Competition for water induced by transnational land acquisitions for agriculture
| Author(s) | Chiarelli, Davide Danilo | |
| Author(s) | D’Odorico, Paolo | |
| Author(s) | Müller, Marc F. | |
| Author(s) | Mueller, Nathaniel D. | |
| Author(s) | Davis, Kyle Frankel | |
| Author(s) | Dell’Angelo, Jampel | |
| Author(s) | Penny, Gopal | |
| Author(s) | Rulli, Maria Cristina | |
| Date Accessioned | 2023-10-18T18:41:53Z | |
| Date Available | 2023-10-18T18:41:53Z | |
| Publication Date | 2022-01-26 | |
| Description | This article was originally published in Nature Communications. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28077-2. © The Author(s) 2022 | |
| Abstract | The ongoing agrarian transition from smallholder farming to large-scale commercial agriculture promoted by transnational large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) often aims to increase crop yields through the expansion of irrigation. LSLAs are playing an increasingly prominent role in this transition. Yet it remains unknown whether foreign LSLAs by agribusinesses target areas based on specific hydrological conditions and whether these investments compete with the water needs of existing local users. Here we combine process-based crop and hydrological modelling, agricultural statistics, and georeferenced information on individual transnational LSLAs to evaluate emergence of water scarcity associated with LSLAs. While conditions of blue water scarcity already existed prior to land acquisitions, these deals substantially exacerbate blue water scarcity through both the adoption of water-intensive crops and the expansion of irrigated cultivation. These effects lead to new rival water uses in 105 of the 160 studied LSLAs (67% of the acquired land). Combined with our findings that investors target land with preferential access to surface and groundwater resources to support irrigation, this suggests that LSLAs often appropriate water resources to the detriment of local users. | |
| Sponsor | This work was partially supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1639145 as part of Food-Energy-Water Interdependencies of the Global Agrarian Transition Pursuit. J.D.A., M.C.R., and P.D. acknowledge support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement no. 861509 - NEWAVE. D.D.C. and M.C.R. are supported by the NEXUS-NESS project that has received funding from the PRIMA Programme, an Art.185 initiative supported and funded under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, with GRANT AGREEMENT n.2042. P.D. was funded by the USDA Hatch Multistate project #W4190 capacity fund. M.F.M and GP are supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant ICER 1824951. We thank L.R. for comments on the manuscript. | |
| Citation | Chiarelli, D.D., D’Odorico, P., Müller, M.F. et al. Competition for water induced by transnational land acquisitions for agriculture. Nat Commun 13, 505 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28077-2 | |
| ISSN | 2041-1723 | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/33565 | |
| Language | en_US | |
| Publisher | Nature Communications | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| Keywords | environmental impact | |
| Keywords | hydrology | |
| Keywords | clean water and sanitation | |
| Title | Competition for water induced by transnational land acquisitions for agriculture | |
| Type | Article |
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