Research at the Institute focuses on improving how water and land resources are managed, with the aim of underpinning food security and reducing poverty while safeguarding the environment.

These contributed, along with new fertilizers, pesticides and high-yielding varieties of seeds, to helping many countries produce greater quantities of food crops.

By the mid-1990s, competition for water resources was rising, thanks to a larger global population, expanding cities and increasing industrial applications.

A new approach was needed that would consider it within a river basin context, encompassing competing users and the environment.

[10] Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, also highlighted water scarcity at the 2009 Nobel Conference.

IWM's work in Gujarat, India, exemplifies how improving water management can have an influence on peoples' livelihoods.

They should then provide farmers with a high-quality power supply for a set number of hours each day at a price they could afford.

Prior to the change, tube-well owners had been holding rural communities to ransom by ‘stealing’ power for irrigation.

After the cables were separated, rural households, schools and industries had a much higher-quality power supply, which in turn boosted individuals’ well-being.