IFPRI announces new book on water policy and management

A new International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, http://www.ifpri.org) book on water policy answers the urgent call for smart policy and investment solutions to the developing world's 21st century water resource quantity and quality challenges.

Published by Springer, "Global Change: Impacts on Water and Food Security" (http://www.springer.com/environment/global+change+-+climate+change/book/978-3-642-04614-8) examines the interplay between globalization, water management, and food security, and recommends innovative approaches to water management in the global context.

A collaboration with the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (http://www.waterandfood.org/) and the Third World Centre on Water Management (http://www.thirdworldcentre.org/english.html), the book emphasizes the impact of trade on water management and security in the developing world. It also touches on a wide range of hot button issues-from bioenergy to the global fish trade-and explains how policymakers can finance these and other growing demands on water resources in the future.

The book's contributors, including IFPRI's Claudia Ringler, Mark Rosegrant, and Siwa Msangi, assert that the increased integration of the world's economy, specifically the opening of national markets to international trade, has had profound effects on the allocation and use of the world's dwindling freshwater resources and, in turn, food security.

The book concludes that global change provides more opportunities than challenges for meeting the developing world's vital water needs, but that reaping the benefits of globalization and avoiding adverse impacts on the poor and the environment requires comprehensive water and food policy reforms.

Ringler, C., Biswas, A., and Cline, S., eds. 2010. Global Change: Impacts on Water and Food Security. Heidelberg: Springer.

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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an alliance of 64 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations. Please visit our website at www.ifpri.org.