Water is a fundamental resource for agricultural production, with it accounting for 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Additionally, 80% of farmland is rainfed. This high dependency on rain, and water in general, increases the vulnerability of smallholder farmers. Currently, 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high water shortages or scarcity, of whom 1.2 billion people – roughly one-sixth of the world’s population – live in severely water-constrained agricultural areas.
In order to help those affected by water scarcity, we need to inform, sensitize, and form new partnerships and methods of scaling innovations in the agricultural sector. WE4F will host Scaling water-energy-food innovations through end-user financing for climate adaptation and co-convene the SIWI Seminar: Achieving 2030 food/nutrition targets through water security
Scaling water-energy-food innovations through end-user financing for climate adaptation
This session will introduce end-user financing and define the connection between efficient water usage, climate change adaptation, and agricultural resilience. Panelists and session attendees will discuss end-user financing models like pay-as-you-go, crowdfunding, pay-by-produce, rent-to-own, and value chain financing, and how they increase smallholder farmers’ access to environmentally-friendly, water-energy-food solutions.
Panelists include:
SIWI Seminar: Achieving 2030 food/nutrition targets through water security (2/3)
The session will explore the critical role of the private sector as well as cross-sectoral public-private partnerships in designing, developing, and democratizing access to innovations for water-secure food systems for various actors including smallholder farmers. The session will focus on the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as multinationals, to develop water-secure food systems, with specific reference to small and medium-size farming. Speakers will share experiences of innovations in technologies and non-tech systems for farmers and other actors and discuss the policy perspective to achieve synergies for national/regional development agendas. Session participants will be actively involved in the discussion with panelists.
