Resource information
Agricultural water management is a vital
practice in ensuring reduction, and environmental
protection. After decades of successfully expanding
irrigation and improving productivity, farmers and managers
face an emerging crisis in the form of poorly performing
irrigation schemes, slow modernization, declining
investment, constrained water availability, and
environmental degradation. More and better investments in
agricultural water are needed. In response, the World Bank,
in conjunction with many partner agencies, has compiled a
selection of good experiences that can guide practitioners
in the design of quality investments in agricultural water.
The messages of this publication center around the key
challenges to agricultural water management, specifically:
building policies and incentives; designing institutional
reforms; investing in irrigation systems improvement and
modernization; investing in groundwater irrigation;
investing in drainage and water quality management;
investing in water management in rain-fed agriculture;
investing in agricultural water management in multipurpose
operations; coping with extreme climatic conditions; and
assessing the social, economic, and environmental impacts of
agricultural water investments.
