WHAT IS STANDING IN THE WAY OF GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY FROM GROUNDWATER – AND HOW TO MOVE ON INFORMED ACTION?

It is well-established that groundwater supplies a growing proportion, today about 40%, of water for global food production, and by implication for global food security. With groundwater under severe pressure in many food-producing regions in the world, global food security is at risk. This paper gives a global overview of challenges in sustaining the crucial role of groundwater in achieving SDG 2 and SDG 6 related to food and water security. Expanding and intensifying food production from a renewable, yet finite groundwater resource, which also serves fundamental services in terms of water supply, livelihoods, and ecosystem services inevitably involves intricate and increasingly complex trade-offs. Global scale analysis and international cooperation at multiple levels are key to identify options for and implications of interventions to reduce groundwater depletion and secure food security, while maintaining healthy food systems, environmental sustainability, and livelihoods across highly variable contexts globally, from groundwater over-developed regions in food-surplus regions in in the US, to increasingly food-insecure regions in groundwater-depleted regions of South Asia, to groundwater under-developed regions in sub-Saharan Africa. The underlying message is to bring a broader and explicit understanding of the role of groundwater into contemporary discussions of global food security, resource sustainability, and sustainable food systems.