The United Nations food agency today launched a framework that will help combat food insecurity by providing methods to better manage water resources in agriculture and reduce waste.

The initiative, entitled Coping with water scarcity: An action framework for agriculture and food security, seeks to encourage practices that will improve water management, such as modernizing irrigation schemes, recycling and re-using wastewater, implementing mechanisms to reduce water pollution, and storing rainwater at farms to reduce drought-related risks, among others.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which created the framework, drought in some parts of the world has hurt global grain production and contributed to a spike in food prices nearly every other year since 2007, making it essential to focus on the way water is managed throughout the entire food chain.