ContentsWater Saving in Agriculture - Solutions for Water

Contents (i)Water Saving in Agriculture

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage

Water Saving in Agriculture(ii)

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The Secretary GeneralInternational Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID)48 Nyaya Marg, ChanakyapuriNew Delhi 110 021, Indiaor by e-mail to <[email protected]>

ISBN 81-89610-08-2

Publication No. 95

© ICID 2008

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) was establishedin 1950 as a Scientific, Technical, Non-commercial, Non-GovernmentalInternational Organization (NGO) with headquarters at New Delhi, India. TheCommission is dedicated to enhancing the worldwide supply of food andfibre by improving water and land management, especially the productivityof irrigated and drained lands. The mission of ICID is to stimulate andpromote the development and application of the arts, sciences and techniquesof engineering, agriculture, economics, ecological and social sciences inmanaging water, and land resources for irrigation, drainage and floodmanagement using research and development, and capacity building. ICIDaims to achieve sustainable irrigated agriculture through integrated waterresources development and management, ICID network spreads to 106countries all over the world.

Contents (iii)CONTENTS

Foreword ------------ (v)

Preface ---------- (vii)

Preamble ----------- (ix)

Introduction ----------- (xi)

CHAPTER 1. Water Savings in Irrigated Agriculture:Success Stories and Lessons Learned -------------- 1

1.1 Introduction -------------- 1

1.2 Water savings challenges -------------- 1

1.3 WatSave goals -------------- 2

1.4 Water saving activities in some countries -------------- 2

1.5 Conclusions, lessons learned and the way forward ------------ 19

CHAPTER 2. Innovative Water Saving Approaches ------------ 23

2.1 Introduction ------------ 23

2.2 Precision irrigation ------------ 24

2.3 Improved rice-paddy irrigation practices ------------ 31

2.4 Better monitoring and control of irrigation ------------ 36

2.5 Integrated approach in agricultural drainage ------------ 44

2.5 Up-scaling/ replicating on a large scale ------------ 49

CHAPTER 3. Impact Assessment of Watsave Awards ------------ 57

3.1 Introduction ------------ 57

3.2 Summary of the impact assessment ------------ 58

3.3 Lessons learned and key messages ------------ 68

CHAPTER 4. The Way Forward ------------ 71

4.1 Future irrigated area expansion and water demand scenario ------------ 71

4.2 Water saving approaches in irrigated agriculture ------------ 72

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4.3 Suggestions for sustainable development and adoption ofwater saving in agriculture ------------ 75

ANNEXES ------------ 83

I List of WatSave contributions ------------ 83

II List of WatSave Award winners ------------ 87

III List of WatSave Award Sponsors ------------ 89

IV Questionnaire for ex -Post Review of ICID WatSaveInnovation Impacts ------------ 91

(For full text of the WatSave Contrrbutions, please see the CD-ROM at the insideback cover)

Contents (v)FOREWORD

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED –”TheEarth Summit”) held in June 1992 was the culmination of the worldwide actionprogramme designed to inform, guide and assist the world community to addressthe Global Environmental challenges of the 1990s and beyond. Of particularsignificance was the concurrent publication of AGENDA 21 which provides theframework for Sustainable Development into the 21st Century.

Various ICID members had been principal participants in the formulation of theWater and Environment sectors of AGENDA 21 following which in September 1993at The Hague, the ICID 15TH International Congress addressed “Water Managementin the Next Century” as the central theme. The Congress concluded by publishing“The Hague ICID Declaration” with Action 1 being:

“ICID will promote new programmes for water savings in agriculture to enable therelease of water for other emerging high priority uses”.

With the wholehearted support of some National Committees, ICID launched theWATSAVE Initiative in late 1993. The ICID Family responded magnificently andrapidly transformed into a unified global force to meet the challenges of The HagueDeclaration. Each year ICID member National Committees and related groupsreport the many billion cubic meters (BCMs) of water saved in their regions tobecome available for other uses, all as described in this Watsave publication.

Since 1998 annual Watsave Prizes have been awarded for actual water savings made,sustained, validated and independently selected by an International Panel of Judges,and these individual achievements are the foundation stones of the growingsuccesses of the Watsave initiative. Perhaps above all it also demonstrates the age- old truth that individuals do matter as we strive to improve our differing societies.

The renowned philosopher and scientist Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) wrote that inmaking his scientific advances “If I have seen further it is by standing on theshoulders of giants who had gone before me”. Isaac Newton’s “giants” wereAristotle and Galileo. For ICID the “giants” include the Watsave past prize winners.We wish success to the future prize aspirants in the sure knowledge that by“standing on the shoulders of the giants before them, they will see further” andthereby fulfill the ICID mission of ‘Managing Water for Sustainable Agriculture’.

John HennessyPresident Hon., ICID

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Contents (vii)PREAFACE

We have to thank President Hon. John Hennessy for the introduction of the WatSaveawards to celebrate actual achievements of agriculture in saving water. Thisrecognised the growing competition for water, and the substantial contribution thatagriculture could make in ensuring adequate water for all.

In fact we need many times more units of water for growing our food than for otherpurposes, about 100 times more at the level of basic existence. Fortunately, muchof the water used for growing food is from sources that others cannot use so easily,most obviously direct from rainfall and water that is available only intermittentlyor in certain seasons. Also, as we move on from basic existence, much of thedomestic use of water is pretty wasteful. Yet domestic use always seems to be morevirtuous than using water for food, even though our existence depends on havingenough to eat as well as to drink. Therefore, agriculture has to fight hard to establishthe virtues of what it does, and having the WatSave awards is for me, an importantpart of that. WatSave provides the evidence that as a sector, we really are strivingfor “more crop per drop” and that our use of water, although necessarily large, ismoving towards ever higher levels of productivity.

It is important to note that the water savings recognised by WatSave have beenshown to the satisfaction of the judges to be actual achievements (not ideas or meregood intentions), and that they have to be truly outstanding, otherwise no awardis made. Also, it is the achievement that obtains the award, not the importance orreputation of the person attached to it, and nominations for the awards come throughthe ICID national organisations, rather than through some central process. This givesus the opportunity to discover some really outstanding achievements from somequite surprising quarters.

I am very grateful to all those involved, especially those who have sponsored theawards or given their time as judges, and of course to the individuals and nationalorganisations who have submitted to the process, whether you were successful ornot. You have all helped WatSave to become a beacon for our sector.

The volumes of water saved in the main category of award have been trulyremarkable, sometimes simply because of the scale on which they have beenimplemented. Other awards, particularly in the technology category, have givenus the means by which savings can be replicated on an even greater scale than seenin the original award. Yet other awards, particularly in the young professionalcategory, have given us examples of how the next generation is capable of drivingchanges in the way we use water and fulfilling the ICID purpose of “managing waterfor sustainable agriculture”.

Personally, I am very interested in identifying technologies that could underpin thedoubling of food production needed to meet growing demand over the next 20-25years, and also achieve all the other things demanded of our sector, includinggrowing more bio-fuels and better stewardship of the environment. This is because

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the role of technology has long been under-appreciated in favour of emphasis onbetter management and the perception that technology is only about equipment andmachinery. Well, technology can involve equipment and machinery, but primarilytechnology is the “application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes”; aprocess of building and applying knowledge. The WatSave awards give us thatknowledge with demonstrated examples of its practical application and outstandingresults. In compiling ICID’s list of top-ten technologies that could drive the nextgreen revolution, several have been taken from the WatSave awards described inthis publication.

One question asked of these awards is what will the saved water be used for? Almostinvariably, the answer has been that the savings will be used for more agriculturalproduction, particularly growing more food. Certainly at the global level, this extrafood is needed, but locally, there will be many places where the water saved needsto go to other uses. This was what was anticipated when the WatSave awards wereintroduced. The full significance of the WatSave awards will not be realised untilthey achieve wider recognition. Hopefully, this publication will help that to beachieved.

We also need to recognise that the majority of the outstanding achievementscelebrated by WatSave awards have been for applications not confined to waterengineering, but demonstrate a knowledge of the whole process. Outstandingachievements in water saving do not come from stopping a few leaks, but showinghow water can be better used. I hope that WatSave will continue to recognise thisholistic approach and have the opportunity to celebrate achievements ranging frommore precise and productive irrigation at one end of the spectrum, to improvedtechniques of conservation agriculture at the other. In this context, the WatSaveawards have still greater capacity and relevance to show the world better ways of“managing water for sustainable agriculture”

P S LeePresident, ICID

Contents (ix)PREAMBLE

It is now more generally acknowledged that irrigated agriculture is the main engineof growth in most developing economies and can have positive impacts far beyondthe economy of crop production. However, irrigation is now coming underincreasing scrutiny as availability of fresh water resources is shrinking andcompetition among different water use sectors intensifies.

The major challenge facing irrigated agriculture today is producing more food usingless water per unit of output i.e. increasing water productivity in both, irrigated andrainfed agriculture. All those involved in irrigation water management – managers,farmers, workers need to be encouraged and guided, through appropriate policiesand incentives, to save/ conserve water and to minimize wastages to mitigatenegative environmental impacts. This goal will only be achieved if the appropriatewater saving technologies, management tools, and policies are in place. It will benecessary to see as to how innovative ideas and techniques are put in to practice.All stakeholders from policy makers to farmers need to be roped in this endeavor.We need to identify opportunities for water saving on continual basis.

Globally, ICID represents a community of irrigation (and drainage) professionalsconcocted to deal with the challenge of sustainable development and managementof water resources for sustainable agriculture. ICID instituted ‘WatSave Awards’ in1997 to recognize professionals for their outstanding contribution to water savingin agriculture across the world. Since its establishment, there has been anoverwhelming response and over 135 nominations from ICID national committeeswere received. So far, 24 awards have been given to the professionals coming from12 countries across the world.

Earlier, a booklet providing primary information about the water savingpractices adopted by some of the ICID member countries was published in 1995.Subsequently, a comprehensive document “THE WATSAVE SCENARIO”comprising information received from 27 countries was published in 1997. Thedocument was very well received not only by ICID member countries but byinternational organizations, as well.

The present document is a compilation in a different form. Besides bringing out ina generic sense selected experts across the world have contributed to enhance itscontents. The case studies of successful water savings from Australia, Brazil, China,India, Egypt, Korea, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, Turkmenistan, and USA arehighlighted and as obvious, water saving efforts is more conspicuous in countrieshaving significant irrigated agriculture. It is hoped that the innovative ideas andpractices captured in this compilation would enthuse other countries and ICID’smission to spread ‘best practices’ would stand accomplished.

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the encouragement received from PresidentPeter Lee in bringing out this publication. He has pioneered the search for of ’Top

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10 Technologies’ that could revolutionize future food production, doubling it by2050 with only a modest increase in water use. I congratulate Vice President Dr EngHussein El-Atfy, Chairman, Working Group on Water Saving for Agriculture (WG-WATS) for his leadership and in conceptualizing the idea of preparing such adocument by his comprehensive contribution as Chapter 1. At the Central Office,thanks are due to Dr S A Kulkarni, Executive Secretary for his pursuit in compiling,editing and preparing Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this book in the best possible manner.The secretarial support rendered by V Prakash, and desk top publishing work byKeshav Dev Tanwar and Madhu Mohanan, Program Officer deserve appreciation.

I hope that this book will be a rich source of knowledge and reference workproviding an inspiration for those professionals engaged in aspiring ‘more and morecrop per drop’.

M. GopalakrishnanSecretary General

Contents (xi)INTRODUCTION

Water is the fundamental substance for all human beings. Water is becoming scarcein quantity and inadequate in quality in many areas around the world. With theincrease in population, urbanization and industrialization, the demand of water forvarious uses is increasing continuously, thereby reducing per capita wateravailability. Irrigation, in general, requires relatively large amount of water andtherefore, there is a need to develop and adopt suitable water saving/conservationmeasures. In many arid and semi-arid regions, agriculture is one of the majoreconomic driving forces contributing to more than 50% of the national gross income.Agriculture represents the main activity for a large part of the rural population andconstitutes a fabric of social relationships. Nevertheless, due to unfavorable climaticconditions, agriculture is widely relied on irrigation which accounts for more than80% of the total freshwater abstraction.

Water management, through reduction of losses and water saving alone will not beenough. The focus, therefore, has to be on both management and development ofwater resources. Water conservation in agriculture sector could be achieved bycreating storages, reducing conveyance losses, efficient water management, landtreatment, reducing water demand, reuse of waste water, conjunctive use of surfaceand groundwater, improved O & M of irrigation infrastructure, rationalization ofwater rates, integrated use of poor quality and good quality waters, technologyupgrade, etc. Investments for smarter water-saving agricultural practices and betterwater management are urgently needed. Agriculture has the potential to resolve theworld’s water crisis by using the scarce water resources much more productively.A move from supply - to demand-driven and service-oriented water managementneeds to be put on the top of water policy makers’ agenda.

Currently, there is a general agreement in the global community on the challengesfacing water resources management. These challenges are - meeting the basic needsas access to safe water and sanitation is everybody’s basic human right; securing thefood supply; protecting ecosystems; sharing water resources through sharing thebenefits; managing the risks like - floods, droughts, pollution and other water-related epidemics. The challenges also comprise valuing water where it reflects itseconomic, social, environmental and cultural values for all its uses. Moreover,“Governing Water Wisely” which requires better coordination and institutionalstrengthening to overcome the fragmented responsibilities in the field of integratedwater resources management.

One of the fundamentals of increasing water use efficiency is the involvement ofall stakeholders as much as possible in the various management activities. As wateris essential to all forms of life and prosperity, competition for water among usersis already escalating as growing needs outstrip the limited resources. The objectiveshould be to transform the competition between stakeholders into a form ofcooperation that achieves the largest overall revenue with the least sectoral harm.Private stakeholders’ associations can provide counterweights to the governmentdepartment’s own technical agencies to enhance water use efficiency.

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International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) believes that there isa scope for water saving in irrigated agriculture by improving water use efficiencyand adopting improved technologies. Toward this end, ICID has initiated aWATSAVE movement through its Hague Declaration in 1993. The WATSAVEProgram focuses on water saving activities all over the world, exchangingexperiences and building partnership between countries. The explicit objectives ofWG-WATSAVE are: 1) Promote water conservation in member-countries; 2)Understand and compare water conservation programs and lessons learned; 3)Provide guidelines on national and regional water conservation programs; and 4)Promote and enhance partnerships between member-countries.

