Revitalizing I r r iga t ion

Adapted from IWMI Issue Brief #9

www.iwmi.org

www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Publications/Water_Issue_Briefs/index.aspx

More than 9 billion people will inhabit the Earth by 2050 Asia and Africa are the two most populous continents on the planet: 60% of the world’s people live in Asia; 12% live in Africa

How will we feed ourselves?

We will need to grow more food

...and we will need to grow it more efficiently

Photo: Nadia Manning

With non-farm water requirements growing and

little land left on which to expand agriculture…

...boosting productivity

from existing irrigated lands is crucial Photo: Sanjini De Silva

In the 1970s and 1980s, increased investments

in irrigation helped lower food prices

But today, irrigation is stagnating...

...it is declining

across Asia and is

absent in much of

Africa

Photo: Karen Conniff

IWMI’s position on

revitalizing irrigation

In 2007, IWMI reported on the

world’s future water needs in

Water for food, water for life:

A comprehensive assessment

of water management in

agriculture 

What were the main conclusions?

Sub-Saharan Africa needs investments

in infrastructure and institutions, and

greater success with those investments

  in Asia, greater yields can be extracted

from existing irrigation

So...

Revitalizing irrigation across these continents is the key to ensuring future food security

Photo: Karen Conniff

What needs to be done?

ASIA

Asia’s irrigation

infrastructure

has stagnated in

recent decades 

Photo: Karen Conniff

Farmers are growing a wider range of crops than the old staples of rice and wheat

Millions of farmers are pumping groundwater when and where they choose

Photo: Sharni Jayawardena

In 2009, IWMI scientists looked at how Asia

– home to 70% of the world’s 277 million

hectares of irrigated land – could boost its

agricultural productivity

70%

30%

AsiaRest of the World

?Using a computer model

named WATERSIM

(http://tinyurl.com/33lxqcq),

the researchers investigated

how food production, water

use and irrigation

requirements might change,

given certain economic and

environmental conditions

The result?

Three quarters of the additional food supply required in Asia could be met by boosting performance from existing irrigated areas 

Photo: Sanjini De Silva

The result?

The study was published in 2009

in Revitalizing Asia’s Irrigation:

To sustainably meet

tomorrow’s food needs, which

proposes investment strategies

designed to reinvigorate irrigation

across Asia

The new farming

requires demand-

driven water

supplies…

…not the supply-

driven allocations

of the old systems

Photo: IRRI

The strategies

Modernizing irrigation schemes for tomorrow’s needs

Supporting farmers’ self-installed irrigation schemes

Expanding capacity and knowledge

Photo: Sharni Jayawardena

Photo: Arindam Mukherji

What needs to be done?

AFRICA

In sub-Saharan Africa, irrigation covers only 5% of the total cultivated area of 183 million hectares – the lowest proportion of any region in the world

Photo: Frank Rijsberman

In 2007, Investment in

Agricultural Water for

Poverty Reduction and

Economic Growth in

Sub-Saharan Africa*

made recommendations

to funding agencies

* A collaborative program of the African Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IWMI and the World Bank

Photo: Andrea Silvernman

Recommendations for Sub-Saharan Africa

Increase investment in

irrigation and other agricultural

water-management methods,

from large- to small-scale

infrastructure

Ensure that benefits from new

initiatives reach the poor,

especially women

Photo: Andrea Silvernman

Photo: Mutsa Masiyadima

Currently in West Africa...

IWMI is leading a project to diagnose underperformance of irrigation schemes in Burkina Faso and Niger

The United States Agency for International Development, governments and other stakeholders will use the results to boost production of the schemes by up to 50%

Photo: IWMI

There are other ways to produce more crop per drop in Asia and Africa:

Land rehabilitation

Integrated approaches at the farm scale

Integrated approaches at the landscape scale

Photo: Michael Melgar

Land rehabilitation

This is more affordable than conventional salinity control measures, and also use less water

Waterlogging and salinization can be managed through on-farm remediation

Photo: Sanjini De Silva

Land rehabilitation

Bright Spots, a project undertaken by IWMI and partners, assessed the vegetative bioremediation of saline and sodic soils and the rehabilitation of abandoned lands in Central Asia

The project promoted useful plant species to lower saline water tables and rehabilitate salt-affected soils

See http://brightspots.centralasia.iwmi.org

Photo: Sanjini De Silva

Land rehabilitation

Bright Spots also evaluated the use of marginal quality drainage waters for crop production and promoted techniques for managing soil salinity

Photo: Sanjini De Silva

Integrated approaches at the farm scale…

Allocating water supplies for multiple uses – such as drinking water, livestock rearing, crop irrigation and fisheries – can increase efficiency… 

Photo: IRRI

Integrated approaches at the farm scale…

For example: storage ponds for controlling water deliveries can be used to farm fish, boosting family nutrition and providing extra income

Photo: Karen Conniff

Integrated approaches at the landscape scale…

Maintaining vital ecosystem

services by managing non-

farmed land – such as

wastelands, rivers and wetlands

– maximizes productivity through

smarter application of technology

and an emphasis on ecosystem-

wide sustainability

Photo: Sanjini de Silva

Where to from here?

“More than anything,

irrigation must respond

to changing

requirements, serving

an increasingly

productive agriculture”

From Water for food water for life: a comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture, 2007

Photo: Bernard Keraita

Water Issue Briefs

highlight issues of

concern to professionals

working in water and land

resources management

and related fields

For more information: www.iwmi.org/Publications/Water_Issue_Briefs/index.aspx IWMI-ScienceBriefs@cgiar.org

Improving the management of land and water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment

Photo: Sharni Jayawardena