Iran's Food-Water Dilemma: The Challenge of Feeding 80 million People in a Dry Zone

Increasing population has posed insurmountable challenges to agriculture for the provision of food security in Iran. As a major agricultural country in the Middle East, Iran has long been on the quest for food self-sufficiency. However, the capability of its land and water resources to realize this ambitious goal has remained equivocal and controversial. Dr. Mohsen Mesgaran will present the results of a recent study with the Stanford Iran 2040 Project that involved a nationwide analysis to evaluate Iran’s land suitability for sustainable agricultural production. In addition to the well-known water scarcity challenge, the study highlights additional constraints superimposed by a paucity of suitable land upon Iran’s agriculture. Finally, preliminary results of an ongoing study to tackle Iran’s water crisis through reducing agricultural water use will be presented.

Dr. Mesgaran currently co-leads the Food and Agriculture initiative of Stanford Iran 2040 Project. Prior to joining Stanford University, he has been a Research Fellow with The University of Melbourne since the completion of his PhD in Agriculture at The University of Tehran in 2011. Researching at the interface of agriculture and ecology, he uses a variety of tools including GIS, big data computing, and climate and crop models to better understand and predict agroecosystems.

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