As the 2026 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development opens in New York, the World Farmers’ Organisation reaffirms its position on sustainable water management and calls on Member States to place farmer-led governance at the centre of the SDG 6 review.

As world leaders gather in New York today for the opening of the 2026 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, water is on the agenda. SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation is among the goals under in-depth review this year. Today, UN-Water also convenes a dedicated SDG 6 Special Event launching the UN SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2026.

Farmers manage over one-third of the world’s land and depend on water resources to sustain the global food system. The agricultural sector accounts for 72% of total freshwater withdrawals globally, according to the UN SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2026. However, farmers remain largely absent from water governance frameworks. They are also the first to bear the consequences when water systems fail. Droughts, floods, saltwater intrusion, and soil degradation do not affect abstract ecosystems; they destroy harvests, deplete aquifers, and undermine the livelihoods of rural communities worldwide. The agricultural sector faces a dual crisis of increasing water scarcity and the growing frequency of extreme hydrological events, both of which are intensifying.

Regulatory frameworks that prioritise restrictions over support have not fully recognised farmers as solution providers. Climate finance reaches agriculture at a fraction of what the sector needs — only 3.8% of worldwide mitigation funding — despite agriculture’s central role in water retention, groundwater recharge, and landscape-level resilience. When climate-induced water disasters strike, farmers absorb the loss and damage without adequate support or recognition in international frameworks.

The World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) calls on Member States to reframe the SDG 6 review around a clear principle: water governance cannot succeed without the active participation of those who manage it. This means establishing supportive, farmer-led frameworks instead of restrictive mandates. It means correcting the misclassification of agricultural water use in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which currently blocks producers from accessing climate finance for irrigation innovation and water-efficiency technologies. It means investing in rural water infrastructure with the same urgency as urban systems. And it means including water-related loss and damage from drought, flood, and saltwater intrusion within international support mechanisms that reflect shared responsibility across sectors and governance levels.

The draft Ministerial Declaration under negotiation at this Forum recognises the role of agriculture in water efficiency and agri-food transformation. Yet it stops short of explicitly recognising farmers as the primary stewards of the world’s freshwater and as active participants in water governance. This gap must be addressed now if the commitments made at the HLPF are to translate into meaningful progress on the ground.

Achieving SDG 6 by 2030 requires recognising that farmers are not a constraint on water security. They are its frontline custodians.

The full WFO Position on Sustainable Water Management, adopted by the WFO Board in May 2026, is available HERE.