Water-Smart Agriculture in Arid Regions: Lessons from Sino-German Cooperation

As a country with 17% of the world’s population but only 7% of global freshwater, China is facing growing water stress. This challenge is felt even more keenly due to stark regional disparities: while the arid northwest holds much of the country’s farmland, it has only a fraction of the water resources. Yet agriculture, driven by food security goals and economic incentives, continues to expand in these regions.

This panel will examine strategies and technologies to use water more efficiently in agriculture under such constraints. Drawing on scientific research and practical experience from Sino-German technical cooperation on joint projects in China, it will explore how to modernise irrigation systems, improve water reuse, and prevent soil salinisation caused by inappropriate irrigation and drainage practices to ensure solutions that balance agricultural production with environmental and climate protection.

The lessons learned here apply beyond China. Similar pressures affect not only other arid regions in Central Asia but also parts of Germany, such as Brandenburg, where droughts and irregular rainfall induced by climate change increasingly threaten farming. The discussion thus aims to highlight solutions that are transregionally applicable and thus of global relevance with regard to building resilient agriculture in of the face of growing water stress.