I Hereby call upon harmonizing our on-the-ground-efforts to secure all neededmechanisms for promoting successful water conservation among ICID-membercountries as part of appropriate water management; understanding and comparingwater conservation programs and lessons; strengthening the framework of data/information dissemination; promoting effective training; empowering technologytransfer regarding the issues of water saving and conservation around the world;providing guidelines to member countries on national and regional waterconservation programs; promoting the building of partnerships between membercountries; and recognizing water saving successes. The WG-WATSAVE looksforward to your support and enlightening advocacy for continuing our activities onwater saving.

As a member of the ICID family, I would like to express my sincere appreciationsand gratitude to all the members of the WG-WATSAVE for their support andvaluable work in furthering the group’s activities. My deepest thanks go to all thoseauthors who have shared their valuable research outcomes/ success stories of watersaving for the benefit of all. Furthermore, I would like to thank Peter S Lee, ICIDPresident, M Gopalakrishnan, Secretary General, and Dr. S A Kulkarni, ExecutiveSecretary at the Central Office for their whole hearted cooperation and excellentsupport in bringing out this book. Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues fromother Working Groups and national committees who have always been supportiveof the WG-WATSAVE for their enlightening remarks.

Dr. Hussein El-AtfyChairman, WG-WATSVice Pres. Hon, ICID

WATSAVE Award Winner (1999)

Success Stories and Lessons Learned 1

Water Savings in IrrigatedAgriculture: Success Stories

and Lessons Learned

1.1 Introduction

The Earth Summit’s Agenda 21 adopted at Rio, 1992 stressed the need for ensuringadequate food and water for all the people on this globe. To feed the growing humanpopulation, which is likely to be about 8.0 billion by the year 2025, it is estimatedthat present food production will have to be doubled and much of which will comethrough irrigated agriculture. Presently, some 40% of total crop output iscontributed by about 276 million hectares of irrigated land i.e. 18% of world arablefarmland. To keep pace with the increased food demand, the current irrigated areashould be expanded by nearly 30%. To achieve this expansion 15-20% more freshwater will be required.

Currently, the irrigation sector shares the biggest global freshwater withdrawals(70-80%). Use of water in agriculture must therefore be handled very meticulously.Nevertheless, there is scope for water saving in irrigated agriculture by improvingwater use efficiency and adopting improved technologies. Towards this end,International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) has initiated aWATSAVE program through its ‘Hague Declaration’ in 1993. The WATSAVEProgram focuses on water saving activities all over the world, exchangingexperiences and building partnership between countries. The aim of this chapter isto highlight some successful water saving (WATSAVE) case studies in some ICIDmember countries, and it concludes with lessons learned for dissemination andexchange of experiences.

1.2 Water Saving Challenges

Developing and developed countries have different characteristic features as regardsthe water resources development and management and so also the issues andchallenges. These may be stated as follows;

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• Developing Countries: Poor infrastructure, need for rehabilitation of oldsystems, low irrigation efficiencies, negligible reuse and use of poor qualitywaters for irrigation, and use of traditional/ conventional irrigation methods.

• Developed Countries: Water quality management, environmentalsustainability, use of high-tech irrigation systems, valuing water, integratedand holistic approach towards water management, and public awareness inwater saving.

1.3 Watsave Goals

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) established a WorkTeam on Water Saving in Agriculture (WT-WATS) in 1997 with a focus on watersaving activities all over the world through the implementation of innovative watermanagement or innovative technology for water saving. These goals are:

• To promote successful water conservation practices among member countriesas part of appropriate water management,

• To understand and compare water conservation programs and lessonslearned among member countries,

• To provide guidelines to member countries on national and regional waterconservation programs,

• To promote the building of partnerships between member countries, and• To recognize water saving successes.

Such information will be of great interest to all and will also act as stimulation forother countries to initiate their own action plan for water conservation and waterresources management.

1.4 Water Saving Activities in Some Countries

Fortunately, many countries have initiated necessary actions towards massive watersaving measures while developing their water resources with tangible results; onthe other hand, several others are in the process of planning and implementation.The following section introduces different water saving and conservation measuresadopted in some countries in Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean, as well as inAustralia.

In 1996, a questionnaire was circulated to 66 countries inviting detailed informationon their activities in water saving, water use and about the procedure and controlsestablished for saving water. Information was also requested about the potential forreuse of municipal waste water, industrial effluents and/or use of recycled drainagewater or desalinated water. Responses were received from as many as 27 countriesaround the world. Four of those submitted only brief notes about their activities but


seven countries furnished data from their case studies also. The coverage in termsof area irrigated in the world as represented by these 27 responses is quite large i.e.60% of the world’s irrigated area. The responses from Africa represent 40% of theirrigated area of the continent and Asian responses constitute 92% of the irrigatedarea in Asia. It is true that the South American experience is not yet well reflected-with only 14% of irrigated area being represented by the responses received.Subsequently, a comprehensive document “THE WATSAVE SCENARIO” waspublished by ICID in 1997.

4.1 Water Saving Activities in Asia

Countries in Asia show different temporal and spatial characteristics as regards theirwater resources development and management. While some countries suffer fromflood hazards, others experience droughts. Nevertheless, many Asian countries areadopting water saving and conservation actions.

China

Water conservation and increased water use efficiency have become the driving forceof China’s irrigation development. Various water saving measures and modernizationworks are being taken up on large scale since 1990’s. As a result the share of irrigationwater withdrawal in the total fresh water use in China has been decreased from 80%in 1980 to about 60% in 2005. China currently uses 310 billion cubic meters (BCM)of water for irrigation out of its total withdrawal of 532 BCM and irrigates an areaof about 56 million ha. The government aims to extend the irrigated area to 60 millionha by the year 2015, without further increase in the allocation to the agriculturalsector.

The water saving measures which are being practiced in China include: studyingand formulating water saving systems suitable to the conditions of China,accelerating the rehabilitation of medium and large irrigation districts and othersmall projects, providing strong support to the extension of highly efficientWATSAVE irrigation and soil moisture monitoring and forecasting program,exploiting and utilizing the agricultural soil and water resources, devoting moreefforts towards extension of major WATSAVE measures, formulating and perfectionof the water management laws and promoting the reform of the system, and waterpricing.

Several actions were taken up for implementation of these measures including -strengthening the publicity and education of water savings and optimum use ofwater resources, and raising the people’s awareness in water savings; establishingwater measuring system at sub lateral canals and farm ditches of canal irrigationdistricts and collecting water charges on volumetric basis; establishing andperfecting the regulations on protection of groundwater level; establishing andimproving the water user associations (WUAs) at sub lateral canal level in canal


Water Saving Practices in Rice Paddy Irrigation in Guangxi Province of ChinaRice is one of the most important food crops contributing over 39% of the total food grainproduction in China. Out of 113 million ha sown under food crops, 28% are covered by rice.Prior to 1970, the traditional irrigation regime for rice, termed as “continuous deep floodingirrigation” was applied in China. A huge amount of water was used for rice growing and onlylow yield of rice was obtained under this regime. Since 1980s, the industrial water supply andurban and rural domestic water consumption have increased continuously. The shortage ofwater resources became an important challenge and many water efficient irrigation regimesfor rice have been tested, advanced, applied and spread in different regions of China.

Guangxi region is located in South China, where the annual rainfall varies from 1300 to 1500mm. Although water resources are relatively abundant, irrigation water saving for agricultureproduction is necessary in view of the following reasons:

• Extreme unevenness of rainfall, temporal and spatial. Rainfall is concentrated betweenApril and September from north to south, which results in frequent occurrence ofaridity in spring and fall, with drought representing more than 60% of the naturaldisasters.

• Low regulation capacity of water resources facilities, which is less than 20% of the totalwater resources.

Through 21 years of research and experiment, a water saving irrigation technique for paddyrice has been developed in Guangxi province. The technique consists of determining theoptimal water demands for various growth stages of paddy rice with respect to different areas,soils and climatic conditions. This involves keeping a shallow water depth of about 15-20 mmfor transplant recovery phase, wet or irrigating every 3-5 days during pre-tiller phase, fielddrying and irrigating every 5-10 days for post tiller phase, again shallow water depth forjointing/flowering/emulsifying phase, and finally keeping wet for yellow maturity phase. Thistechnique saves significant amount of water over the traditional continuous inundationirrigation. It improves the water, fertility, aeration, and thermal conditions of the soil, andbrings tiller into full play leading to higher yields. Such irrigation method resulted into 21.1%of water saving and 11.4% of yield increase. The technique was applied at first to an area of16,000 ha.

Based on experiments, this technique was expanded to an area of 66,700 ha in 1991, then on82,800 ha in 1992, and finally reached 950,000 ha, which accounts for 40% of the total paddyrice area of the province. The technique renders tremendous economic, social and environmentalbenefits.

More than 10 Water Efficient Irrigation regimes (WEI) for rice have been adopted in Chinafor different conditions of weather, soil topography, rice varieties, and water resources andirrigation projects. Based on the results of experiments and the experience in adoption, thefollowing three main types of water efficient irrigation regimes were found to be contributingto the sustainable increased water productivity: (1) Combining shallow water depth withwetting and drying (SWD), (2) Alternate wetting and drying (AWD), and (3) Semi-drycultivation (SDC).

The values of yield per unit of water consumption (WP1), and yield per unit of irrigationwater use (WP2) with different irrigation regimes indicate that the rice yield could beincreased only marginally (less than 9%), but the water productivity could be increasedremarkably due to the decrease of water consumption and irrigation water use throughWEI. Water productivity due to water consumption, (WP1) can be increased by 11- 56%,and due to irrigation water use (WP2) by 11- 69%.


irrigation districts and village level in well/groundwater irrigation districts; andcarrying out comprehensive analysis of the investment in water savings.

China is also paying special attention to on-farm irrigation practices such as pipedistribution systems, conjunctive use of wells and canals, use of improved irrigationtechniques like furrow and border check irrigation, popularization of sprinkler anddrip irrigation systems and technical management of irrigation water use.Preservation of soil moisture by harrowing, soil loosening by inter-tillage, coveringfields with stalk as compost, use of ground membranes and water retention agentsare other methods which are being used for controlling evaporation losses fromfields in China. It was seen that there was an increase of cotton yield by 30% whenthe field was covered with membranes resulting in lesser consumption of water by480 m3 per hectare. Under the condition of combined use of wells and canals, theeffective utilization factor of water rose to 0.72. By the use of sprinkler and microirrigation methods 30-50% of water could be saved and there was an increase in cropyield by 10-30%. Low-pressure pipe water conveyance systems were also found tobe highly effective and popular in China resulting in low seepage and evaporationlosses. At regional and national levels seepage control from canals is on high priorityin China. The government is also giving high priority to improving irrigationefficiency. During the seventh five-year plan, the effective utilization factor of canalsystems has improved from 0.64 to 0.74, the utilization factor of irrigation water from0.52 to 0.6 and the gross irrigation efficiency from 53 ha per day to 71.5 ha per day.

To improve the performance of large irrigation systems, modernization programmehas been taken up in China since 1998. The main objective of the program was toimprove quality of water supply service, increase water use efficiency andproductivity. From 1998 to 2005, China has invested a total of 18.9 billion RMB Yuanto modernize 255 large irrigation schemes. The modernization of irrigation schemesnot only includes application of new materials, technologies and techniques toupgrade the structures of irrigation systems but also adoption of modern conceptsand institutions to improve their management aspects. The modernization works/measures include – reinforcing and upgrading water storages, upgrading canals andcontrol structures, replacing and reinforcing dilapidated structures, upgradingpumping systems, lining canals, upgrading on-farm irrigation systems, applyinginformation and automation technologies to operate and control irrigation systems,reforming management institutions and establishing water user associations.

The main benefits of the modernization of the irrigation schemes were – improvedwater supply service, reduced cost of operation and maintenance, increased wateruse efficiency and agricultural productivity and eventually increased farmer’sincome. In 2005, the Ministry of Water Resources carried out an assessment of themodernization works implemented during 1998 to 2004. The results showed that12,784 km canals were lined, 39,583 structures were reinforced or constructed. Theseworks led to improvement in the safety of the irrigation structures, decreasing theduration of water conveyance and irrigation interval, and reduction in water losses.


India

The total annual utilisable water resources of India have been estimated as 1123BCM. In 1998, the total water withdrawals were about 629 BCM, of which about83% were for irrigation. It is estimated that by 2025 and 2050, the share of irrigationwater will be 611 BCM (72%) and 807 (68%), respectively. The country is likely toconfront water crisis in the year 2050 when the total water demand will be 1180 BCM.

As per the Indian Constitution, water is a State asset. Therefore, water resourcesprojects for irrigation and flood control are formulated, designed, executed, ownedand operated by the State Governments. However, the Union Government has beengiven powers to regulate and develop inter-state rivers and river valleys via itsMinistry of Water Resources.

The net irrigated area in India in 2003-04 was 55.1 million ha comprising 15.15million ha (27.5%) from canals, 35.26 million ha (64%) from tube wells and openwells, 1.94 million ha (3.5%) from tanks, and 2.75 million ha (5%) from other sources.The ultimate irrigation potential of India has been estimated as 139 million hawithout inter-basin sharing of water.

The overall irrigation efficiency of surface/gravity systems is estimated as 30 to 40%.The reasons of low efficiency are – completion of dams/ head works ahead ofconveyance network, dilapidated irrigation structures, unlined canals, inadequatefield drainage system, lack of communication network, inadequate extensionservices, and poor management of water at farm level. The Government of India in1974 launched a Command Area Development Program (CAD), which envisaged,among others, water saving measures like construction of field channels and fielddrains, land leveling/shaping and consolidation, and efficient maintenance andoperation of irrigation systems. Adoption of sprinkler and drip irrigation methodsis being encouraged to minimize losses in water application in field. Since theinstallation costs are high for these systems, central and state governments areproviding subsidies to farmers as an incentive to adopt these systems. Presently,some 1.6 million ha are sprinkler irrigated and about 0.8 million ha are microirrigated.

To improve overall water use efficiency, the government is taking steps to reducewater losses in conveyance systems. A number of canal modernization schemes havebeen taken up by the government to improve the functioning of old canal systemsby repairing/replacing dilapidated structures, re-sectioning and/or lining of canals.Use of plastic membrane for canal lining is being adopted as an effective watersaving method. Pilot studies have been taken up in some canal systems forautomation, based on real-time field data. This will help develop future applicationmodules to save water since the releases will be made on actual field demands. Theconjunctive use of surface and ground waters is also being enforced as a water savingmeasure by pumping back a part of the additional recharge through surface water


irrigation. Participatory irrigation management has been introduced in canalcommand areas. There are over 55,000 Water User Associations (WUAs) coveringabout 10 million ha of command area.

