Commission Statement of the 3rd Asia Pacific Youth parliament for Water (APYPW) Water for Food.

         

Commission Statement of the 3^rd Asia Pacific Youth parliament for Water (APYPW)

<Commission 3>

 

“Water for Food”

 

Introduction

The statement of commission three on theme ‘Water for Food’, illustrates the close nexus between agriculture and food, centered on water resource scarcity. As the Asian Pacific Youth Parliament for Water, being active youths working in the water and environmental sector, we place particular emphasis on solution based on the ability of the youths to be enablers in creating change in the agricultural sector. The commission has made a clear position on capacity building and we hope to tap on the energy of youths to develop the abilities of the grassroots people to achieve measurable and sustainable results for intensification of agriculture for production of food.

 

Background

According to the Millenium Assessment 2005, by the year 2050 it is projected that population shall increase to 9 billion people in our planet earth. This implies that cereal production has to increased by 60 % over 2005. This will equal to a $4 trillion investment in agriculture to be introduced until 2050. Governments worldwide are challenged to provide for their citizens, boost rural incomes, while maintaining the sustainability.  This is in the backdrop of reduction of arable land, changes in food consumption patterns and a plethora of environment problems associated with terra-forming for agricultural purposes.

 

Commission 3 of the 3^rd Asia Pacific Youth Parliament for Water has identified three principal causes leading to the insecurity in water-food nexus:

        i.            Urbanisation has led to increasing migration of young people to the cities. This has led to the gradual demission of the importance of agriculture to the human civilization. The close held intimate link to farmland is gradually reducing, insulated by the abundance of food in cities and urban environment. Coupled with a 2.5 billion outflow of people in labour from the rural area to the cities by 2050, it represents an unprecedented challenge to food security, which is already been plagued by an already stressed industry facing problems of water use and management and drop in investment in irrigation and drainage.

      ii.            The rainfall of the Asia-Pacific region has now become highly erratic which means that can be serious lack of water. If such dependency is overlooked and the supply of water is mismanaged it has a longer term impact on the food production process. Moreover, agriculture sector has a high rate of consumption providing us increasing onus for the proper management of water.

 

    iii.            Climate change has led to extreme weather events such as flash floods and droughts. The changing rainfall patterns has also led to negative impacts on food production, amidst changes in global temperature and rising sea levels.  Without proper countermeasures to prepare the agricultural community for mitigating these climate variables, it may lead increasing risk exposure to this vulnerable group of people.

 The role of youth can be of enablers and a conduit for messages and information to be carried to the target groups and that of whom are able to act critically and learn from malpractices of previous generation. In the below commission statement, we will illustrate the pressing issues that are faced in thematic of “Water for Food” and the possible solutions, where youths act as catalyst for change.

 

ISSUES and SOLUTIONS

 Issue 1: Water Management

Sub-issue: Effective use of water by farmers

Target: Reduce poverty by improving access to agricultural water and its judicious usage.

Target group : Farmers and other stakeholders concerned for sustainable use of water for agricultural purpose.

Solution: To assist better water efficiency for farming, youth can develop method and educate the farmer in better water usage for their crops. Youth can research and assess the farm water usage, and create a water consumption data for the specific farm, so to better secure constant required supply of water and store the water properly. The data collectecd can be used for the recommendation on developing the crops that are resistant to climate change, disaster and use water efficiently.

Youth can help to bring in agricultural technology professional and assist in the introduction and application of new technologies used in the farms. Youth can pioneer the coalition of key stakeholders in agriculture development, so the farmers, agronomist, scientist, engineers and industries can converge. This can provide them with opportunities to work together, towards innovative solutions and make water more efficient and agriculture productivity to meet the growing needs. With a motion like this, youth can play an important role to encourage stakeholders to pursue policies to achieve long term sustainability goals through this movement.

 Action plan: Our commission emphasizes importance and possible ways of problem solving and start of new initiative to integrate key stakeholders that can be catalyzed by youths. The commission identifies water and management of its resources that are key aspects in today’s food production issues, in relations of water wastage and efficiency in farming. To be specific, we are going to make a team which will conduct research on appropriate technology for better understanding of proper technology of irrigation in rural area. After that, we are going to ask to get sponsorship and financial aid from organization working closely with agriculture for eg. USAID by proposing our project. At the same time, with our project we will educate farmer in cooperation with NGO, local government, and civil society. With the commission theme “water for food” in mind, we derived an action plan to target current water inefficiency in farming, a major obstacle that prevents farmers from growing enough food to feed the population.

 

Issue 2: Population Management

Sub-issue: The contaminated ion of water by enormous food waste from increased population of urban area.

Target: Reducing the food waste which is caused by inefficient food distribution system.

Target group: General Public residing in the urban areas.

Solution: We believe that inefficient food distribution structures makes enormous food waste because of expiration date labelled in the food. The food supply chain has to be closely monitored to reduce the food waste that can be used to feed the people in hunger in other countries or own. The commission proposes to reengineer the distribution process and check the food supply chain to ensure less food wastage takes place.

 Action plan: To serve this purpose, the Commission 3 will create online materials about efficient food distribution system and promote it by using social network service. Members will post contents every month on Facebook and web page which are managed by the Commission 3 of the 3^rd Asia Pacific Youth Parliament for Water. In additions, youths will be engaged in constant blogging of the related issues and even publish articles in the daily newspaper to sensitize the mass number of people. Since 11 July 2014, today is World Population Day, we would also track ourselves in next July 2015 to check the achievement done in one year and similarly would continue until the problem is solved.

 

Issue 3: Climate Change

Target: Preparing Food Production system climate resilient of the vulnerable communities.

Target Group: Farmers and Research Organization on Climate Change

Sub-issue: Climate change is a pressing issue which is affecting the global water resources and hence the food production by change in temperature, change in rainfall pattern and rise in sea level.

Solution: The Commission 3 of the 3^rd APYPW for Water emphasizes on the need of making the process and resources for food production with a reduction of vulnerable to climate change. The commission proposes to build capacity of the farmers for making their fields more resilient to the adverse impacts of climate change.

Action plan: To serve this purpose, the youth volunteers from the commission will visit the farmers and educate them about the wise selection of crops, keeping in view the available water resources and the scenario of climate change through the help of the experts of the NGOs and academia.

 Conclusion

The water resources available for food production in the world, especially in the Asia Pacific region are under great stress due to increased food demands, climate change and poor water management. The commission concludes that there is an urgent need for diffusing the traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge by improving the in-efficient practices with sustainable ones, in order to ensure the food availability, accessibility and affordability for inter and intra generations. The targets devised by this commission are expected to contribute towards the improvement in situation and the members of the commission pledge to contribute in solving the problems and issues from their level in achieving the target.

Compiled Country reports can be accessed from here:

  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vSpL7vKmsVJiyrbPax1y8JojhoI_BM6r?usp=sharing