Water, energy and food are essential for human well-being and sustainable development. Global projections indicate that demand for freshwater, energy and food will increase significantly over the next decades under the pressure of population growth and mobility, economic development, international trade, urbanization, diversifying diets, cultural and technological changes, as well as climate change and other natural processes. The link between water, energy and food is inextricable in that water is an input for producing all kinds of agricultural crops and along the entire agro-food industry and supply chain. Energy in turn is required to produce and distribute water and food through processes such as pumping ground or surface water, powering tractors and irrigation machinery, and to process and transport agricultural goods. In more explicit terms, using water for irrigation might promote food production but it can also affect river flows and hydropower potential; growing crops under irrigation for bioenergy production can increase overall water exploitations and threaten food security; upgrading surface irrigation systems into more efficient pressurized techniques may conserve water but may also lead to higher energy consumption. Understanding and recognizing the diverse synergies and trade-offs involved between the three components is, thus, critical to ensure balance between water, energy and food security.
To this end, the global community is well aware of food-energy-water challenges, but has often addressed them in isolation, within sectoral margins. At the country level, fragmented sectoral responsibilities, lack of coordination, and inconsistencies between legal and regulatory frameworks has led to misaligned benefits and stress to the natural resources.
With a particular relevance to the Irrigation and Drainage sector, there lies the key question of food security in many developing countries. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that by 2050, population growth will result in doubled demand for food globally. The resulting present and anticipated challenges entail that innovative approaches have to be adopted to increase food production in order to meet the growing demand. Irrigation development is thought to be a preeminent strategy to answer food security challenges which now claims close to 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawals made for human use. In this perspective, many developing countries are vesting ambitious plans to expand irrigated agriculture. Strategies mainly highlight a shift from public to private investment and from larger to smallerscale systems in irrigation by promoting the idea of affordable and effective irrigation to poor farmers worldwide. The resulting rewards of higher outputs, incomes and better diets are, however, at the expense of higher water and energy consumption.
| Notification | Scoping Document |
Organized an International Workshop on “The Water-Energy-Food-Nexus: implementation and examples of applications”, 09:30-13:00 hours (TBC), 02 November 2023 from 09:30:13:30 hours as part of the 25th International Congress on Irrigation and Drainage and the 74th International Executive Council meeting, 01-08 November 2023 in Vishakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, India.
(a) To exchange information, knowledge, and experience, as well as networking on the Water-Food-Energy Nexus topic in order to be up to date with new developments, methods and approaches. This can be the basis for a possible position paper on key issues on the nexus. (b) To prepare an overview document on the state of the art on improving water use efficiency and productivity within the nexus. (c) to produce a document of impact of climate change and possible use of non-conventional less water consuming crops (d) To prepare an overview document on the state of the art on model applications as useful management tools for water, crops, field and energy management within the nexus (e) To prepare and present reports on case studies on recent developments in the countries that are represented in the WG; and from presented cases of the workshops (f) To organize international workshops, seminars or symposia on the Nexus topic. (g) To implement ICID 2030 vision.
Established : 2020
Brief Outcome of the International Workshop of the WG-WEF_N, September 2025, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Sydney, Australia, 2024
Circular and Transformative Economy
Advances Towards Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation
Edited By: Luxon Nhamo, Sylvester Mpandeli, Stanley Liphadzi, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi
eBook ISBN: 9781003327615, 2024, Pages 302
Proceedings of 25th ICID Congress on Irrigation and Drainage: International Workshop on the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus: Implementation, 1-8 November 2023, Visakhapatnam (Vizag), India, and
24th ICID Congress, 2022: Proceedings - International Workshop on Water-Energy-Food-Nexus: Implementation and Examples of Application (WG-WFE-N)
Publication on Water - Energy - Food Nexus Narratives and Resource Securities
Articles related to the Water–Energy–Food Nexus from South Africa (Vice President Prof. Dr. Sylvester Mpandeli)
Call for Papers deadline extended: International Workshop on “Implementation of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus at different scales for Socio-Economic Development”, 13 October 2026, Marseille, France
Call for Applications : Water Energy Food (WEF) Nexus Training 2026
Past Events
Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus Training - Call for Applications
| Sl. No. | Name | Country | Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab - President Hon. | ra************* | United Kingdom | Chair |
