Water and Food Security in the Arab Region

Abstract

The Arab region is characterized by high population growth rate, large and rapidly increasing food deficits, limited water resources, and highly variable income levels both within and between countries. Although crop yield values have gradually increased over the last few decades, the Arab countries are still unable to feed themselves using their limited water resources, and they are net importers of food supplies. The situation is likely to deteriorate with increasing water shortages which threaten the locally produced food supply due to, among others, aquifer depletion, salinization of soils, climate change, and reallocation of agricultural water to other sectors and users.

The most viable option is to increase agricultural water productivity of the arid Arab region, not the agricultural land productivity. Cropping pattern shift policy could be adjusted through applying a system for financial incentives to encourage the farmers to cultivate less water-consumption crops. A resilient agriculture requires higher effectiveness with respect to increasing the use efficiency of natural resources and agricultural outputs. Agricultural trade liberalization could have an important role to help achieve the important objective of food security in some countries.