The Government of India has set up a number of Water and Land ManagementInstitutes (WALMIs) under the USAID-assisted Irrigation Management TrainingProject, which seeks to improve the agricultural productivity, and rural incomethrough improved efficiency of irrigation systems and better water management byway of capacity development and training of irrigation managers, field levelfunctionaries and farmers.

Pakistan

Pakistan’s total renewable water resources are estimated as 240 BCM comprising theIndus basin’s annual average committed river inflows as 172 BCM, and thegroundwater as 68 BCM. The Ministry of Water and Power (MWP) is responsiblefor controlling water resources management at federal level. At provincial level,there are Irrigation Departments which have recently been converted into ProvincialIrrigation and Drainage Authorities (PIDAs). The Indus Basin has the world’s largestcontiguous irrigation system and is the main source of water for agriculture. About95% of the country’s total freshwater withdrawals are for agriculture. Presently,Pakistan’s 83% of the cropped area is irrigated (19.12 million ha).

Participatory Irrigation Management in Katepurna Irrigation Scheme, India

India has a long history of farmer’s participation in irrigation management. Water Users Associations(WUA) have been established with an objective of reducing water losses in distribution network,maximizing irrigation efficiency, equitable distribution of water, and farmers’ involvement indecision-making.

WUAs are working satisfactorily in various States of India. Katepurna irrigation scheme locatedin the State of Maharashtra is one of the successful examples of Participatory Irrigation Management(PIM). With the persistent efforts of the Irrigation Management Division from the year 1998 to 2001,irrigated area in the command of Katepurna project increased from 2,027 ha to 3,646 ha with watersaving of around 7.71 million cubic meters per year. There was a record irrigation of 5,909 ha withalmost full utilization of the reservoir storage. The benefits were extended from 2,000 to 3,970beneficiaries. During 2000–2001, high yields and production of cotton and wheat were achieved andvalued at 1.2 billion rupees.

The movement of participation of beneficiaries in irrigation management was in full swing and itwas expected to bring at least 60% command area under WUA’s management. Under the jurisdictionof the Irrigation Management Division, there are 25 projects having irrigation potential of 21,530ha and live water storage of 199.25 million cubic meters. The formation of 38 water user associationswas under progress covering 9,203 ha. The overall increase in irrigated area was from 6,626 ha, to12,229 ha, with water savings of around 15.50 million cubic meters. Katepurna experience has shownthat the transfer of irrigation management to beneficiaries is useful for sustainable, efficient andeconomic water use.


The official estimate for the overall water use efficiency of canal irrigation is 35%to 40%. The reasons for excessive use of water or the loss of water have beenidentified. The water pricing is based on area irrigated, and may include a levy dueto betterment of the lands. Two water saving programs are in hand. The first is liningof canals and watercourses, an accelerated water management project to becompleted at the cost of US$ 735 million. The other is the National Drainage programto be completed at the cost of US$ 853 million. The two programs are aimed atretrieval of 8.465 BCM of water i.e. 6.5% of the water allocation to irrigation.

In Pakistan, the rehabilitation and modernization works are implemented in mostof the provinces under the World Bank and USAID assistance programs. There isan attempt to move towards integrated, comprehensive management of water andfocus is on reorientation of the water sector institutions for achieving efficient useof water and optimization of agricultural production. In the eighth plan, additionalavailability of 10 BCM water is expected from various sources. In case of surfacewater, 1.5 BCM is expected to accrue from on-farm water management. The canalrehabilitation and re-modeling program will contribute another 1.5 BCM, whilesmall irrigation schemes will contribute about 1.0 BCM. Surface irrigation methodsviz., basin, furrow, and border are traditionally practiced. Pakistan is just embarkingon pressurized irrigation systems. The scope of the Government supported programcomprises (1) Micro irrigation systems for fruit trees, vegetable crops and cotton,and (2) Sprinkler system, including center pivot for field crops like, pulses, maize,wheat, and sugarcane. The program is launched in 2007 at the cost of US$ 290 millionand planned to equip 117,868 ha.

Korea

The Republic of Korea has a population of about 48.5 million and a total mean annualrunoff as 72.3 BCM. Total available surface and groundwater resources wereestimated as 48.2 BCM. The total water withdrawals in 2007 were 33.7 BCMcomprising 47% for agriculture, 23% for domestic, 8% for industry, and 22% for otherpurposes. The paddy is a major consumer of agriculture water (500 MCM). The yieldof rice in Korea is the highest amongst all the food crops. Water Saving practicesin Korea comprise drought evaluation technique, deficit irrigation, rotationalirrigation, pipeline system of irrigation conveyance, regulated pond system, andbalance storage management. Based on 30 years of data, a reservoir operation planwas worked out. Drought forecasting by advanced technique is found to be moreaccurate compared to the traditional method.

Rotational irrigation scheduling in rice-paddy with the operation rule curve and theweekly rainfall forecasting for the drought control of irrigation reservoirs wasdeveloped. Rotational irrigation system has been applied to mitigate the damage ofdrought more reasonably and practically.


4.2 Water Saving Activities in Australia

Australia has a population of about 21.2 million. The total water withdrawals areabout 26 BCM comprising 68% for agriculture, 21% for industry, 9% for domesticand 2% to other sectors. Efforts have been launched recently to adopt modernmethods to save water and make it available to other users. The potential for watersavings at the field level has been studied and such savings for some of the cropshave been quantified. Propagation of correct and scientific scheduling practicesbased on soil water relationships is being pursued. Agronomical institutes areworking on different crops to evolve the varieties requiring less water and givinghigher yields. Potential for the reuse of wastewater has also been assessed. Use ofrecycled water is so far limited mainly to recreation areas, pastures and forestry.

The water pricing is currently based on traditional approaches, but lately anawakening is clearly visible from the various programs of public consultation. It isbeing done in conjunction with New Zealand. Australian states have alreadypromulgated statutory regulations for water conservation, prevention of pollutionand water use. Public awareness is being promoted by adopting persuasive policies,education, advertisement and holding of water saving conferences/seminars.Australian women are involved in the agricultural activities and join the water usergroups or associations. The irrigation services are operated jointly by agriculturalengineers and civil engineers. There are several new approaches to meet the WatSaveobjectives, such as:

• Water pricing and cost recovery to reflect true cost of water service,• Appropriate organizational arrangements with separation of regulatory

function from delivery function,• Clear allocation and water trading arrangements provide security and

flexibility to water users,• Integrated land and water management to mitigate adverse impacts on water

quality and the environment,• Enhanced public education and consultation process to emphasize the value

of water, and• Appointing a task force on water reforms (COAG).

In Australia, on-farm developments generally focus on improving water applicationefficiencies. The gravity flood irrigation techniques are still widely practiced incropping and dairy farming industries. A large proportion of the flood-irrigatedland in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) has been laser-graded to improveapplication efficiencies. Automation of irrigation flows and irrigation schedulingbased on soil water storage and climatic measurements is being increasingly adoptedin Australia.


On-farm water recycling systems are being widely promoted, especially in thoseregions of Australia where water is a limiting factor and where nutrients and saltrunoff are considered to have a negative impact on downstream water quality. Inthe more capital-intensive horticultural industry, state-of-the-art water applicationtechniques such as drip and micro jet irrigation are now in common use.

A very successful ‘Water-Wise Program’ initiated in Queensland, focused initiallyon increasing public awareness and reducing waste in urban communities, is nowbeing extended to rural areas. The efficient use of water resources and thus thereduction of waste is planned to take place through a de-regulation of the ‘watermarket’. The recent Australian legislation in some States has made it possible toseparate water property rights from land titles and to sell water rights in a “freemarket”. This development is aimed at optimizing water use efficiency by directingwater to the agricultural enterprises with the highest gross margins. Also, it is quiteconceivable that urban or industrial water demand could be met in the near futureby the purchase of existing irrigation water rights in areas where the distributionsystem makes this a technically feasible option.

A recent document reviewing ‘National Competition Policies’ seeks to “facilitateeffective competition to promote efficiency and economic growth, whileaccommodating situations where competition does not achieve efficiency or conflictswith other social objectives”. This policy is likely to make impact on principles ofconsumption-based pricing, full cost recovery and desirably the removal of cross-subsidies which are not consistent with efficient and effective service, use andprovision.

4.3 Water Saving Practices in France

France, an industrialized country has a well-organized irrigation infrastructure,policy framework, well-developed irrigation service and the required institutionalset-up. Out of the current total irrigated area of 1.6 million ha, modern methods areused on 94% of the area. France aims at raising its irrigated area further by the year2015. The water distribution is through water agencies and water pricing is mostlyon average cost price, though these agencies may also charge an opportunity cost.Women are involved in the water user groups. France has a good system ofmanagement of water in each of its basins for which there are well-developed basinorganizations.

France, whose current water resources are reported to be 101 BCM, withdraws 11.4BCM and augments the supply by reuse of 3.6 BCM of municipal wastewater and4 BCM of industrial wastewater. A quantity of 2.4 BCM is used in agricultural sector.

Responsibilities in the water sector in France were consolidated in the comprehensivelegislation passed in 1992. In the country’s six river basins, coordination in each is


provided by the Basin Committee. The latter acts as a regional water parliamentwhere users confer and empower local communities and enhance the powers of theagencies ‘Financier-de-Basins’- now called ‘Agencies de l’Eau’.

In France, modernization of irrigation techniques like replacement or transformationof gravity irrigation, automatic control of reservoirs and network has proved to saveup to 20% of the water resources. Field training programs for better use of irrigationwater have further proved to save 15-20% of irrigation water without affecting cropyields.

4.4 Water Saving Activities in the Mediterranean Region

In the Mediterranean region, agriculture sector is considered to have the highestpotential for water saving. The agricultural sector represents around 80 percent oftotal demand, and a large amount of water is lost or misused. For the majority ofthe Mediterranean countries, there is a high opportunity for saving significantvolumes of water losses through a better use of technical and economic tools.Figure 1 demonstrates the possible ways of water saving through improvement ofirrigation efficiency, reduction of conveyance losses, and reduction of leakages indrinking water supply.

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Figure 1. Possible water savings with reference to the current water demand (inBCM/year); (after Hamdy A. and C. Lacirignola, 1999)


Egypt

Water Resources Management

The Aswan High Dam (AHD) was constructed to improve the long-term availabilityof Nile water for Egypt and Sudan and plays a key role in the development ofirrigation in Egypt. Agriculture uses 85% of the available water at an efficiency of65-75% after accounting for pumping and drain water reuses. The rest is used indomestic sector (3.1 BCM) and the industrial sector (4.6 BCM). The effluents fromthese two sources are highly polluted. Yet the importance of using and exploringnon-conventional water resources is very well realized for the future.

Out of a total irrigated area of 3.23 million ha, modern methods are used on about17%, area which is proposed to be increased further at a rapid pace. The increaseswere noticed to be nearly 9% within a span of 5-8 years. An irrigation improvementproject with the support of the World Bank, which, during 1984-1996 strengthenedthe country’s capability for improving the infrastructure and the managementtechniques. The causes for excessive use and loss of water have been identified. Itis planned to achieve an irrigated area of 4.00 million ha. The organizationalstructure has undergone improvements coupled with institutional innovations topromote a large-scale participation of the users and the establishment of manyresearch centers.

Egypt currently augments its water supply by reuse of 0.4 BCM of treated municipalwastewater, another 0.4 BCM by reuse of industrial wastewater, and by reuse ofdrainage water to the extent of 4.5 BCM as also by the reuse of groundwater (fromrecharge by irrigation) to the extent of 3.80 BCM, adding altogether 9.1 BCM or alittle more than 16% to its available surface water supply of 55.5 BCM andgroundwater of 0.7 BCM. Egypt aims at stepping up augmentation to 16.7 BCMby the year 2010 when it will also have added a desalinized quantity of 0.5 BCM.To reach a level of more than 28% of its natural resources of 58.7 BCM likely to beavailable by then, Egypt has planned for a significant increase in reuse category.

Measures aiming at a better use of existing resources focus on improving theefficiency of the water resources system. The water use efficiency in agriculture canbe improved by many measures, in particular by continuing the IrrigationImprovement Project (IIP) activities and by reviewing the present drainage waterreuse policy, e.g. by applying intermediate reuse (i.e. mixing the drainage water onthe secondary less-polluted drains with fresh water in secondary canals, rather thanmixing on the main canals and drains level) and allowing a higher permissiblesalinity. Other measures considered in the new policy are the introduction of newcrop varieties such as early maturing and short duration rice varieties and salttolerant seeds and shifting of cropping patterns to the less water-consuming cropswhile still achieving the food self-sufficiency and food security policies of thecountry.


Introducing IIP, which is a package of land leveling, lining canals and forming‘Water User Associations’, saves 10-15% of irrigation water. Controlled drainage(modified drainage system), and short duration varieties in paddy fields save 30%of irrigation water.

Also, to ensure water allocation and distribution system based on equity anddecreasing the losses in the system, improvement of the physical infrastructure isconsidered (e.g. installation of discharge control structures at key points and systemrehabilitation where needed to lead to regional water allocation based on equalopportunities for farmers). The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI)also has programs to replace and rehabilitate existing grand barrages and controlstructures on the Nile and main canals to increase storage capacity of the system.

With respect to the municipal and industrial sectors, water use efficiency can beimproved to reduce the losses in networks (e.g. demand management throughinstallation/rehabilitation of the metering system and promotion of the applicationof water saving technologies in industry; and reduction of leakage losses throughleak detection and repair based on priorities for the most urgent rehabilitation work).

Egypt’s Integrated Irrigation Improvement Project

• Increased return by water unit (63-68%).

• Increased labor productivity (3-20%).

• Reduced modernization cost due to integrated design and execution (30-40%).

• Adding fertile lands ≈ 24,000 acres.

• Decreased O & M costs (≈ US$ 2 per acre).

• Decreased water lifting costs (60%).

• Increased farm income after recovery (17%).

• Possibility of irrigating new lands of ≈ 150,000 acres by the water saved.

Cost Recovery in Irrigation

The advantages of the ‘Cost Recovery’ of the irrigation projects are two-fold: 1)reducing the burden over the government by temporarily paying for the infra-structure cost of the irrigation projects, and then recovering the cost from thebeneficiaries over a long period; and 2) encouraging farmers to save the irrigationwater in order to reduce their water transfer tariff, later.