| 2 | Dr. K. Yella Reddy - Vice President Hon. | ky************* | India | Vice Chair |
| 3 | Dr. Ming-Che Hu | mc************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Secretary |
| 4 | Mr. Abbas Fadhel | ab************* | Iraq | Member |
| 5 | Ir. Adang Saf Ahmad | ad************* | Indonesia | Member |
| 6 | Dr. Amani Alfarra | am************* | Canada | Member |
| 7 | Mr. Basim Tuama Naser | ba************* | Iraq | Member |
| 8 | Dr. Behzad Navidi Nassaj | be************* | Iran | Member |
| 9 | Mr. Books LIU Dongzhe | bo************* | China | Member |
| 10 | Mr. Carl Walters | ca************* | Australia | Member |
| 11 | Mr. Chaisri Suksaroj | fe************* | Thailand | Member |
| 12 | Prof. Cheh-Shy Ting | cs************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
| 13 | Dr. Chung Feng Ding | cf************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
| 14 | Dr. Deepak Khare - Direct Member | kh************* | India | Member |
| 15 | Prof. Dr. Vishnu Prasad Pandey | vi************* | Nepal | Member |
| 16 | Ir. Felipe Dantas | fe************* | Australia | Member |
| 17 | Eng. Han Songjun, YP | ha************* | China | Member |
| 18 | Mr. Hao-Tien Cheng | ct************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
| 19 | Ms. Jigyasha Rai Yangkhurung | ji************* | Nepal | Member |
| 20 | Mr. John William O’Connor | jo************* | Australia | Member |
| 21 | Dr. Junzeng Xu | xj************* | China | Member |
| 22 | Eng. Karshiyev Rustum Jurayevih | r.************* | Uzbekistan | Member |
| 23 | Mr. Liangsheng Shi (YP) | li************* | China | Member |
| 24 | Mr. Lokesh Sinram | lo************* | India | Member |
| 25 | Dr. Lu Hui | lu************* | China | Member |
| 26 | Dr. Man Singh | ma************* | India | Member |
| 27 | Dr. Marco Arcieri - President | m.************* | Italy | Member |
| 28 | Dr. Mesut Kocak | mk************* | Turkey | Member |
| 29 | Dr. Muhammed Imran Kulat | ku************* | Turkey | Member |
| 30 | Er. Mustafa Demir | mu************* | Turkey | Member |
| 31 | Prof. NAM Won Ho | wo************* | South Korea | Member |
| 32 | Dr. Narges Zohrabi | na************* | Iran | Member |
| 33 | Dr. Noppadon Kowsuvon | pr************* | Thailand | Member |
| 34 | Dr. P. Soman | dr************* | India | Member |
| 35 | Dr. Peng-Jui Wang | ar************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
| 36 | Prof. Dr. S. Vishnuvardhan | vi************* | India | Member |
| 37 | Dr. Shinji FUKUDA | sh************* | Japan | Member |
| 38 | Prof. Dr. Sylvester Mpandeli - Vice President Hon. | sy************* | South Africa | Member |
| 39 | Prof. Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi | ma************* | South Africa | Member |
| 40 | Dr. Watchara Suiadee - Vice President | wa************* | Thailand | Member |
| 41 | Eng. Yang Kaijing, YP | ya************* | China | Member |
| 42 | Eng. YU Lei, YP | yu************* | China | Member |
| 43 | Mr. Yukiya Saika | y.************* | Japan | Member |
| 44 | Prof. Dr. Zeinab Hussien Behairy | z_************* | Egypt | Member |
| 45 | Dr. Piyatida Ruangrassamee | pi************* | Thailand | Observer |
| 46 | Mr. Syaiful Mahdi | sy************* | Indonesia | Observer |
| 47 | Engr. David Partonggo Oloan Marpaung S.T., MPSDA | da************* | Indonesia | Provisional Member |
| 48 | Dr. Luxon Nhamo | lu************* | South Africa | Provisional Member |
| 49 | Eng. MA Zonghan, YP | ma************* | China | Provisional Member |
| 50 | Eng. Wang Xiaojun, YP | xj************* | China | Provisional Member |
| 51 | Eng. WU Junhu, YP | wu************* | China | Provisional Member |
| 52 | Prof. Dr. Yutaka MATSUNO | ma************* | Japan | Provisional Member |
| 53 | Dr. R.K. Gupta - Secretary General | se************* | India | Secretary General |
| 54 | Prof. Daniele de Wrachien | da************* | Italy | Permanent Observer |
| 55 | Mr. Herbert H. Van Lier, CIGR | me************* | Italy | Permanent Observer |
In addition to the above representatives from FAO, ICRISAT are Permanent Observers.
Call for Papers deadline extended: International Workshop on “Implementation of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus at different scales for Socio-Economic Development”, 13 October 2026, Marseille, France
Call for Applications : Water Energy Food (WEF) Nexus Training 2026
Past Events
Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus Training - Call for Applications
Webinar on Catalysing SDGS through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus, 24 April 2025
Presentations of the Webinar
iScience Volume 28, February 21, 2025 issue: Catalyzing sustainable development goals through the water-energy-food nexus by Luxon Nhamo,Sylvester Mpandeli,Stanley Liphadzi,Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi
Book Release: Circular and Transformative Economy
Advances Towards Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation
Edited By: Luxon Nhamo, Sylvester Mpandeli, Stanley Liphadzi, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi - eBook ISBN: 9781003327615, 2024, Pages 302
Webinar on Application of Models in Water-Energy-Food Nexus, 11 April 2024 (Thursday), 15:00-16:00 Hours (IST)
75th IEC Meeting and 9th Asian Regional Conference, 1-7 September 2024, Sydney, Australia
International Workshop of Water-Energy-Food-Nexus: Implementation and Examples of Application, 03 November 2023, Vishakhapatnam (Vizag.), Andhra Pradesh, India
International Workshop of the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus: Implementation and Examples of Application, 04 October 2022, Adelaide, Australia
7. Dual Use of Irrigation Water for Food Production and Hydropower Generation in Japan by Yukiya SAIKA