Water, Food, and Poverty

Colin Chartres and Samyuktha Varma

The vast majority of poor people living in the developing world depend on agriculture to make a living. In terms of actual numbers, about 70% of the poorest live in rural areas where there is little other than agriculture as a means of employment. Farming is known to be one of the most precarious ways to earn a living, however. The difficulty of being a farmer is well-known—apart from having to contend with nature, the cost of basic inputs such as fertilizer, seeds, and water vary greatly depending on where in the world you live. In Asia, for instance, access to water even in areas where physical scarcity is not a problem is often still difficult due to inefficient and inequitable institutions ...