Egypt has managed successfully in implementing a cost-recovery mechanism inintroducing the sub surface drainage system for more than 90% of the irrigated areas.The cost recovery approach is used by the Egyptian Drainage Authority (EPADP).The costs to be recovered for the installation of a drain field are defined simply as


the total of the contractors’ billings. No allowance is made in the assessment forpresent or future operations and maintenance, and no provision is made for therecovery of interest on investment. The collection of all property assessments,including the drainage assessment, is undertaken by the Authority for the Taxationof Properties, an agency of the Ministry of Finance. This unit collects from all districtsand all Governorates of the country. It works through local cooperatives, whichcould be from one to five in each district. They also assist the Drainage Authorityin identifying land owners and farmers in each of the drainage areas. The treasuryretains the amount needed for the payment of loans to which the Ministry of Financewas a signatory and remits the balance to the Drainage Authority.

A cost-recovery option is being applied also to recover the costs of improvement,and development of mesqa which deliver irrigation water to farm lands through thewater user associations. The Government of Egypt has followed many approachesto increase irrigation water use efficiency of which Irrigation Improvement Project(IIP) is implemented in half million feddans. These types of improvements put heavyburden on the government’s limited budget. As a result, different approaches of cost-recovery are undertaken to achieve justice, best allocation of water and investmentcosts required for such future improvements. Capital costs are recovered for mesqalevel investments at which irrigation improvement project (IIP) is implemented. Theapproach requires repayment of full capital cost, excluding interest, over a periodof 20 years. Pump costs are fully recovered during the initial 5 years. Assuming4% inflation and 12% opportunity cost of capital, the cost-recovery amounted toabout 30 to 50%, depending on the recovery period for costs of civil works. No costsare recovered for improvements above the mesqa level, which amount to about 25%of civil works expenditures. Thus, the subsidy on capital investments figures outas 60-70% (Perry, 1996).

In the new reclaimed lands, farmers are also responsible for investment costs on theentire infrastructure including downstream of the booster pumps that draw waterfrom the distributary canal, serving areas of about 100 to 250 feddans. Suchinvestments may either be undertaken independently at the farmers’ expense or bythe government with a cost recovery according mechanism.

Egyptian government policy on capital cost recovery is not to recover charges abovethe delivery point (mesqa head in the old lands, booster pump in the new lands).A small proportion of the investment costs and operation and maintenance costsbelow the delivery point are the responsibility of farmers.

The Government of Egypt’s overall policy is aimed at sustainable economic growththrough enhancing the role of the private sector in production and public services.The obvious and most logical scenario is for the Government to gradually withdrawitself higher up in the system. This means that the Government should be responsible


to provide and supply agreed quantities of water to users groups. These groupsshould be self-financed to carry out water allocation and distribution as well asoperation and maintenance of the distribution network at local level.

Comprehensive water management programs are being implemented in Egypt toraise water use efficiency and increase food production. Most of these programsincluded improvement and modernization of the water distribution system at boththe macro and micro levels. Many of the measures taken were soft measures dealingwith institutional reform. Institutional reform lies at the heart of the integratedapproach adopted by MWRI for the management of its water resources. Thisinstitutional reform aims to strengthen the political, technical, legal, and administrativearrangements that lead to saving water, and in general maximizing returns from thelimited investment available to the water sector in Egypt.

Turkey

Turkey has a population of about 73.7 million and 190 BCM as renewable waterresources. Turkey irrigates an area of 5.13 million ha which is likely to increase to6.0 million ha by the year 2015. Presently, about 7% of area is under modernirrigation methods. Large savings of water at farm level have already beenexperienced in crops like sugar beet, wheat, fodder and cotton. Potential for savingsin other crops and on other farms has also been assessed. Operation of irrigationsystems is handled both by the users and the government agencies. The watercharges are based on average cost price and the perceived affordability, afterevaluation. The water price is collected by the agency managing the system. TheGeneral Directorate of Hydraulic Works (HGI) is the main controlling authority forwater allocation, use and savings.

Turkey has undertaken a review of its ‘National Water Sector Policy’ to provide forinstitutional changes, capability building, increased water use efficiency, improvedquality of water services, enhanced role of water users, privatization, reorientationof cost recovery and support to regional developmental efforts. The draft policyincludes provision of several laws and regulations for private participation,environmental protection, accelerated transfer of O & M of systems to users andamendments for penalty-payment in water fees. The law enacted in 1994 to Build,Operate and Transfer (BOT) hydropower plants is proposed to cover water supplysector too.

A case study was conducted in the Antalya region on a system recently transferredto Water User Associations (WUAs) and modernized using drip and sprinklersystems. This combined system allowed water savings of 34 percent, resulting inan estimated increase of water use efficiency of 51%.


Spain

Spain has 0.5 million km2 geographical area, 45.2 million population, and 114.3 BCMof renewable water resources. The total water consumption for 2007 was 26 BCMcomprising 65% for agriculture, 18% for domestic, 12% for industry and 5% for otherpurposes. Total area irrigated in Spain in 2007 was 3.36 million ha comprising 1.1million ha (33.2%) by gravity methods, 0.72 million ha (21.3%) by sprinkler methodsand 1.5 million ha (44.7%) by micro irrigation methods including greenhouses. Themanagement is controlled by “Hydrographic Confederation” under the Ministry ofPublic Works and Transport (MOPTMA) and ‘Reservoir Commission’ (MAPA). Theirrigators combine to form a community.

The country has a long history of sophisticated water institutions, including a ‘WaterCourt’ established in Valencia in 1960 and water markets in Alicante and the CanaryIslands. The water resources are managed by the nine River Basin Agencies (RBA)under the Ministry of Environment and Hydraulic Works - through hydrographicconfederation (user groups). While identifying the reasons for excessive water use,it has been reported that water pricing by land area results in lack of incentive tosave water. Undulating land is stated to be another main reason for excessive wateruse in surface irrigation methods.

Spain augments its supply by the reuse of 0.86 BCM of treated effluents, besides0.03 BCM of desalinated water for irrigation. Water allocations are made by theMinistry of Environment, Health and Agriculture and managed by RBAs and theconfederation (communities). The water charges are fixed by the managing agenciesand irrigators follow a dual payment system. One part of the charges goes to RBAand the other to confederation. The actual cost of O&M is recovered. Womenparticipate in the irrigation activity, while women officers also exist in irrigators’communities.

A country with old tradition of irrigation, it enacted a water law in 1879 providingconcessions in water uses. The water law has since been revised in 1985, which stillcarries concessionary provisions. Spain passed the water Act, which established aframework of integrated water management. In 1999, this law was amended tointroduce the elements of voluntary exchanges of water rights among users – watermarkets. Spanish Irrigators Communities play an important role in irrigation watermanagement by providing better technical and agronomic support; irrigationcounselling services, and in replacing traditional irrigation systems into moreefficient ones, endowing the irrigation networks through Public financing withadequate flow measurement devices. A need is being felt for improving the deficientinfrastructure, review of concessionary regime and support for Research andDevelopment to effect water savings.


Other Mediterranean Countries

• Jordan has a population of about 5.7 million and 2 BCM as total renewable waterresources. Water withdrawals for agriculture are 0.8 BCM (75%).The Ministry ofWater and Irrigation manages the country’s water resources and regulatesservices provided by the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ). A case study usingdrip irrigation in the Jordan Valley showed that the use of tensiometers forirrigation scheduling saved 20 -50 percent water, increased crop yields by 15- 20 % (cucumber, tomato), resulting in an increase of water use efficiency to thetune of 44 to 140%.

• Morocco has a population of about 31.7 million with total renewable waterresources as 30 BCM. Almost 90% of the country’s total water withdrawal is usedfor irrigation. In Morocco, of the 1.65 million ha of irrigated are, about 12% isequipped by sprinkler and micro irrigation systems. A case study from Tadlaregion, where the Public Irrigation Agency (ORMVA), in partnership withprivate companies, promoted laser-levelled basin irrigation that resulted in watersavings of 20%, crop yield increases of 30% (cereals), and an increase of wateruse efficiency of 62%.

• Tunisia has a population of about 10.1 million and total renewable waterresources as 4.6 BCM. The utilizable water resources are estimated to be about3.6 BCM. The total water withdrawals in 2005 were 2.5 BCM comprising 83%for agriculture, 11% for domestic, 5% for industry and 1% for other purposes.In Tunisia, public irrigation Agencies (CRDA) and WUAs is managing drip,sprinkler and other modern surface irrigation systems. Tunisia’s water savingprogram, the PNEE, has equipped 305,000 ha (76% of all irrigated area) withwater saving technology. This has increased water use efficiency from 50% in1990 to 75% in 2005. Thus there has not been increase in the water withdrawalsfor irrigation as farmers had used the water they had saved to expand irrigatedareas, or had switched to higher-value but more water intensive crops and/orincreased cropping intensity. Public water saving programs and incentivesresulted in estimated water saving of 25% and increase of water use efficiencyby 33%. The transfer of irrigation development projects to beneficiaries is basedon technical, economic and social criteria. The participatory approach introducedin 1988 helped to speed up the transfer procedure. Since 1986, the idea of‘Collective Interest Association’ (CIA/AIC) was reactivated to assume themanagement and utilization of the water of State owned property and of modernirrigation infrastructures set up by the State in fields. Thus, a National Strategyfor the establishment and follow-up of CIA/AICs was laid down in 1990.

4.5 Water Savings in the Republic of South Africa

South Africa is a semi-arid country, where water is a key strategic resource in thedevelopment of all sectors of the economy. Therefore, efficient management of


limited water resources is an essential element of its development. The new ‘WaterConservation and Demand Management (WC/WD)’ strategy has adopted theformation of WUAs for better water management. The development of watermanagement plans by WUAs is central to the whole focus of water conservation andwater demand management. The economic benefits are expected to include:improved yields, improved quality of produce, reduced water supply costs, andeasier management, especially with automated systems. WUAs make precisecalculations for actual crop water requirements.

South Africa augments its water supply by reuse of 4.6 BCM of its municipal andindustrial wastewaters adding 8% to its water resources. The use of desalinizedwater is presently insignificant but an acceleration of its use is planned for adding1% of supply per annum. South Africa is taking measures to balance its supply anddemand through water savings and by promoting public awareness on the waterissues. It is expected that the improvements in system operation policy could bringa saving of nearly 20%. The O&M funds for the systems are drawn from a tradingaccount budget. Water prices in different areas are based on the considerationsspecific to the area or the schemes in that area. The farmers pay for the water quotawhile domestic consumers make payment on the basis of pipe diameter that bringswater to them. A National Program for 15% water savings in agriculture has beentaken up in 1995. The womenfolk do take part in the agricultural activity and areinvolved even in water user groups. Facilities for training them are available.

In South Africa, the irrigation methods adopted at farms vary from surface irrigationto micro irrigation systems. Out of the total irrigated area of 1.6 million ha, it isalready employing modern methods in nearly 72% of the area. The on-farmefficiencies vary from 50-90%. Prior approved mechanized irrigation methods aresubsidized by the government, thus promoting efficient on-farm water utilization.Extension officers are employed by the government for assisting farmers to applyeffective scheduling techniques.

A system called MyCanesim has been developed to achieve improvement in the wateruse efficiency and yields of sugarcane. The system consists of a sugarcane simulationmodel, an on-line weather database and a communication network, whichautomatically provides farmers with near real-time field-specific irrigation adviceand yield estimates using cell phone text messages (SMS). More extensiveinformation is provided to the advisory support structure by FAX and internet. Theapproach is now being rolled out to the industry, including commercial growers.The MyCanesim system was implemented on a pilot scale on two small-scaleirrigation schemes at Pongola and Makhathini, using semi-permanent and portablesprinkler irrigation systems. The project started with 7 farmers in 2004, whichgradually increased to 39 farmers, cultivating some 400 ha of sugarcane. Aparticipatory approach was adopted to ensure relevance and practicality. Farmers,extension staff and mill cane supply management contributed to the design of theweb interface, the advice and the reports generated by the system. As regards water


savings and yield effects, simulations suggested up to 25% water saving as comparedto the previous practice without affecting yields.

Other effective and innovative measures being adopted in the country are to allotwater quotas on government irrigation schemes, based on the irrigation requirementsof a theoretical crop combination giving the maximum benefit per unit of water withhigh irrigation efficiency in order to promote improved irrigation techniques. A‘Water Loss Control Section’ which monitors conveyance losses on all governmentirrigation canal schemes. The first stage of the program involves complete evaluationof all historical water supply documentation to determine gross and net water losses.Secondly, the actual water flow, leakage and evaporation are measured on site forselected schemes to obtain a complete breakdown of the losses. The losses inter aliainclude leakage, evaporation and operational losses. At the final stage, proposals aremade to either improve operating procedures or to introduce canal improvementswhere leakage losses are relatively high. Substantial savings of more than 10% ofthe water-released ex-storage have been obtained in this way.

Further savings of water are being achieved at the national level by means ofoptimization of operating procedures of river systems where state storage dams areinvolved. For this purpose, sophisticated computerized conceptual models havebeen developed. A subsidy scheme for prior approved new water works of irrigationboards is centrally controlled in order to promote efficient use of water.

1.5 Conclusions, Lessons Learned, and the Way Forward

There have been extensive efforts to achieve water savings in many countries acrossthe world. These efforts continue to date and very ambitious programs have alreadybeen planned to overcome future challenges of water scarcity and rapidly growingpopulation.

This chapter has provided a brief of some successful WATSAVE stories in some ICIDmember countries and aims to demonstrate these to all professionals and expertsthroughout the world.

The following is a summary of conclusions, lessons learned and the way forward:

• In China, determination of optimal water demand for various growth stages,soils and climatic conditions in 40% of paddy areas resulted in water savingof 21%, improved soil characteristics and increased crop yields by 11%. Useof mulches increased cotton yield by 30% and reduced water consumptionby 480 m3/ha. Combined use of wells and canals increased water utilizationfactor to 0.72. Sprinkler irrigation saved 30-50% of irrigation water andincreased yield by 10-30%. Low pressure pipelines increased water use factorby 80%.


• In India, formation of WUAs in irrigation schemes has resulted in increasein command area. In Katepurna irrigation scheme irrigated area increased by80%, water saving by 7.71 billion m3, and increased crop yields. Area undersprinkler and micro irrigation is steadily increasing.

• In Egypt, strict water management measures and improvement projectsresulted in effective reuse of agricultural drainage, and municipal wastewater,and increased the use of shallow groundwater. The available water resourcesincreased by 16%.

• In South Africa, empowering community, women participation, and systemmodernization in about 60% of its irrigable lands resulted in implementinga ‘national 15% water saving program’, and an increase of available waterresources by 8%.

