Nourish and Flourish: Water Solutions to Feed 10 Billion People on a Livable Planet

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Feeding a global population of 10 billion by 2050 sustainably will depend on how countries balance food production with water resources. Today’s global food systems leave major opportunities untapped in water-rich regions, yet deplete resources where water is scarce. 

Drawing on geospatial analysis, household data, and country experience, Nourish and Flourish introduces a new framework linking water availability, food production, and trade to inform country-level decision making. It shows that when food production aligns with water realities, the same land and water can deliver better results - raising yields, improving livelihoods, creating jobs, and reducing pressure on the environment.

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Inside the Report: Chapters and Insights

This report introduces a new way of framing agricultural water management, linking water availability with food production and trade choices to guide country-specific action. It moves beyond one-size-fits-all solutions—categorizing countries based on their level of water stress and their food import or export status—to help policymakers navigate trade-offs among food security, water sustainability, and economic growth.

Conventional discussion of agricultural water management (AWM) presents a stark trade-off between policies that favor irrigated farming and those that favor the environment; Nourish and Flourish demonstrates how AWM can transform both water and food security within local freshwater thresholds.

Investing in agricultural water management unlocks multiple development dividends against three high strategic development goals: people, prosperity, and planet.

The new water-food nexus framework is grounded in understanding agricultural water management imbalances or disparities in water resource distribution; that is, some regions underuse local freshwater resources whereas others overuse them.

Countries will need to rethink current approaches that are rooted in fragmented, investment-centric models and overdependence on public investment funding, and that often lack performance accountability or emphasis on long-term sustainability.