Photosynthesis is a water-intensive biochemical process. As part of the photosynthetic process, plants and surfaces release water into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. The greater the biomass and crop yields, the greater the volume of water undergoing evapotranspiration. To conserve water, we need to increase the productivity of water use in terms of crop value yielded for each unit of evapotranspirated water. This global productivity ratio can be broken down into many partial efficiency ratios. These partial ratios cover a number of relevant aspects, including irrigation techniques, crop management and the environmental and climatic conditions present in the area.

Furthermore, water use efficiency is just one aspect of the larger economic and resource efficiency. Capital, land, labour and energy are other basic inputs that must considered. For instance, farmers do not maximize water efficiency, they maximize profits. As such, it is essential that profit maximization is aligned with the goal of resource efficiency. This webinar will explain these efficiency ratios, provide numbers about potential improvement gains and discuss the barriers and obstacles to improving them. Lastly, the seminar will address some policy issues related to how governance, institutions and other management can address this issue.

Speaker:
Alberto Garrido
Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). Deputy Director of the Research Centre for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks (CEIGRAM). Deputy Director of the Water Observatory of the Botín Foundation. Has a Bachelor Degree in Agricultural Engineering; a Masters in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis (1992) and a Doctoral Degree in Agricultural Economics from the UPM (1995). Was visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2005-2006).

Introduced by:
Jaroslav Mysiak
Jaroslav Mysiak is a distinguished and experienced researcher in water economics and governance, climate risk and adaptation. For more than 10 years he has been working on topics related to integrated water resource management, policy analysis and implementation. Presently, Jaroslav is senior researcher at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei as group leader of the area Natural hazards and extreme climate-related events. He is key expert of the following FP7 Projects:  ENHANCE (Enhancing risk management partnerships for catastrophic natural disasters in Europe) and SWITCH-ON (Sharing Water-related Information to Tackle Changes in the Hydrosphere – for Operational Needs).

Working language: English.
Registration is required. For information and registration: events@iccgov.org or 041/2700442 (Silvia Nevi).
 

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