• In France, empowering local communities resulted in system modernizationand automation that saved about 20% of water resources. Field training alsosaved 15-20% of irrigation water.

• In Spain, reuse of drainage water and desalinated water, applying modernirrigation in 65% of irrigable land, as well as empowering communityparticipation increased available water resources by 0.9 billion m3.

Lessons learned

• Modern irrigation techniques play a major role in achieving water savings;however, building up of farmers’ capacity is crucial for adopting and popularizingthe modern techniques,

• Community participation and awareness are the cornerstones in creating properwater saving environment,

• Strengthening the capabilities of officials beside beneficiaries, contributeseffectively to water saving,

• Use of information technology and applied research are important inputs in thewater saving process, and

• Pricing experiences in Mediterranean Countries are in general oriented towardscost recovery objectives and have contributed to the reduction of public financingat least with respect to operation and maintenance costs of irrigation schemes.Charging a part of the capital cost to the farmers would lead to a better durabilityof water infrastructure.

• There is a necessity of involving private stakeholders associations in the variousmanagement activities; providing opportunities for cooperation and coordinationbetween the government and the stakeholders; proper mechanisms for monitoringand evaluation, a legal framework to support the establishment of Water UserAssociations (WUA) and Water Boards (WB) as well as providing autonomousstructure for these organizations.


The Way Forward

Among the issues that contribute to the way forward and lead to maximizing wateruse efficiency and tangible water saving, especially in arid and semi-arid countriesare the following:

• Applying the mechanisms leading to the efficient allocation and use of waterresources.

• Modernization of on-farm irrigation techniques for water saving.• More predictable and reliable irrigation water services to augment value

addition from irrigation.• Clarifying irrigation water tenure rules and implementing dispute resolution

mechanisms.• Encouraging governments to facilitate and enable the sustainable development

of water resources, including instituting a regulatory framework.• Making existing systems and future investments sustainable.• Increasing the capacity of institutions at all levels, and providing essential

training for integrated water management.• Building capacity to enable developing countries to manage their water

resources in a sustainable manner.• Increased participation of stakeholders in water resources management.• Developing of farmers’ capacity is a crucial issue in adoption of modern

irrigation systems.• Transferring the management of water to users through decentralized

mechanisms.• Information technology and applied research are important inputs in the

water saving process.• Measures to increase transparency, such as development and release of

information and measures to empower stakeholders.• Recognizing that women play a central role in the provision, management,

and safeguarding of water resources.• Encouraging private sector participation in water resources management.• Enhancing water quality through more investments in sanitation and solid

waste management and by controlling industrial pollution.• Treating water as essential factor to the economic, social, and environmental

aspects of life.


References

Abu-Zeid, M., 2001. Water Pricing in Irrigated Agriculture. Water Resources Development17 (4), 527-538.

Alain VIDAL, Aline COMEAU, Sofia-Antipolis, Yasser NAZZAL, Bouboker ESSAFI, IAVHassan II, Selmin BURAK, Fethi LEBDI, and Audrey NEPVEU de VILLEMARCEAU,2000. Success Stories in Water Conservation in the Mediterranean Region- A Review ofTechnologies and Enabling Environment for Water Conservation. 51st InternationalExecutive Council WATSAVE Workshop, Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday 24 October2000.

Atef Hamdy and Cosimo Lacirignola, 1999. Sectoral Water Use Conflicts and Water SavingChallenges. Mediterranean Water Resources: Major Challenges Towards The 21st

Century, March 1999.Attia, B. 2001. Management of Water Resources in Egypt: An Overview, Ministry of Water

Resources and Irrigation, Planning Sector, Cairo, Egypt.Belsare S.M., 2001. Participatory Irrigation Management in Katepurna Irrigation Project: A

Success Story. ICID WATSAVE Award, 2001.El-Atfy, Hussein, M. Tawfik, and A. Salem, 2003. Water Saving: Success Story and Lessons

Learned in Egypt. Third World Water Forum, Kyoto, Japan, March 2003.ICID Q52, 2005. China Report, 19th ICID CONGRESS, 10-16 SEPTEMBER 2005, Beijing,

ChinaIrrigation Rice Agriculture in Sahelian Africa: Performance Analysis of three Irrigation

Schemes Alain VIDAL, Audrey NEPVEU de VILLEMARCEAU, and Christophe Rigourd,2000. 51st International Executive Council WATSAVE Workshop, Cape Town, SouthAfrica, Tuesday 24 October 2000.

Mao Zhi, 2000. Water Efficient Irrigation and Environmentally Sustainable Irrigated RiceProduction in China, ICID WATSAVE Award, 2000.

National Water Resources Plan Project, NWRP, 2002. Future Water for Agriculture in the NileSystem of Egypt, NWRP Technical Report No. 25.

Stephen Harding and Bill Viney, 2000. A Study of Potential Water Savings in NorthernVictorian Irrigation Distribution Systems. 51st International Executive Council WATSAVEWorkshop, Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday 24 October 2000.

Xijin Wu, 1998. Development of Water Saving Irrigation Technique on Large Paddy RiceArea in Guangxi Region of China. ICID WATSAVE Award, 1998.

Water Saving Approaches 23

2.1 Introduction

Irrigated agriculture is coming under increasing scrutiny as availability of freshwater is declining and competition among other use sectors, including aquaticecosystems is intensifying. Given the above, many national governments, privateagencies, research institutes around the world are focusing their efforts indeveloping and applying various water saving/conservation measures in agriculture.

In general, various water saving approaches can be categorized in to two broad areas,namely:

(i) technology - involving hard options like pressurized irrigation techniques,modernization of infrastructure etc. and

(ii) management - dealing with soft options like decision support system,irrigation scheduling, benchmarking, improved governance by restructuringinstitutional arrangement for management.

The success of these measures depends on the level of integration of technical,economic, institutional, environmental and social dimensions of a given locality.

In order to bring out the key practices of water savings, these are categorised underfour main groupings and five generic topics as shown in the Figure 2.1. The maingroupings are management process (m), hardware (h), system tools (s), andagronomic (a) while the five generic topics cover:

I precision irrigation,II improved rice-paddy irrigation practices,III better monitoring and control of irrigation,IV integrated approach in agricultural drainage, andV up-scaling or replicating on a large scale.

Innovative Water SavingApproaches


The water saving approaches reported cover case studies from Australia, Brazil,China, India, Egypt, Korea, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, Turkmenistan, and USA.As is obvious, water savings efforts are more conspicuous in countries havingsignificant irrigated agriculture.

In this report, each water saving contribution has been assigned a numbercorresponding to the generic topic and a list of papers under the five generic topicsis shown as Annex I. These numbers appear in the text while describing the contextthat is covered in the section.

2.2 Precision Irrigation

Precision irrigation is an integral component of precision agriculture and calls foroptimal control of water deliveries. Among pressurized systems, sprinkler andmicro irrigation methods hves proven its effectiveness in demand management forwater in irrigated agriculture. Both, state-of-the-art and low cost small-scaleaffordable irrigation technologies are capable of improving the precision of waterdelivery and increasing water use efficiency, under the right conditions. Thesetechnologies help establish better control over water supply to individual fields andfurther, at the crop root zone, thereby reducing the non-beneficial evaporation lossesfrom fields. Precision irrigation, besides saving in water, provides other benefits likeincrease in crop productivity, savings in energy and labour, efficient utilization of

Figure 2.1. Schematic of main water saving approaches and generic topics


fertilizers/ chemicals (allowing reduction in fertilizer doses and thus non-pointpollution), reduced weed growth, and results in an improvement in the quality ofproduce (fruits and vegetables).

Out of the five WatSave contributions related to the precision irrigation category,four (No. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4) are related to hardware and one (No. 1.5) is relatedto management process approach.

2.2.1 Irrigation Re-development Project, Swaziland, (Contribution No. 1.1)

Irrigation is vital to sugarcane production at Simunye sugar estate in Swaziland.When full commercial production commenced in 1982 the estate had two mainirrigation systems; dragline sprinkler and surface furrow, but in later expansionssurface drip irrigation was used. The sugarcane irrigation from sprinkler to drip wassuccessfully redeveloped with significant water saving, which, in turn, resulted inreduced energy and labor requirements (Figure 2.2).

The four major benefits derived from the redevelopment were:

(1) increased sucrose - 1.6 t pol/ha based on historical comparison of irrigationtypes,

(2) power saving - 4.6 VA/ha/yr based on improved load factors,(3) O & M saving - US$ 40/ha/yr (in terms of labour, power consumption and

maintenance), and(4) water saving - 1500 cubic meters/ha/yr with an opportunity value of US$

160/ha/yr.

From a subsequent monitoring and analysis of 46 fields converted to subsurface dripin 1998 and compared to 13 sprinkler fields of equivalent age and ratoon cropsdistributed throughout the estate, one finds that on an average:

Figure 2.2(a) Primary filters Figure 2.2(b) Dual row first ratoon cane(drip lateral exposed)


(a) sucrose increment was 23% for plant cane and 24% for the 1st ratoon, and

(b) the water use efficiency was higher by 29% for plant cane and 18% for the1st ratoon.

A post investment audit conducted in 1999 confirmed a sucrose increase of 15% andwater saving of 22% compared to the sprinkler system, better than originallyexpected.

2.2.2 Modernization of Mula Irrigation Scheme, Spain, (Contribution No. 1.2)

The region of Murcia located in the South-East of Spain has Mediterranean climate,high rate of evaporation (1600 mm/year) and an average annual rainfall of 280 mm.The agro-climatic conditions are highly conducive for cultivation of stone and pipfruit trees. The main water resource for the region is the Segura river which isinadequate to cover the agricultural and population needs. Groundwater is salineand pumped from overexploited aquifers. A traditional irrigation system datingback to the 9th and 10th centuries was practiced in the Mula Irrigation system ofthe Murcia region. The system was characterized by scarcity of water, obsolete anddeteriorated irrigation infrastructure, excessive consumption of electric power,predominance of smallholdings, ageing fruit trees and faulty water managementpractices.

To cope with water scarcity and enhance economic condition of irrigators, theIrrigators Community, the Murcia Regional Government prepared and implementeda project for modernization of the traditional irrigation system of Mula,

The main elements of the project included - construction of nine artificial reservoirsto store and supply water to respective irrigation sectors, three pumping stations,filtering stations and a modern micro irrigation system for irrigating fruit trees andvegetable crops. The centralized control system allows monitoring of the pumpingstation operation, surveillance of wells, filtering status, locating of failures, dailyvolumes of water delivered to each irrigator, opening and closing of the flowregulating valves, fertigation of plots, and billing of the water used. Innovativefeatures of the project consist of a ‘Water Teller’ and ‘Water Account Book’ providedto each irrigator. The ‘water teller’ is analogous to bank’s ATM and provides theirrigator 24-hour service (Figure 2.3). It is accessed with a coded magnetic key anda personal identification number (PIN). Every user can verify his water consumptionand functioning of his/ her installation. The ’water account book’ is similar to apassbook of a bank, showing all entries, annual water endowments, quota changes,transfers and withdrawals or water delivered.

The key improvements achieved through the modernization project were –

• overall reduction in annual water losses in the Irrigation Community from1.2 million cubic meters to 0.17 million cubic meters,


• sustainable exploitation of the aquifer,• saving in pumping energy, lower cost of water to irrigators, and• an increased crop productivity and quality of fruits.

2.2.3 Micro irrigation Technology in India, (Contribution No. 1.3)

In India, agricultural sector is the largest consumer of water accounting for morethan 80% of the total freshwater withdrawals. The overall irrigation efficiency of thetraditional flood irrigation schemes ranges between 25 to 40%. To meet the foodsecurity, income and nutritional needs of the projected population in 2050 internally,the food production in the country will have to be almost doubled (from the presentlevel production which is around 210 million tonnes, annually). Adoption of Microirrigation has been considered as one of the effective measures for promoting watersaving/conservation and improving water-use efficiency at on-farm level.

Micro irrigation on commercial scale was introduced in India some two decadesback and thus is relatively a new technology for the country. The focus of the microirrigation research has been in the estimation of crop water requirements,modifications of crop geometry and the use of mulches in drip irrigated fields.Efforts to popularize micro irrigation technology were made by capacity building

Figure 2.3 The ‘water teller’ facility located at the enterance of the Mula IrrigationCommunity Headquarters building, Murcia, Spain


of farmers through various training programmes, field demonstrations and thedevelopment of connected literature. Micro irrigation system was found to resultin 30 to 70% water saving and 10 to 60% increase in yield as compared toconventional methods of irrigation. In particular, mulching with drip irrigationfurther enhanced the crop yield by 10 to 20% while controlling weeds by 30 to 90%.Due to persistent efforts and support of government agencies, research organizations,manufacturers, and non-governmental agencies the area under micro irrigation inIndia has crossed 0.8 million ha by 2006.

2.2.4 Low-cost Irrigation Technologies for Small Farms, (Contribution No. 1.4)

In the past, efforts to simply downsize the modern state-of-the-art pressurizedirrigation systems used in developed countries have usually resulted in systems thatare technically and economically impractical for smallholders. Keeping this in view,recently, new efficient low-cost affordable small-scale irrigation technologies(ASITs) designed for farmers with land holdings of a hectare or less have beenintroduced (Figure 2.5). An affordable drip irrigation system can be operatedefficiently at a pressure head of as low as 1 meter, and costs (at 2004 prices) aboutUS $0.04 per square meter for a crop that is planted in rows. The ASITs include -

Figure 2.4. Drip irrigation for papaya (with inter cropping) in India


Figure 2.5(a) A schematiac of a drum kit drip irrigation system (Courtesy: IDE, India)

Figure 2.5(b) Treadle pump supplying water to a low-cost drip irrigation system, Niger(Courtesy: NETAFIM)


(1) an overhead sprinkle irrigation system that costs about US$ 0.04 per square meter,and provides good uniformity when operating at a 10 meter pressure head withsprinklers spaced on a 8 x 12 meter spacing/grid, (2) an innovative surface irrigationsystem in which the water is supplied from a pipe system directly to the mini-basinsformed when using conservation-tillage practices for row crops, and (3) 10,000 litretanks that cost less than US $50 to install; this can efficiently store water over longperiods for drinking or irrigation.

Low cost micro irrigation technologies are being delivered to resource poorsmallholders using a business development approach. This allows them to efficientlyirrigate and grow high value crops and significantly boost their farming income.Farmers can generally recover their initial investment cost between one to three yearsdepending upon type of crop grown, subsidies and options for financing, marketaccess, etc. Presently, more than 500,000 ASIT drip irrigation systems have beendistributed through market channels in Asia and Africa.

