Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity

Salinity in surface waters is on the rise throughout much of the world. Many factors contribute to this change including increased water extraction, poor irrigation management, and sea-level rise. To date no study has attempted to quantify impacts...

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Main Authors: Russ, Jason, Damania, Richard, Desbureaux, Sebastien, Escurra, Jorge, Rodella, Aude-Sophie, Zaveri, Esha
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/641121576064837061/Salt-of-the-Earth-Quantifying-the-Impact-of-Water-Salinity-on-Global-Agricultural-Productivity
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33070
id okr-10986-33070
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-330702021-05-25T09:31:13Z Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity Russ, Jason Damania, Richard Desbureaux, Sebastien Escurra, Jorge Rodella, Aude-Sophie Zaveri, Esha WATER QUALITY WATER SALINITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY YIELD LOSS Salinity in surface waters is on the rise throughout much of the world. Many factors contribute to this change including increased water extraction, poor irrigation management, and sea-level rise. To date no study has attempted to quantify impacts on global food production. In this paper we develop a plausibly causal model to test the sensitivity of global and regional agricultural productivity to changes in water salinity. To do so, we utilize several local and global datasets on water quality and agricultural productivity and a model which isolates the impact of exogenous changes in water salinity on yields. We then train a machine learning model to predict salinity globally in order to simulate average global food losses from 2000-2013. These losses are found to be high, in the range of the equivalent of 124 trillion kilocalories, or enough to feed over 170 million people every day, each year. Global maps building on these results show that pockets of high losses occur on all continents but can be expected to be particularly problematic in regions already experiencing malnutrition challenges. 2019-12-23T17:53:43Z 2019-12-23T17:53:43Z 2019-12-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/641121576064837061/Salt-of-the-Earth-Quantifying-the-Impact-of-Water-Salinity-on-Global-Agricultural-Productivity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33070 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper India Vietnam
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic WATER QUALITY
WATER SALINITY
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
YIELD LOSS
spellingShingle WATER QUALITY
WATER SALINITY
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
YIELD LOSS
Russ, Jason
Damania, Richard
Desbureaux, Sebastien
Escurra, Jorge
Rodella, Aude-Sophie
Zaveri, Esha
Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity
geographic_facet India
Vietnam
description Salinity in surface waters is on the rise throughout much of the world. Many factors contribute to this change including increased water extraction, poor irrigation management, and sea-level rise. To date no study has attempted to quantify impacts on global food production. In this paper we develop a plausibly causal model to test the sensitivity of global and regional agricultural productivity to changes in water salinity. To do so, we utilize several local and global datasets on water quality and agricultural productivity and a model which isolates the impact of exogenous changes in water salinity on yields. We then train a machine learning model to predict salinity globally in order to simulate average global food losses from 2000-2013. These losses are found to be high, in the range of the equivalent of 124 trillion kilocalories, or enough to feed over 170 million people every day, each year. Global maps building on these results show that pockets of high losses occur on all continents but can be expected to be particularly problematic in regions already experiencing malnutrition challenges.
format Working Paper
author Russ, Jason
Damania, Richard
Desbureaux, Sebastien
Escurra, Jorge
Rodella, Aude-Sophie
Zaveri, Esha
author_facet Russ, Jason
Damania, Richard
Desbureaux, Sebastien
Escurra, Jorge
Rodella, Aude-Sophie
Zaveri, Esha
author_sort Russ, Jason
title Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity
title_short Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity
title_full Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity
title_fullStr Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity
title_full_unstemmed Salt of the Earth : Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity
title_sort salt of the earth : quantifying the impact of water salinity on global agricultural productivity
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/641121576064837061/Salt-of-the-Earth-Quantifying-the-Impact-of-Water-Salinity-on-Global-Agricultural-Productivity
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33070
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