Keynote speaker at Friday's 19th World Congress of Soil Science in Brisbane, Dr Colin Chartres, says doubling the volume of water is required to double food production.
"There are serious doubts whether there is enough wateravailable to do this, at least in the right places," Dr Chartres, director general of the International Water Management Institute, said.
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"Currently one litre of water is required to produce one calorie of food.
"Recent investigations by a team of over 700 international scientists have demonstrated that if we continue with the currently low levels of water productivity, we will not have enough water to produce enough food."
Dr Chartres said the world needs a "Blue-Green revolution" to deliver water productivity increases.
"This involves significant investment in reducing water losses from water storages and canal distribution systems and similarly require significant on-farm investment in better irrigation technologies."
The congress was told food crises would become more common in the next 40 years and food production needs double by 2050 to feed an estimated population of 9.2 billion.
More than 1800 of the world's leading soil scientists have spent the past week in Brisbane discussing major issues facing the world in relation to global food security, global warming and agricultural sustainability.
