The report, Nourish and Flourish: Water Solutions to Feed 10 Billion People on a Livable Planet, warns that current agricultural water management practices are fundamentally misaligned with global needs. Overuse of water in some regions and chronic underuse in others means the world is currently able to sustainably produce enough food for less than half the global population.
The report introduces a new framework that categorises countries by water stress levels and their food import or export status. It identifies where expanding rainfed agriculture could boost production, where irrigation investments could drive job creation and economic growth, where water use must be curtailed to protect ecosystems, and where trade should replace domestic production for sustainability.
Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank Group’s Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer, said the choices governments make about allocating water for food production will have wide‑ranging economic effects. “The way we manage water for food will have profound implications for jobs, livelihoods and economic growth,” he said. “Smarter decisions on what we grow, where we grow it and how we trade it can build resilience and safeguard vital resources.”
Realising these outcomes, the Bank said, will require much stronger private‑sector participation alongside sustained public investment. While governments currently spend about $490 billion annually on agricultural support, most of it goes to subsidies. Redirecting part of this spending, combined with blended finance and public‑private partnerships, could help expand irrigation, modernise existing systems and crowd in private capital.
Expanding and modernising irrigation alone will require between 24 and $70 billion annually through 2050. Farmers, who already provide most of the investment in irrigation worldwide, are willing to co‑invest when regulatory barriers are lowered and access to finance, equipment and markets improves.
Guangzhe Chen, World Bank Vice President for Planet, said the framework will help policymakers adapt food production to today’s climate and water realities. “When investments, enabling policies and private capital come together, the impact can be greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.
The World Bank Group is ramping up its financing accordingly. It has committed to doubling annual agribusiness support to $9 billion by 2030 and to mobilising an additional $5 billion each year through its AgriConnect initiative, aimed at helping smallholder farmers move from subsistence to surplus.
–World Bank/ChannelAfrica–
