Los recursos hídricos y la agricultura en el Istmo Centroamericano

La relación de la agricultura con el agua está enmarcada por la competencia establecida entre los diferentes usuarios del recurso. Además de grandes beneficios, como el incremento de la producción agrícola y el mejoramiento económico y social de la población rural, el desarrollo de la agricultura intensiva de riego ha acarreado impactos negativos, sobre todo en el medio ambiente.A raíz de la creciente escasez relativa que presenta el recurso como resultado de diversos factores económicos y sociales, se ha puesto en marcha una nueva visión de la gestión del agua, incorporada a las políticas públicas casi en todos los países del mundo. En el Istmo Centroamericano sus avances son pequeños a causa de que la condición de los recursos hídricos en dicha región adolece de grandes carencias en cuanto a instrumentos políticos, económicos e institucionales. El aprovechamiento de los recursos hídricos, y en particular para riego, es bajo en los países de la región, a lo que se agrega el predominio del método de riego por gravedad, que es el menos eficiente.Se determinó que Costa Rica, con tasas sostenidas de incremento de la superficie de riego en el decenio de 1990, ha sido también el país con capacidad de mantener la producción y las exportaciones de productos dinámicos en niveles altos, a diferencia de Guatemala y Honduras, que entraron con ímpetu en este mercado pero decayeron a fines de esa década.Los resultados del análisis de panel de datos para identificar los elementos comunes entre los países centroamericanos con respecto al vínculo entre el riego y el mejoramiento de la agricultura revelan que efectivamente el riego es un componente importante para explicar el comportamiento de la producción total de cada país. La elasticidad entre riego y producción agrícola en el Istmo Centroamericano tiene un impacto unitario, o de uno a uno.Las conclusiones del estudio indican la necesidad de asignar mayor importancia al riego en las políticas agrícolas y de inversiones, por constituir éste un factor determinante para la elevación de la producción y las exportaciones agrícolas. El riego, sobre todo si está orientado a los estratos pobres de agricultores, coadyuva a la reducción de la pobreza y al fortalecimiento de la seguridad alimentaria en las zonas rurales. Freshwater resources and agriculture in the Central American Isthmus Abstract: The relationship between agriculture and freshwater resources is marked by the competition amongst its users. However, the consequences of links between agricultural activities and use of water are more evident and contradictory than between other resources. Besides the attractive benefits such as the increase of yields and the improvement of rural population households, the development of irrigation intensive agriculture has generated serious environmental problems.The relative water scarcity, which originated from social economic factors, has made it necessary to establish more complex concepts into the framework surrounding the integral management of water resources. This new vision about the management of water was incorporated into public policies around the world; and Central America is no exception. However, only small advances are noticeable due to deficiencies in political, legal and economic fields concerning the use of water in the aforementioned region.The water utilization of Central American countries is low, especially in terms of irrigation. Moreover, the predominant technology is surface irrigation which is considered to be a less efficient method. The use of more advanced irrigation technologies is not widely spread. This situation is therefore not in harmony with the role that irrigation agriculture has to play in the economic and social development of Central American countries.This study shows, for example, that Costa Rica has held increasing irrigation rates during the nineties and has been able to maintain a steady growth in the production and export of dynamic agricultural products. In contrast, Guatemala and Honduras, which are also countries that entered the market of dynamic agricultural goods in beginning of nineties, showed decreased production levels at the end of decade, in connection with reduced irrigation rates.An analysis based on our data was carried out in order to identify the common elements among Central American countries with respect to the link between irrigation and improvement of agriculture. The results highlighted the importance of irrigation for explaining agricultural production in these countries, and thus the elasticity between irrigation and agricultural production having a unitary meaning, or in other words, a one to one relationship.In conclusion, it can be said that it is necessary to pay high attention to the development of investment in irrigation and agricultural policies, since this activity plays an important role in the increase of production and export of agricultural goods in Central American countries. Furthermore international experience demonstrated that irrigation activities in poor rural areas contribute to poverty reduction and helps secure families' food supplies. Poverty reduction can also be attributed to the generation of agricultural and non-agricultural employment. Subsequently, these factors increase the living standards of rural households.