• Map
of major catchment areas
• Papers & Presentations
• Publications
Challenge Program on Water and Food
Given current population growth rates, the world will need 30% more food over the next 20 years. The water required to do this at current rates of water use is more than equivalent to the annual discharge of the Mekong River Basin. In addition, given that land is a finite resource, our ability to meet this future demand must (a) come through the intensification of agriculture; and (b) on using less water to yield more food.
The MRC has worked together with the CIGAR Challenge Program on Water and Food since 2002. It coordinates the activities of the CPWF in the Mekong River Basin. In addition, the MRC is a member of the CPWF Consortium Steering Committee and a member of its Management Team.
The CPWF was developed and is implemented by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and is a research-based programme, which has as its primary goal the development of new ways in which to produce more food with less water. It foresees that it can do this by (a) developing technologies (such as new seed variants, farming machinery and irrigation design); and/or (b) through the development of ways of managing water use in agriculture.
The chair of its Consortium Steering Committee is held by the International Water Management Institute. Other CGIAR members are the International Rice Research Institute, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, the World Fish Centre; and the International Food Policy Research Center. The CPWF believes that through partnerships, it can strengthen the type and variety of research that it does, and ensure that its results are absorbed and will yield impact. At the management level, 15 institutions are involved in addition to the CGIAR centres mentioned above. At the project level, 150 institutions are involved.
The CPWF focuses its research in nine 'Benchmark River Basins', including the Mekong River Basin, that constitute the 'living laboratories' in which it conducts it work, and where its results will ultimately be implemented.
The CPWF's research work focuses on five theme areas: Crop water productivity improvement; Water and people in catchments; Aquatic ecosystems and fisheries; Integrated basin water management systems; and Global and national water and food systems.
The CPWF has 11 projects working in the Mekong River Basin.
- Participatory water resource planning and development for economic sufficiency through a learning alliance approach in the northeast of Thailand.
- Demonstration and documentation of innovative market-based strategies to realize agricultural income through increased on-farm water productivity and market integration.
- Increasing water use efficiency by using mulch under SRI (System of Rice Intensification) management practices in Northeast Thailand.
- Managing Water and Land Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods at the Interface between Fresh and Saline Water Environments in Viet Nam and Bangladesh.
- Rice Landscape Management for Raising Water Productivity, Conserving Resources and Improving Livelihoods in Upper Catchments of the Mekong and Red River Basins.
- Developing a System of Temperate and Tropical Aerobic Rice (STAR) in Asia.
- Companion Modelling for Resilient Water Management: Stakeholder's Perceptions of Water Dynamics and Collective Learning at the Catchment Scale.
- Community-Based Fish Culture in Irrigation Systems and Seasonal Floodplains.
- Multi-scale Mekong Water Governance: Inter-disciplinary Research to Enhance Participatory Water Governance from Local Watershed to Regional Scales.
- Strengthening Fisheries Management Institutions in the Lower Mekong River Basin through Collaborative Research and Data Synthesis across Multiple Scales.
- The Mekong Basin Focal Project.
Visit www.waterandfood.org for more information or contact the CPWF Mekong Basin Coordinator, Dr Kim Geheb, at kim.geheb[at]mrcmekong.org. Note: replace [at] with @
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