World Food Forum 2026: FAO calls for smarter water governance to safeguard food security

FAO launches digital platform to guide sustainable irrigation investment

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu delivering his remarks at the Rome Water Dialogue “Global Dialogue on Water Tenure - Innovative water governance for food and security”.

Rome – Strengthening water and food security requires more efficient water use, fairer allocation and a shift towards circular and regenerative approaches, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said today at a high-level session of the Rome Water Dialogue 2026 during the World Food Forum.

Recent El Niño events have underscored the urgency, Qu noted, showing how quickly shifts in rainfall can cause droughts and floods, resulting in the loss of human life, livestock and crops. These extreme events are putting greater pressure on scarce water resources and intensifying competition among agriculture, communities, industry and ecosystems.

“Water security is food security. Water is food. Water is life. We cannot achieve one without the other. And we cannot secure water without changing how agriculture uses and manages it,” the Director-General said.

The Director-General called for wider use of the 4R approach- reduce, reuse, recycle, and replenish. The approach can help countries produce more and better with less water while reducing agriculture’s impact on water resources.

He set out four interconnected priorities: improving water-use efficiency through innovation, reliable data and transparent water accounting; ensuring fair and reliable access, particularly for small-scale producers, women, Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable communities; strengthening preparedness for droughts and floods through early warning and proactive risk management; and protecting forests, rivers, lakes, soils and ecosystems that regulate water cycles and sustain agricultural production.