Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska
http://waterforfood.nebraska.edu/The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska was established to address one of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century with significant political, environmental, social and economic implications: how to achieve greater food security with less pressure on water resources. At present, almost a billion people in the world are food-insecure, without access to enough safe and nutritious food to lead healthy and active lives. Many of them are also water-insecure, without reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water to meet their needs, while also exposed to the risks of droughts and floods. To ensure sustainable global food and water security in the face of population and income increases, a changing climate and the growing demand for scarce water resources, it is imperative to improve water use and management in agricultural and food systems. While this enormous challenge manifests itself in different ways and situations, some of the major problems that need to be solved in the quest for greater water and food security cut across a range of contexts. Subject areas that are central to water and food security both in the United States and globally include: closing water and agricultural productivity gaps; groundwater management for agricultural production; enhancing high-productivity irrigated agriculture; freshwater and agricultural ecosystems and public health; and management of agricultural drought.