The project aims at improving food security and reducing rural poverty of smallholder farmers through providing guidance and technical support to enhance the quality, impact and sustainability of Agricultural Water Management (AWM) investments. Water is crucial to economies and to livelihoods and is central for poverty reduction. Sufficient availability and reliable access to water is commonly a constraint, not only to food production, but also to social and economic development and sustainability. Water plays a pivotal role around which other interventions can be organized.

Les travaux de la FAO pour lutter contre les effets du changement climatique sur les ressources en eau ont donné lieu à la mise en place d'une contribution orientée vers l'action: "Faire face à la pénurie d'eau en agriculture: un cadre global d'action dans le contexte du changement climatique"

The pressing need for increased agricultural production in the years ahead can only be met by more efficient use of our land and water resources including more widespread and better irrigation in those regions where rainfall is inadequate. Production gains will be shortlived unless the attendant hazards of salinization, water logging and lowered fertility are kept in check by effective planning and management based on a thorough understanding of the soil conditions. Soil survey and land classification are generally accepted essential preliminaries to investment in irrigation development.

Todos los datos estadisticos confirman que la agricultura es el sector clava para el manejo del agua, tanto en la actualidad como en las próximas décadas. Sin embargo, el sector del desarrollo rural del agua en el momento actual enfrenta dificultades, comparado con otros sectores competitivos, para obtener la prioridad que merece en los foros internacionales. Son necesarios argumentos nuevos y fuertes para dar al agua en la agricultura el lugar que le corresponde. Las prespectivas para el futuro son claras.

Revista internacional de silvicultura e industrias forestales

In its recent examination of global water scarcity (1997) the United Nations system identified water quality as one of the key concerns in Asia in the next century. This concern is based on the fact that water quality degradation is so severe in many Asian countries that it is placing serious constraints on economic growth; it continues to be a serious problem for human health and it is causing widespread negative environmental effects.

This note has been prepared for the plenary session of the European Forest Week on “Forests and Water” taking place on Thursday, 23 October 2008 1 . Its objective is to stimulate a lively and well informed discussion by providing the reader with background information and proposing questions which participants in the session may wish to address during the discussion. The note presents linkages between the forest and water sectors, discusses collaboration between the communities and presents international legal and policy frameworks.

One of the guiding mandates within the FAO Constitution is the following: “The Organization shall promote and, where appropriate, shall recommend national and international action with respect to: … the conservation of natural resources and the adoption of improved methods of agricultural production ...”. In many African countries, in addition to low yields, food production is limited by the availability of land and water resources.