2.2.5 Controlled Alternate Partial Root-Zone Irrigation Practices in China,(Contribution No. 1.5)

A new irrigation method called Controlled Alternate Partial Root-zone Irrigation(CAPRI) also called Partial Root-zone Drying (PRD) has been developed that canimprove crop water use efficiency without significant yield reduction (Figure 2.6).This method aims at improving crop water use efficiency by exploiting the plantphysiological responses to partial soil drying at the root zone. It involves part of

Figure 2.6 Controlled alternate partial rootzone furrow irrigation for cotton in China


the root system being exposed to drying soil while the remaining part is irrigatednormally. The wetted and dried sides of the root system are alternated with afrequency according to soil drying rate and crop water requirement. The irrigationsystem is developed on the basis of two hypothesis backgrounds. (i) fully irrigatedplants usually have widely opened stomata. A small narrowing of the stomatalopening may reduce water loss substantially with little effect on photosynthesis, and(ii) part of the root system in drying soil can respond to the drying by sending aroot-sourced signal to the shoots where stomata may be inhibited so that water lossis reduced.

Application of various water saving measures over 80,000 hectares in the Shiyangheriver basin of Gansu province, North-West China led to reduction in irrigation waterquantity by 10% and yield increase by 15%. In general, the use of CAPRI resultedin ‘upto 50%’ reduction in the amount of irrigation required besides maintaininghigh grain yield. While conventional irrigation method showed a substantialdecrease in yield with such a reduced irrigation water quantity.

2.3 Improved paddy irrigation practices

Rice crop is grown on about 150 million ha worldwide. Rice is the most importantcrop for the countries in the Asian monsoon region, providing staple food for thepeople. As the population is rapidly increasing yet available freshwater resourcesare very limited, it is crucially important to promote sustainable water use in paddyfields with better governance including participatory irrigation management. Asiaaccounts for about 90% of the world’s rice area. Asia’s food security depends largelyon irrigated rice fields, which produce three-quarters of all rice harvested. More than30% of Asia’s irrigated land accounts for 50% of the total irrigation waterwithdrawals. Rice irrigation therefore, is an obvious target for water saving. As perIWMI (2003)1, in Asia, 17 million ha of irrigated rice areas may experience “physicalwater scarcity” and 22 million ha may have “economic water scarcity” by 2025. Itis hoped that any reduction in water use in irrigated rice would free significantamount of fresh water for other uses. Water-saving technologies are thereforeneeded in rice production to mitigate the effect of water shortages at the farm level,increase water productivity, safeguard food security, and alleviate poverty.

China has put in significant efforts in developing and applying water-savingirrigation practices in rice-irrigated areas. Other countries including Brazil, India,and Pakistan are also making efforts towards efficient water management in riceproduction. There are six WatSave contributions under this generic topic, of whichNo. 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and 2.6 are management process related and No. 2.5 isagronomic in approach.

1 Water Productivity in Agriculture: Limits Opportunities for Improvement (eds: J. W. Kinje, R. Barkerand D. Molden, CAB International)


2.3.1 Development of Water Saving Rice Irrigation Techniques in China,(Contribution No. 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3)

In China, in 2000 about 400 billion cubic meters of water was used by agriculture,of which about 75% accounted to grain production. Of the total grain production,2/3 (about 300 million tons) came from the irrigated area. The water productivityof the irrigated crops was about 1kg/m3. Based on these facts, the water demand forirrigation in China was estimated as 580 billion cubic meters by 2010, and 640 billioncubic meters by 2030. The overall irrigation efficiency was much lower than areasonable value normally expected.

Several water saving measures like canal lining, use of pipes for water conveyance,shallow-wet irrigation for paddy fields, improved furrow and border irrigationlayouts, sprinkler and micro irrigation were introduced and promoted in order tospare water for other uses. Consequently, a total area meeting the water-savingpractices had reached 16.7 million ha, accounting for 31 per cent of the effectiveirrigated area at the national level. The average water use dropped from7140 m3/ha in 1995 to 6585 m3/ha in 2000. From economic point of view, the waterconsumption for agricultural production dropped from 1917 cubic meters per 10,000RMB2 in 1996 to 1591 cubic meters in the year 2000. These water saving measuresenabled the provision of irrigation facilities to an additional 4.3 million ha, besidesanother 6.7 million ha of farmland with dry seeding practices. But for the abovewater saving measures, the agricultural water demand would have been more by25 billion cubic meters.

In China, out of 113 million hectares of food grain cropped area, 28% is covered byrice, contributing over 39% of the total food grain production in the country. Thetraditional irrigation regime for rice, namely, ’continuous flooding irrigation‘waspracticed in China prior to 1970s. This regime was characterized by the use of a largeamount of water and a very low rice yields. Due to decreasing water supply foragriculture, various water efficient regimes for rice irrigation were tested, appliedand extended in different regions of the country. The three main types of waterefficient irrigation (WEI) regimes of rice cultivation practiced in China are:

• combining shallow water layer with wetting and drying (SWD),• alternate wetting and drying (AWD), and• semi-dry cultivation (SDC).

Based on the results of experiments and investigations from 15 provinces andautonomous regions, compared to traditional rice irrigation (TRI), the irrigationwater use has been reduced by 3-18%, 7-25% and 20-50% under SWD, AWD andSDC, respectively. Due to adoption of WEI, there is a decrease in the percolationand seepage losses and also in the evapo-transpiration, besides a better utilizationof rainfall.

2 1 RMB ≈ 0.12 US Dollars @ 2000 prices


The approximate ranges of water savings were:

• percolation and seepage losses were decreased by 30-65% in case of SDC, and20-35% when using SWD and AWD,

• evapo-transpiration was decreased by 3-10% in case of SWD, and by 5-15%in case of AWD and SDC, and

• the effective rainfall was increased by 5-15% in case of all the three WEIregimes.

The ‘Shallowness–Wetness–Drying’ (SWD) technique comprises determining theoptimal water demand for various growth stages of paddy with respect to differentareas, soils and climate conditions. This involves maintaining shallow water layerat transplanting/ recovery stage, just sufficient to keep wet at pre-tillering phase,field drying at post-tillering stage, and again keeping shallow water layer at jointing/flowering/emulsifying stages, and finally keeping wet during yellow maturity stage.It is different from the traditional continuous irrigation, where large amount ofirrigation water is used. The new method improves the water-fertility-aeration andthermal conditions of the soil, enhances tillering leading to higher crop yields.

By adopting the SWD technique, about 21% of water saving and 11% of yieldincrease were obtained. The new technique was adopted over 0.95 million ha area,accounting for 40% of the total paddy rice area in Guangxi province in 1993. Thetechnique renders significant economic, social and environmental benefits.

2.3.2 Efficient Water Application Methods for Growing Paddy in Pakistan,(Contribution No. 2.4)

Water shortage in the Indus Basin has necessitated the development of efficient on-farm irrigation methods. Paddy is the major cereal crop after wheat in Pakistan. Thiscrop is grown on an area of 2.52 million hectares with an annual production of 5.02million tons with an average yield of 1994 kg per hectare. Under traditionalagronomic and water use practices (puddled paddy fields), farmers apply muchmore water for paddy crop than the actual requirements (mainly to control the weedgrowth). This leads to excessive evaporation losses from the already scarce waterresource. In order to save water, paddy was grown on beds and furrows whichutilizes much less water than the traditional flooding method (Figure 2.7).

The results of the experiment carried over three years (2001 to 2003) revealed thatthe water use efficiency of rice under bed and furrow systems can be raised up to0.39 kg/m3 of water compared to 0.20 kg/m3 commonly obtained under thetraditional flood irrigation method. Transplanting of two rows of paddy seedlingson beds (having 22 cm spacing) and compacted furrows gave the highest water useefficiency of 0.39 Kg/m3 with 32% saving of water over the traditional floodingmethod. In addition, the weed infestation was found to be much less and there wasno significant evidence of salinity build up on beds compared with the traditionalmethod.


2.3.3 Water Management in Rice Fields, India, (Contribution No. 2.5)

Irrigated rice area in India is about 24.5 million ha. Generally, paddy is grown underponding condition and is one of the major water consuming crops. Knowledge ofonset and withdrawal of effective monsoon as well as occurrence of critical dry spellsand its duration helps in deciding sowing or transplantation dates and in planningof storage /ponding or removal of water from paddy fields according to irrigationor drainage needs of rice. In the State of Orissa in India, generally, June 17 andOctober 29 are the mean dates of onset and withdrawal of effective monsoon andon average 2 to 3 critical dry spells of about 18 days occur in a year.

Through a research study, it was established that expected dates of onset andwithdrawal of effective monsoon, occurrence and duration of critical dry spells,amount of rainfall and its distribution play important roles in deciding sowing andtransplanting dates, maturity dates and storage or removal of water to meet theirrigation or drainage requirements of rice. Water balance simulation studies for ricefields indicated that the runoff and number of irrigation applications were correlatedwith deep percolation rates as well as ponding due to bund heights. If deeppercolation rate was to increase, the number of irrigation applications increases withcorresponding decrease in the runoff. With increase in bund height, percentagerunoff and number of irrigation applications decrease leading to water savings.

Figure 2.7 Cultivation of paddy on beds and furrows, Pakistan


2.3.4 Irrigating Paddy with Center Pivot System, Brazil, (Contribution No. 2.6)

Of the 3.44 million ha of irrigated area of Brazil, 1.37 million ha are irrigated bysprinkler systems, of which about 50% area are with center pivots. Normally, ricecrop used to be grown under traditional surface irrigation method, where the fieldsare flooded with water over the growing season. Use of pressurized methods wasonce considered as inappropriate or impractical for rice irrigation. However,recently, some farmers have successfully grown the rice crop using a center pivotsprinkler system instead of the traditional surface irrigation method (Figure 2.8).Besides 50% water savings, there has also been a dramatic decrease in the productioncost to the extent of 20%. The center pivot has allowed for even more conservationof water in the spring months (October-November), when it is sufficient to irrigateat 2-4 days interval due to the temperate climate.

Another advantage of using center pivots to grow rice is that it facilitates multiplecrop rotations over the years, adding valuable nutrients to the soil and improvingits texture. This becomes difficult with surface irrigation because of the high labourrequirement to prepare the fields from rice to another crop. With center pivots, itis possible to grow rice, wheat, soybeans and oats in rotation. The use of center pivothas triggered the benefits of practicing minimum tillage which lead to saving time,reducing runoff, and protecting soil productivity. It has also been possible to reducethe seeding rate from 250 kg/ha to 100 kg/ha. As a result of the various new practices,farmers are able to harvest at least 6500 kg/ha of rice each year, besides reducingpumping water requirements by over 60%. Despite some increases in crop inputs,overall savings and comparable yields have far outweighed the added costs.

Figure 2.8 Paddy irrigation by center pivot system in the Rio Grande do sul region, Brazil


2.4 Better monitoring and control of irrigation

A recognition that prudent management of the available/ developed water resourcesis an effective strategy in coping water scarcity has come to stay. In many countries,there is a focus on improving irrigation performance by adopting decision supportsystems, better flow measuring devices, improved scheduling techniques, and otherinformation technology enabled tools. This generic topic covers nine WatSavecontributions. Of these, two each are related to management process (No. 3.1 and3.2) and two on hardware approach (No. 3.5 and 3.6), and others (No. 3.3, 3.4, 3.7,3.8 and 3.9) on developing system tools.

2.4.1 Water Administration System (WAS) for Water Savings in South Africa,(Contribution No. 3.1)

An unique Water Administration System (WAS), designed as a water managementtool for irrigation schemes, water user associations, catchment management agenciesand water management offices to manage their water usage, water distribution andwater accounts has yielded success (Figure 2.9). The WAS has increased theproductivity of water use in irrigated agriculture in South Africa. This is a decisionsupport program for use by water user associations (WUAs) of irrigation schemesin managing their water accounts and water supply to clients through rivers, canalnetworks and pipelines. The WAS has helped to replace the earlier manuallyoperated water distribution system which is commonly seen on governmentirrigation schemes. The WAS has facilitated an enhanced financial control andminimised water losses through an improved water distribution system.Implementation of the WAS enables water supply of the required volume at therequested time leading to efficient water use at the farm level.

The WAS has been implemented in South Africa on irrigation schemes with a totalarea of 142,843 ha, which is approximately 27.5% of the irrigated area serviced byWUAs. Field measurements showed that losses were reduced by 10 to 20% throughimproved water releases in canals and rivers. With an average water allocation of8,147 cubic meters per ha and average losses of 15%, this amounts to an averagewater saving between 20.5 to 41 million cubic meters per year in the areas served.

2.4.2 Benchmarking for Improving Irrigation Performance in Spain, (ContributionNo. 3.2)

Performance indicators are useful tools for improving irrigation management. Acomputer application called IGRA (Aplicación de Indicadores de Gestión de Riegos -Irrigation Performance Indicators Application) has been developed and applied inAndalucia region of Spain. The IGRA facilitates the computation of variousindicators and defining them using a wide range of descriptors and variables,allowing comparison between different zones and irrigation years. The IGRA also


Figure 2.9 Measuring station at Loskop Irrigation Board (WAS - Canal 1)


takes into account certain phases of the benchmarking procedure and help tocalculate and compare performance indicators for several irrigation districts. TheIGRA has been applied in nine selected irrigation districts covering more than 75,000ha in Andalucia. Although actual water savings achieved are not available, theirrigation communities’ request to extend the new benchmarking approach to anadditional 140,000 ha has confirmed the relevance and practical importance of thetechnique.

2.4.3 Rotational Irrigation Scheduling System for Water Saving in Korea,(Contribution No. 3.3)

A reservoir operator has to simultaneously consider both, the inflow from thecatchment and the releases to the irrigated area, in order to effectively manage thestorages during draught periods. Traditionally, in South Korea, irrigation water isdistributed equitably and simultaneously to all paddy fields within an irrigationdistrict, even in the drought period. However, there were no proper reservoiroperation rules for the rotational irrigation supply system and therefore watermanagers had to face difficulties in regulating the timings and the amount ofirrigation water during any severe drought period. Generally, in conventionalirrigation systems in Korea, the telemetry/telecontrol (TM/TC) projects have beendeployed to control operation of reservoir gates. However, there was no explicitobjective of saving irrigation water, especially during the drought season.

