Achieving Water, Energy, and Food Security in Nepal Through Nexus Approach to Planning and Development

Nepal’s agriculture sector contributes 29% to national GDP and provides employment to about 60% of the labor force. The agricultural development planning in the country follows the sectoral or silo approach failing to understand and adopt the intricate nexus relationship and linkages among water, energy, and food (W–E–F) production and the protection of environment. This paper identifies problems and causes of low agricultural productivity and demonstrates that abundant water resources are available for irrigation of existing rainfed lands to increase agricultural productivity and meet multi-sectoral energy requirement of the country. It presents three case studies on the application of the nexus framework to improve W–E–F productivity. The first two pertain to multipurpose development projects under construction phase in Nepal while the third pertains to greenhouse gas emissions reduction through conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification at field level across the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains, including two Terai districts of Nepal. The paper provides a perspective on the importance of W–E–F nexus as an integrated planning framework to address the integral issues and achieve the SDGs by developing countries. It argues that the developing countries whose economies are primarily dependent on the natural resources cannot afford to ignore the W–E–F nexus framework to meet the growing needs of water, energy, and food and the sustainability of the natural resource base for the current and future generations. It further discusses the necessity of the nexus perspective for the sustainable development of Nepal where water resources are central for the generation of energy and development of irrigation infrastructures to increase food production. This enhances a circular relation among the nexus elements in which water becomes the key and central element that drives the circularity of the nexus. This is critically important for Nepal because water is the only abundant resource available that must be utilized effectively integrating the development of hydro-energy, irrigation infrastructures, flood control, and human and industrial consumptions