape Town Council and the farmers of the Western Cape. It also considers the effects of the prioritization of the use of water for drinking water and sanitation over agriculture. The South Africa water policy principles set by its Constitution and the Acts of 1996–1997 provide a comparator.

Integrating Multi-Capital Thinking into Business Decisions

The global business system has had deep and problematic impacts on humankind through its focus on maximizing the short-term return on financial capital. The most severe impacts are human-induced climate change, biodiversity loss and grotesque inequality between the rich and poor. A group of companies and investors have co-created a broader model, called integrated reporting, that explores how companies create and destroy value for multiple stakeholders in the short, medium and long term. It provides a better understanding of how corporations use the other capitals, such as natural, human and social capitals, in their working. The underlying structural issues affecting the global business system—such as shareholder primacy and the responsibility of business to its stakeholders—mean that changes in reporting need to be backed up by substantive change elsewhere in the system. This article considers case studies and the development of multi-capital thinking.

Water and Rice Production

This chapter considers the challenges and opportunities with respect to meeting the demand for rice in the context of a trade-based concept of water, food, and nutrition security. It notes that there is more to rice than just its food value. It also has cultural values and various industrial uses while certain rice schemes have environmental or flood management benefits. The structure of the global rice sector is then presented in terms of production, demand, and trade which serve to confirm the importance of rice as an agricultural commodity. However, current production practices are—in many locations—characterized by challenges in terms of productivity, climate change, genetics, political economy, and cartels. These are analyzed before the text focusses on measures to increase the water productivity of rice before providing a ‘horizon view’ of supply and demand, prices, and the need for expanded production or new producing areas.

Modelling Agricultural Controls for Flooding and Soil Erosion

Floods are the highest-impact natural disasters. In agricultural basins, anthropogenic features are significant factors in controlling flood and erosion. A hydrological-hydraulic-erosion diagnosis is necessary in order to choose the most relevant action zones and to make recommendations for alternative land uses and cultivation practices in order to control and reduce floods and erosion. This chapter first aims to provide an overview of the flow processes represented in the various possible choices of model structure and refinement. It then focuses on the impact of the spatial distribution and temporal variation of hydrological soil properties in farmed basins, representing their effects on the modelled water and sediment flows. Research challenges and leads are then tackled, trying to identify the conditions in which sufficient adequacy exists between site data and modelling strategies.