A new system called ‘Rotational Irrigation Scheduling System’ (RISS) has beendeveloped in due consideration to several factors such as the water depth in thereservoir, weather forecast parameters based on internet information, soil moisturestatus in the watershed of the reservoir, and postulated drought scenarios in the nearfuture. The RISS has been applied in Donghwa dam district in Jangsoo county ofCheonbuk province. Compared to conventional method, RISS has several advantagessuch as higher ponding depth and better surge effect in irrigated blocks. Using theRISS, it is possible to implement irrigation scheduling even during severe droughtfor longer periods than the conventional method. It has been observed that the RISSmethod can irrigate for at least 16 days more by better managing the reservoirstorages compared to the conventional approach. The utility of RISS to saveirrigation water and manage the reservoir storages during severe drought season,stand proved: it can also be incorporated in to TM/TC technology for automationof irrigation water supply.

2.4.4 Decision Support System for Improved Water Management of a PumpedIrrigation Scheme in China, (Contribution No. 3.4)

With the increasing social and economic development in the north-west China, waterresources availability is getting more acute especially, for the irrigated agricultureand ecological system. In the last three decades, water saving technology has beenlargely extended in the area. The improvement of irrigation water management is


an important measure to save water and to increase water use efficiency. A DecisionSupport System (DSS) has been developed to improve water management in theJingtai Chuan Pumping Irrigation Scheme at the upper reaches of Yellow River. Thisscheme is a large-scale pumped irrigation project to serve an irrigated area of 54,980hectares. Water is lifted from the Yellow river with the total design flow capacityof 28.6 cubic meters per second (Figure 2.10).

Figure 2.10(a) Pumping plants on Yellow river, China

Flow Meter

Figure 2.10(b) Volumetric measurement of canal discharge


The project was executed into two phases, Phase-I was completed in 1974 and PhaseII was completed in 1994. The major features of the irrigation scheme is its high liftand long canal system. The maximum lift of phase-I is 472 meters with 13 stagesof pumping covering an irrigated area of 20,280 hectares, and the maximum lift ofphase-II is 602 meters with an irrigated area of 34,700 hectares. The schemeencompasses an impressive group of pumping stations, aqueducts, lined canals,tunnels, etc. The water saving technology and measures adopted in the projectinclude canal and pumping station automation, canal lining, small basin irrigation,sprinkler and drip irrigation, and participatory water management by forming wateruser associations.

The DSS for irrigation water management of Jingtai Chuan Pumping Scheme hasbeen put into use since 1996 and was modernized/ updated twice. Both, water useefficiency and water distribution uniformity in the irrigation district have beenimproved since the application of the system. With the continuous improvement ofthe DSS, it is expected that it could be adopted by other irrigation districts withsimilar conditions in China. The scheme had generated significant social andenvironmental benefits. By the year 2000, the production from the project area was2.49 million tons of food grain and 0.98 million tons of oil seed crops. The irrigationscheme helped to relocate about 300,000 people from six counties living in povertyand reforest 35 million trees, considered essential to prevent desertification.

2.4.5 Winflume: Windows-based Software for the Design and Calibration ofLong-throated Measuring Flumes, (Contribution No. 3.5)

Reliable and accurate measurement of water flow is crucial in improving watermanagement. Long-throated flumes and broad-crested weirs provide a practical,low-cost, flexible means of measuring open-channel flows in new and existingirrigation systems, with distinct advantages over other flume and weir devices. Aprimary advantage of the long-throated flumes is that these structures can becustom-designed and calibrated with a computer program based on well-establishedhydraulic theory. This allows the design of structures that meet unique operationaland site requirements, and eliminates the need for laboratory calibration.

A ‘WinFlume’ - Windows-based software for the design and calibration of long-throated measuring flumes was specially developed at the USBR, Colorado, USA.In addition to the WinFlume computer software, a number of other tools have beendeveloped in recent years to facilitate the use of long-throated flumes. These includea book providing design and construction guidance, spreadsheets to assist withestimation of construction quantities and design of downstream energy dissipationstructures, and published tables of pre-computed flume designs for typicalinstallations. The significant advantages of long-throated flumes include:

• choice of throat shapes allows a wide range of discharges to be measured withgood precision,


• minimal head loss needed to maintain critical flow conditions in the throatof the flume,

• ability to make field modifications and develop calibrations for as-builtdimensions, using the computer program, and

• economical construction and adaptability to varying site conditions.

These advantages have led to widespread adoption of long-throated flumes. Theireconomy and simplicity allow better measurement of irrigation water with resultingimprovements in the management of scarce water resources.

2.4.6 The Wetting Front Detector: A Tool to Help Irrigators Learn, (ContributionNo. 3.6)

Although there are proven soil water monitoring tools for irrigators to boost waterproductivity, the uptake of these technologies has been disappointingly low. A newuser friendly mechanical device called a ‘Wetting Front Detector’, which shows theirrigator as how deep the water has penetrated into the soil was introduced to helpbetter irrigation scheduling (Figure 2.11). The Wetting Front Detector in essence isa learning tool and encourages irrigators to appreciate the efficacy of irrigation bylinking the amount of water applied to the depth of penetration. The Wetting FrontDetector also captures and stores a soil water sample after irrigation which can beused to improve salt and fertilizer management. The WFD does not tell an irrigatorwhen to start irrigating – it simply informs them how well the last irrigation filledthe profile and helps them to make a decision about the timing and duration of thenext irrigation, thereby improving on-farm water application efficiency - leading towater savings. To help irrigators learn better, an interactive visualization tool ‘TheFullstop Game’ is provided on a specially developed website www.fullstop.com.au.The irrigators can type in their application rate and days since last irrigation andthe visualization game shows them how deep the wetting front should penetratedown into the soil for drip and sprinkler irrigation.

2.4.7 Computer-Based Decision Support System for Sugarcane Farmers andExtension Staff, (Contribution No. 3.7)

A computer-based decision support system for sugarcane farmers and extensionstaff – called ‘Mycanesim’ has been developed and implemented on two small-scaleirrigation schemes in South Africa (Figure 2.12). The system utilizes the potentialof sophisticated information and communication technology (crop modelling,mobile phone technology, internet, automatic weather stations), combined withparticipatory methods to achieve substantial improvement in water use efficiencyand sugarcane yields for the benefit of small-scale growers.

The system consists of a sugarcane model, an on-line weather database and acommunication network, which automatically provides farmers with near real-time


Figure 2.11(b) Demonstration of the water front detector installation, South Africa

Figure 2.11(a) A typical wetting front detector and the position of wetting front afterirrigation


Figure 2.12 Measuring water applied through sprinkler irrigation to sugarcane in Pongola,South Africa

field-specific irrigation advice and yield estimates using cell phone text messages(SMS). More extensive information is provided to the advisory support structure byFAX and internet. Daily weather data are downloaded from automatic weatherstations, situated throughout the South African sugar industry. The SMS textmessages are sent to the farmers whenever an action is required, but at least onceper week. The content comprises a suggestion to start, stop or continue irrigationfor their field, with an estimate of current and final cane yield. These messages aresent in the growers’ mother tongue for an easy implementation. The approach is nowbeing extended to the industry, including commercial growers.

In addition to these direct benefits from the irrigation advice, the MyCanesim systemreports serve as a useful benchmark of field and crop status. They are used byextension staff as a basis for discussion with growers during field visits, and toidentify agronomic practices that limit yields such as poor crop stand, insufficientweed control, erratic movements of sprinklers, and excessive sprinkler setting times.

Due to natural year-to-year variations and the lack of record keeping in the past,an exact figure on water savings and yield effects was not available. However,simulation results suggest that up to about 25% water savings is possible.


2.4.8 Use of Information Technology for Integrated Water Management in Egypt,(Contribution No. 3.8 and 3.9)

A growing population and expanding agricultural and industrial economies requireEgypt to find alternatives to manage better its fixed water resources. The EgyptianMinistry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) is focusing on decentralizingand integrating water resource management at the district level. MWRI believes thatthe best way to achieve this is through the introduction of the Integrated WaterManagement District (IWMD). Consequently, the MWRI has established IWMDs infour districts.

Low cost computer-based information systems (IS) have been developed in the fourIWMDs. Three new databases (water levels, complaints, and violations) have beendeveloped and implemented. The cost of implementing the IWMD-IS for eachdistrict was less than US $6,500 (at 2004 price). The performance of the IWMDs usingdata from the database has been evaluated using Goal Programming (GP) method.The results of the analysis showed that the newly formed IWMDs were able toachieve real water savings up to 6 percent, distribute water more equitably withminimum complaints and violations. The IWMD-IS tool has been found to be usefulin evaluating irrigation system performance at the district level.

Further more, in Egypt, a user friendly computer program called “Computer-AidedMapping Irrigation Scheduling Model” (CAMISM) has also been developed toschedule irrigation. The program language is in visual basic; it helps to calculate theirrigation amount required for an area and the time of application. The modifiedFAO Penman-Monteith method is the basis to calculate ETo. The model calculatesthe real time irrigation scheduling for 36 mapped Egyptian zones. An user can addnew locations upon clicking the Egyptian map window by global positioning of thesite (i.e. latitude, longitude and altitude). The CAMISM has been applied in threedifferent locations in Egypt viz., Toshka, Maruot and Kafer Al-Sheekh. In all casesthe model predictions gave significant correlation with the ETo values obtainedlocally. The amount of water saved due to application of the CAMISM has beenestimated as 102.2 million cubic meters for corn crop in Toshka, 128 million cubicmeters for peanut irrigation in Maruot, and 143.3 million cubic meters for wheatirrigation in Sakha region.

2.5 Integrated approach in agricultural drainage

Agricultural drainage aims at increasing agricultural productivity by controllingwaterlogging and salinity in the crop root zone. Drainage can contribute in achievingfood security by reducing the need to exploit additional or new land and save waterresources. Drainage can contribute to water saving in three ways: first, increase cropproduction without the need for consuming extra water resources; second, reuse ofdrainage water in irrigation saves significant part of the available fresh water


resources; and third, controlled drainage helps in saving fresh water by providingpart of the consumptive use through capillary rise from shallow water tables. Aconcern in drainage water reuse arises out of the increasing trends of pollution indrains caused by disposal of sewage in some instances. Also, release of industrialwastewater from urban centers and rural settlement into drains causes concern. Thisimposes a challenge for the agricultural reuse practices, and calls for integratedapproach for water management. Integrated approach involving technology,coordination, participatory planning and management offer a promise for watersaving.

This generic topic covers three WatSave contributions. contribution No. 4.1 and 4.2focus on management approach, while No. 4.3 covers system tools approach.

2.5.1 The Role of Agricultural Drainage in Water Saving, (Contribution No. 4.1)

Worldwide, about 20-30 million ha are severely affected by salinity and an additional60-80 million ha are affected to some extent. Increasing the yield in these areas byonly 10 percent due to improved drainage is equivalent to expanding irrigation to6-8 million ha of new land, and using additional 60-80 billion cubic meters of water.The actual savings will vary from country to country depending on the area affectedand magnitude of waterlogging and salinity on one hand and the area that will becovered by improved drainage on the other. The increase of yield without extendingagriculture to new lands helps to saving of other agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizersand farm operations) and release of less pollutant to the environment.

Driven by water scarcity, drainage water is now counted by many countries as anadditional non-conventional water resource. The most well known formal programfor drainage water reuse is in Egypt. The program started with recovering 2.9 millioncubic meters in 1984-85 which increased to 4.4 billion cubic meters by 1997. An aimis set at reusing 8.8 billion cubic meters by 2017. Reuse of agricultural drainage waterprovides an effective option to increase water use efficiency. It could save goodquality water from rivers or underground aquifers for prime uses such as ‘drinkingwater supply’. The main constraint for agricultural drainage water reuse in irrigationhowever, is the high salinity found in them which increases when the program ofreuse is stretched to higher quantities.

Controlled drainage is in vogue in North America and Western Europe as a measureto conserve water and increase crop yield. The objective of controlled drainage isto reduce subsurface drainage intensity during specific period of time bytemporarily raising the level of the drain outlet (Figure 2.13). Capillary rise fromthe raised water table contributes in moisture supply to the root zone. Recentexperimental works in Egypt show that up to 20-40% of the total water requirementcould be saved through controlled drainage during the growing season. In the caseof paddy rice, the water savings could exceed 50%.


(a) Surface drainage

(b) Sub surface/pipe drainage

Figure 2.13 Controlled drainage practices in Egypt


2.5.2 Modified Drainage System for Rice Growing Areas in Egypt, (ContributionNo. 4.2)

In Egypt, the agricultural area is about 3 million ha located mainly in the Nile Deltaand the Valley, with cropping intensity of 200%. In order to achieve maximumpossible crop production, the Egyptian Government is implementing differentdevelopment programs. One of these programs deals with land drainage to controlwaterlogging and soil salinity in all the old agricultural area. Presently, about 2million ha have been provided with tile drainage in the Nile Delta and another 0.7million ha are being provided with the tile drainage. Rice is cultivated in about 0.4million ha in the Nile Delta as summer crop besides cotton and maize.

The tile drainage system as implemented in Egypt is a composite of the gridirontype consisting of laterals and main collector drains (Figure 2.14(a)). The area servedby one collector drain varies from 20 to 100 ha depending on the topography, fieldsize and layout of main irrigation and drainage systems. There is usually more thanone crop served by one collector drain at the same time. The drainage criteria arebased on the most important crop grown in the area i.e. cotton. The design rate forcollector drainpipe capacity is 3 mm/day for rice growing areas. This rate has beenincreased to 4mm/day to enable adequate drainage condition for the dry-foot crops.In spite of this increase in the design rate, water management problem occur in areaswhere rice is cultivated along with “dry-foot crops”. Some of the rice growing areasare already provided with conventional drainage systems. As rice is the only cropwith standing water on the subsurface drainage systems, consequently, highirrigation losses occurred in the drained rice fields. To save water losses, farmersare tempted to block the collector drainpipes at the nearest manhole with whateveris available in the field mud and straw. This unauthorized interference often causesserious damaging effects on the drainage system and the other crops in the upstreamof the blocked section.

Figure 2.14 Conventional (a) and modified (b) layout of subsurface drainage system in Egypt

(a) (b)


In order to avoid unnecessary excessive drainage from the rice fields and to ensuresafe performance of the drainage system and to translate the farmers’ practices intotechnically sound and environmentally safe subsurface drainage system, the layoutand the design of the conventional drainage system have been modified. Suchmodified layout has been introduced in the rice growing areas (Figure 2.14(b)). Themain features of this concept are to restrict the outflow from the areas cultivatedwith rice, and enable normal drainage conditions for the remaining areas (cultivatedwith “dry-foot” crops). The modified layout consists of a main collector drain withseveral sub-collector branches. Each sub-collector coincides with one cropconsolidation unit and is equipped, at the junction with the main collector, with aclosing device to regulate the sub-collector outflow. As a consequence, the designrate for collector drainpipe could be reduced to 2-3 mm/day. It was found that withthe introduction of the modified layout of the subsurface drainage system, savingsin irrigation water up to 30%, protection of the drainage system from tempering byfarmers, protection of non-rice crops from the damaging effects of improperlyblocked conventional collector drains became feasible.

