water resources management and food security in zayandeh rud basin: an integrated river basin analysis

irrigated agriculture is an important contributor to the expansion of national food supplies and is expected to play a major role in food security of developing countries. such countries face water crisis for securing the food staples. well designed water resource policies potentially can improve the water allocation and use efficiency as well as the food security objectives. this paper presents an hyrdro-economic model implemented through the development of an integrated basin framework for sustaining water resources uses and addressing the food security goals. the objective is to maximize the discounted net present value of the sum of both use and environmental economic benefits over a 10 year time horizon, subject to the basin’s hydrological, agronomic, institutional, and economic structure. using this approach, optimal water allocations and uses is examined in zayandeh-rud river basin of central iran. this policy is evaluated against a background of two alternative hydrologic supply scenarios. three important data sources including survey data, incidental studies, reports, and selected expert knowledge were used to assign all needed data for the model. results reveal that this program not only increases basin's irrigation efficiency, but also improves the food security through increasing proportional sharing of downstream irrigated districts in the food staple productions under reduced water supply. the study approach and the results contributes to realize effective policies toward sustainable management of water resources under water scarcity circumstances. we conclude that river basin analysis within an integrated framework would considerably enhance the effectiveness of sustainable water resource management as well as provide food security for current and future generations.