Obayomi et al. (2025) Sustainable agriculture in the face of water scarcity: Opportunities, challenges, and global perspectives

Identification

• Journal: Next research.
• Year: 2025
• Authors: Oluwatobi Victoria Obayomi, Rueben Attah, Sheikh Mohammad Sayem, Lukman Shehu Mustapha, Samuel Oluwaseun Kolade, Kehinde Shola Obayomi
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nexres.2025.101293

Research Groups

• Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Nigeria.
• Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
• Department of Geoscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
• Department of Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.
• Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
• Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, Victoria University, Werribee, VIC, Australia.

Short Summary

This paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of reclaimed water applications across the global food system, evaluating its potential to mitigate water scarcity through nutrient recycling and circular bioeconomy strategies. It identifies technical, regulatory, and socioeconomic barriers while proposing a multidisciplinary framework that integrates water reuse with precision and controlled-environment agriculture.

Objective

• To evaluate the technical, environmental, and nutritional implications of using reclaimed water across various agricultural pathways (irrigation, hydroponics, aquaponics, and food processing).
• To identify major barriers to adoption and propose a framework linking water reuse with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with specific case studies and legislative comparisons from Israel, Spain, California (USA), Australia, China, Singapore, and the Netherlands.
• Temporal Scale: Literature review focusing on publications from 2015 to 2024, with groundwater withdrawal projections extending to 2050 and climate impacts to 2100.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Systematic literature synthesis and comparative analysis of global water reuse standards and groundwater withdrawal scenarios (based on 900 simulations of peak-and-decline behavior).
• Data sources: Peer-reviewed articles from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar; authoritative reports from the FAO and United Nations; and legislative data from the EU, US EPA, and national regulatory bodies.

Main Results

• Water Demand: Agriculture consumes nearly 70% of global freshwater; non-renewable groundwater withdrawals are projected to peak around 2050, reaching 15% of total global withdrawals.
• Yield Improvements: Irrigation with treated wastewater significantly enhances productivity; for example, sweet corn yields in Australia increased from 40,870 to 61,020 cobs per hectare, and tomato yields in Spain rose from 66,900 to 79,600 kg/ha.
• Treatment Efficiency: Advanced technologies like Reverse Osmosis (RO) can remove up to 99% of dissolved salts, heavy metals, and pathogens, though they require high energy inputs.
• Nutrient Recovery: Reclaimed water serves as a dual-purpose resource for irrigation and fertigation, providing essential Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P), which reduces reliance on synthetic fertilizers.
• Regulatory Standards: The EU established four quality categories (A to D) for agricultural reuse, with Category A requiring <10 CFU/100 mL of E. coli for raw food crops.
• Global Leaders: Israel leads globally by reusing over 85% of its treated wastewater for agriculture, particularly in arid regions.

Contributions

• Proposes a multidisciplinary framework that specifically links reclaimed water with precision agriculture and controlled-environment agriculture (CEA).
• Addresses literature gaps by integrating nutrient recovery with water reuse across the entire food system, rather than focusing solely on traditional field irrigation.
• Provides a comparative analysis of risks, costs, and adoption potential for different water-reuse approaches (e.g., MAR, CEA, and blended systems).

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Obayomi2025Sustainable,
  author = {Obayomi, Oluwatobi Victoria and Attah, Rueben and Sayem, Sheikh Mohammad and Mustapha, Lukman Shehu and Kolade, Samuel Oluwaseun and Obayomi, Kehinde Shola},
  title = {Sustainable agriculture in the face of water scarcity: Opportunities, challenges, and global perspectives},
  journal = {Next research.},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.nexres.2025.101293},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nexres.2025.101293}
}

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