80% Of World’s Farmland With Less Water By 2050, Says New Study

A new study published by the American Geophysical Union has found that, in less than 30 years, 80% of the world’s crops will not have enough water.

By building a new index that takes into account agricultural needs as well as predictions of rainwater (green water) and water coming from irrigation systems (blue water), the team of researchers also found that, over the last century, the demand for water grew twice as fast as the world’s population.

This poses a great risk to the capability of growing enough food to the feed the world population. The researchers reported that, in 84% of the croplands, water supply will diminish and, 60% of them will not have enough water.

Xingcai Liu, an associate professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead author of the new study suggested some possible action to prevent negative impacts. As reported in Science Daily, she said: “"Longer term, improving irrigation infrastructure, for example in Africa, and irrigation efficiency would be effective ways to mitigate the effects of future climate change in the context of growing food demand.”

Water scarcity is already a problem in every continent and poses a food security risk.

This is the first study to build an index comprehending green and blue water to predict water trends in the future.