The role of rainfed agriculture in the future of global food production

Mark Rosegrant (), Ximing Cai, Sarah A. Cline and Naoko Nakagawa

No 90, EPTD discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: This paper examines future prospects for rainfed cereal production, and its importance in the evolving global food system. First, the paper undertakes a critical synthesis of the literature to assess three primary ways to enhance rainfed cereal yields: increasing effective rainfall use through improved water management, particularly water harvesting; increasing crop yields in rainfed areas through agricultural research; and reforming policies and increasing investments in rainfed areas. Second, the IMPACT-WATER integrated water-food modeling framework is applied to assess the current situation and plausible future options of irrigation water supply and food security, primarily on a global scale. This model simulates the relationships among water availability and demand, food supply and demand, international food prices, and trade at regional and global levels. The results show that rainfed agriculture will maintain an important role in the growth of food production in the future, although appropriate investments and policy reforms will be required to enhance the contribution of rainfed agriculture.

Keywords: agricultural policies; rainfed farming; developing countries; cereal crops; food security; food supply; crops; prices; water supply; trade; water use; water management; yields (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/156654

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:eptddp:90

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in EPTD discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().