Agriculture water withdrawal as percent of total renewable water resources

Definition

Water withdrawn for irrigation in a given year, expressed in percent of the total renewable water resources.

Relevance

Water is often a limiting factor for agricultural production and increasing irrigation is one of the main proposed ways to increase food production. At the same time, water scarcity is already a serious issue in many regions of the world and the situation is expected to get worse under climate change and increasing demand. This is also one of the eight proxy sub-indicators currently proposed for monitoring SDG 2.4.1 ‘’sustainable and productive agriculture’’.