Water productivity gains are central for irrigated agriculture. Since agriculture will continue to be the main water user, improved agricultural water use in irrigated and rainfed agriculture will have a direct impact on local and regional water demands. Allocations of raw water out of agriculture to other higher utility uses - municipal supplies, environmental requirements and hydropower generation are already taking place, but there is still scope for these allocations to be optimized in economic and environmental terms.
Productivity gains will be obtained through a strategy of improved rainfed agriculture and the modernization of irrigated agriculture, especially the transformation of rigid irrigation schemes into much more flexible service delivery systems, with a much more structured and equitable participation of water users.
The modernization of irrigated agriculture through technological upgrading and institutional reform will be key. FAO has defined this a as “a process of technical and managerial upgrading of irrigation schemes combined with institutional reforms, if required, with the objective to improve resource utilization and water delivery service to farms”. In this sense, modernization offers boosting water productivity but it also means taking on institutional reform with a purpose, not just reform for the sake of reform. It is systemic and practical without asking that all institutional elements change and it needs to be applied where irrigated agriculture has clear comparative advantage for producing into effective markets. Equally, a much more heightened appreciation of the water cascades and flows across landscapes and the circulation of groundwater within aquifers will lead to informed decisions on the use and re-use of agricultural water.
Therefore irrigation institutions need to adopt a service orientation and improve their performance in economic and environmental terms, including the adoption of new technologies, modernizing infrastructure, application of improved administrative principles and techniques and promotion of user participation.