2.5.3 Spatio-Drainage Approach for Water Saving in Egypt, (ContributionNo. 4.3)

Selection and proper design of subsurface drainage design system requires sufficientand reliable soil data, which are inherently variable in both space and time, affectingthe economical and technical feasibility of subsurface drainage projects. A newapproach using concepts of ‘Regionalized Variable Theory’ to incorporate variabilityof soil properties into both feasibility and design stages of a drainage project hasbeen recently developed in Egypt to provide decision makers and designers inselecting areas for a subsurface drainage system, its implementation priority, anda precise design of the system.

The new approach for subsurface drainage design is found to be useful indetermining lateral drain spacing and the required lateral drain pipe length. Widerdrain spacing was obtained with the new approach in comparison to theconventional technique. As a result a total saving of 18 to 35 km of required lateralpipe length was observed in the study area. Consequently, a lower cost (up to 10%)of installation and maintenance of lateral drains was realized. The adoption of thenew approach over a 3-year crop rotation under steady-state flow conditionsresulted in an estimated water savings in a range of 137- 547 cubic meters/ha. Understeady-state flow conditions, quantity of water saved was approximately 92% higherthan those of unsteady-state conditions and ranged from 262–1,049 cubic meters/ha over the 3-year crop rotation. The approach is being applied over an area of 1,533ha in the Nile Delta of Egypt.


2.6 Up-scaling/ replicating on a large-scale

Of late, large-scale, state-supported irrigation schemes have been a point of debateowing to their low performance in respect of water use efficiency and cost recovery.Delivering equitable and reliable water supplies in the large public irrigationschemes is a complex task. Many irrigation systems are technically and institutionallyill-equipped to respond to the challenges presented by increasing water scarcity.Modernization of irrigation services by institutional reforms and upgrading ofinfrastructure are considered as better approaches towards enhancing productivityand sustainability of irrigation schemes. Effective water user associations, waterauditing, appropriate and acceptable rules and regulations, and technologicalinterventions are essential components to any attempt in achieving water conservation/savings in public irrigation schemes.

In all, seven WatSave contributions are classifiable under this generic topic. Fivecontribution (No. 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.7) are management process related and oneeach on agronomic (No. 5.2), and system tools (No. 5.6) aspects.

2.6.1 Improving Surface Irrigation Performance, (Contribution No. 5.3)

Of the total irrigated area worldwide, surface (gravity) irrigated area coverage isabout 85 %. Even in technologically advanced countries (e.g. the United States), thesurface irrigation continues to be practiced on a sizeable area. Surface irrigationsystems often have a reputation for poor performance. While this has prompted theadoption of pressurized irrigation in many countries, there are opportunities forimproving the performance of surface systems, at much lower cost than conversioninto pressurized irrigation systems. Decisions on conversion from surface topressurized irrigation or making improvements on existing low-performing surfaceirrigation depends on wide variety of factors like climate, crops, soils, topography,labour, water supply, socio-economics, technical support propensity for investmentof the requisite capital, availability of sustainable mechanism to bear O&M costs etc.

One key feature of efficient surface irrigation systems is precision (e.g. laser-guided)land grading (Figure 2.15). Poor land grading can make other improvementsineffective. An important issue, related to land shaping, is developing the properlayout for guiding water to individual basins and the appropriate sizing forindividual basins based on soils and flow rate. On sloping fields, installing run-offrecovery systems or reducing the field slope or adjusting flow rate and timing canimprove on-farm efficiency. A number of methods have recently been developedthat have potential to improve water control, increase yields and improve irrigationefficiencies for rice, some of which may have application in case of other crops too,world-wide. Control of flow rate is another important feature of efficient surfaceirrigation. A good, efficient design and layout is less sensitive to fluctuating flows,but performance can degrade when flows are too low. The use of farm reservoirs


and farm wells can be used to reduce the impact of poor water delivery service fromirrigation water purveyors. There are many examples of surface irrigation systemsand projects where significant improvements in water management have resultedin less water diverted, higher yields, reduced labor costs, etc.

Figure 2.15 Lesser graded surface irrigation methods in USA

(a) (b)

(b) straight furrows

(a) large dead level basins


2.6.2 Strategies for Water Savings in Public Irrigation Schemes in India,(Contribution No. 5.1 and 5.5)

Maharashtra State, the third largest state in India, has created an irrigation potentialof 4 million ha. Irrigation withdrawals are about 80% of the total water use in thestate. However, the sector is facing challenges of low utilization of created potential,conflicts among various users, low water use efficiency, and poor cost recovery. Inorder to enhance the water productivity, equity and sustainability, a holisticapproach has been adopted by the state involving policy reforms, legal enactment,capacity building and stakeholder participation. Many new concepts and innovativeideas like - irrigation status report, water audit, benchmarking of irrigation schemes,canal cleaning movement, public awareness and participatory irrigation managementhave been introduced for effective and efficient use of the state’s water resources.Subsequent to framing of a ‘State Water Policy’ in 1993, two important legalmeasures were introduced in 2005 viz. enacting the ‘Management of IrrigationSystems by Farmers Act’ and ‘Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act’.

The reform initiatives in water sector have received general acceptance from public.Its successful implementation has resulted in remarkable improvement in water useefficiency. The reforms have also improved financial performance of irrigationprojects with operation and maintenance (O&M) expenses being covered throughwater charges. As a result of the various strategies and measures, water savings tothe tune of 3.4 billion cubic metres in the year 2002/2003 was achieved.

Figure 2.16 Dessimination of water saving messages by organising cultural programs inrural areas of Maharashtra, India


Participatory irrigation management in Katepurna irrigation scheme is one of thesuccess stories of Maharashtra. The reservoir has a live storage capacity of 86.35million cubic meters to serve an irrigation potential of 8325 ha. Besides irrigation,the provision for drinking and industrial water supply exists. Although, the projectwas in operation over 25 years, it could not provide the irrigation benefits asenvisaged. During the last 25 years on an average, only about 2000 ha were irrigated(annually). Due to less demand/ utilization of water for irrigation, the non-irrigationreservation gradually increased from 25.20 to 46.82 million cubic meters, while thewater available for irrigation got reduced from 49.45 to 27.83 million cubic meters.This has led to a reduction in the area served with irrigation. The reluctance toirrigation among farmers was mainly due to non-availability of assured and timelywater supply. The irrigation system was trapped into the vicious circle of ‘poor costrecovery – poor maintenance – low demand for irrigation’. The strategies and effortsmade in improving water management of the irrigation scheme comprised -engineering, agronomic, and managerial besides public awareness and involvement(Figure 2.16). With persistent efforts of introducing participatory irrigationmanagement, it was possible to increase the irrigation in the command of Katepurnaproject from 2000 ha to over 3600 ha, with an annual water saving of about 7.71million cubic meters.

2.6.3 Water Saving Technology for Winter Wheat Cultivation in Turkmenistan,(Contribution No. 5.2)

Akhal Scientific and Production Centre of Turkmenistan has developed an efficientwater and resource-saving technology of soils pre-sowing treatment, allowingprudent use of irrigation water ensuring optimal yield of the winter wheat with aminimal water consumption. The studies carried out in 1999–2003 have shown thatthe most optimal method of pre-sowing ploughing providing preservation of soiltexture, increase in fertility, increase in winter wheat yield, saving of water andpower resources, is the ploughing/discing with toothed disk harrows to a depth of10-12 cm precedes the sowing operations. The new technology resulted in irrigationwater saving of about 920 cubic meters/ha, effective preservation of moisture in thesoil profile, increase in crop yield, prevention of soil salinity, preservation of soiltexture, an increased soil fertility, saving of fuel and lubricants by 10 l/ha, and adecrease of labour input up to 0.32 man/hour. This technology is in practice since2000 in the farms in the southern regions of Turkmenistan over a total area of 100,000ha. Taking into consideration the saving of irrigation water of 920 cubic meters/ha,the actual volume of saved water was about 92 million cubic meters/ year.

2.6.4 Irrigation Water Conservation/ Savings in China, (Contribution No. 5.4)

The total water consumption in China in 2003 was 532 billion cubic meters, of which310 billion cubic meters (58%) was for irrigation purposes. The Chinese Government,subsequent to the occurrence of severe drought during 1990s, focussed on thesustainable development and management of its limited water resources. It was felt


that the traditional irrigation practices waste a lot of water depriving about 60% offarmlands of access to irrigation. Consequently, water conservation and increasedwater use efficiency had been the driving force of China’s irrigation development.China is now a pioneering country in promoting/popularizing large scaleimplementation of water-saving measures in irrigation.

To promote water conservation/savings in agriculture, the Government haveestablished water conservation/saving programs in 300 counties. Large number ofworks for extending water-saving technology and rehabilitation of irrigationdistricts were carried out in the last two decades with a main aim of saving water.The major water conservation/ saving measures include adoption of sprinklerirrigation (2.63 million ha), micro irrigation (0.37 million ha), use of low pressurepipes (4.5 million ha), canal lining (8.1 million ha), and other measures (3.9 millionha). As a result, since 1980s the total water consumption for irrigation for the entirecountry has been maintained between 340 - 360 billion cubic meters. The proportionof irrigation water withdrawals to the total water withdrawals has been reducedfrom 80% in 1980 to 60% in 2003. In the same period, the irrigated area increasedby 7 million hectares and grain production by, 213 million tons.

Since 1998, the investment in water-saving irrigation significantly got a boost whichpromoted farmers to adopt more water-saving irrigation practices. By 2004, thewater-saving irrigated area had reached 20 million ha leading to an annual savingof 20 billion cubic meters of water, and an increase in grain production by 20 milliontonnes. The overall irrigation efficiency has reached to 45%, with the waterproductivity touching 1.1 kg/m3. With the same total water withdrawals, irrigatedarea has been increased from 53.3 million ha in 2000 to 55.9 million ha in 2003.

2.6.5 Systems Analysis to Quantify Real Water Savings, Australia and China,(Contribution 5.6)

Improving water use efficiency is crucial to both Australia and China. In case ofChina, industrial and municipal water use has been increasing rapidly therebyreducing the proportion of water withdrawals for irrigation from 80% to 60% in 1980and 2003, respectively. This situation demanded major improvement in water useefficiency for irrigated agriculture, if current production levels were to bemaintained and enhanced. In respect of Australia, irrigated agriculture makes up70% of its consumptive water use. With the water resources in irrigation areas beingclose to fully allocated, or even over-allocated in some catchments, there is anincreased competition for water. It is generally accepted that there will be less wateravailable for irrigated agriculture in the future and the only way to provide enoughwater for irrigation will be to use the available resource more efficiently at both farmand catchment scales.

The savings from one part of the system may lead to higher water use in anotherpart of the system and the overall improvement may be negligible. Some measures


that may improve the water productivity in agriculture are canal lining, irrigationscheduling, high-tech irrigation technologies, improved cropping patterns andconversion to crops with higher economic returns. The key to achieving “real” andsubstantial water savings lies in the assessment and hydrologic ranking of watersaving options in a “whole of the system” context.

To identify “true” water saving options, it is important to adopt a multi-scalesystems analysis approach for accounting all surface water and groundwater use,losses and devise interactions at the catchment, irrigation area and farm levels. Anexample of systems analysis for the Coleambally Irrigation Area (CIA) in Australiashowed that irrigation efficiency in terms of root zone storage to the water divertedfrom the source is 70%. Unless, there is an investment in irrigation infrastructureto improve measuring, monitoring and reducing losses this efficiency indicator willremain low. The overall water use efficiency of the CIA is 77% due to capillary wateruse by the crops; while the production efficiency is at 343 tons/ million cubic meters.It has been shown that on-farm irrigation technology conversions can providepotential water savings ranging from 1000 to 2000 cubic meters/ha for flood tosprinkler and 2000 to 3000 cubic meters/ha from flood to drip irrigation for citrus,1000 to 1500 cubic meters/ha from flood to sprinkler and up to 4000 cubic meters/ha from flood to drip irrigation for vineyards, and 500 to 1000 cubic meters/ha forvegetables.

2.6.6 It Is Not Always Safe to Save Water, (Contribution No. 5.7)

The progressive scarcity of water for irrigation in many semi-arid, arid, and sub-humid regions has urged individual irrigators and water management organizationsto minimize irrigation water supplies and recycle drainage water. Measures havebeen taken at field level and at river basin or irrigation command area level toincrease overall irrigation efficiencies and reallocate “saved” water. Recent long termclimate change forecasts add further importance to such measures. It is argued thatsuch policies in already water-short regions may not always result in sustainablebenefits for agriculture, fishery and ecological values, notably in the lower parts ofirrigation command areas and drainage catchments. Due to serious shortages offresh irrigation water that occur at the tail ends of some irrigation systems, such areaswill depend for their survival on the flows of mixed tail and (sub-) surface waterdraining from better watered areas. Moreover, savings at field level may not be seenat basin level or may be insignificant.

Increasing water application efficiency in water-short regions can cause a significantdecrease in leaching and irrigation surface runoff. Depending on the water quality,this will eventually result in increased soil salinity levels and decreased crop yields,which will be difficult to redress. In addition, reducing public irrigation watersupplies and encouraging improved field application efficiencies will reduce thequantity and quality of surface drainage flows. Cropping intensity and crop yieldsin downstream areas will suffer, if the earlier availability and quality of drainage


flows were essential for agriculture. Furthermore, wetland production andbiodiversity will suffer, unless decreased drainage water availability and quality iscompensated by “saved” fresh irrigation water allocations. Before any large-scalewater saving policy is implemented, it is necessary to determine if the overall savingsare significant and which measures are required to mitigate negative long-term side-effects, including cooperation at institutional and individual water user level.

Impact Assessment of Water Saving Innovations 57

3.1 Introduction

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) instituted WatSaveAwards in 1997 to recognize the outstanding contributions/innovations in watersaving/ conservation in agriculture. The maiden awards were made in 1998. Sincethen 24 outstanding water saving contributions from 12 countries were honored fortheir innovative technology/ management and as young professionals’ initiative.

This chapter provides a brief outcome of the attempt to assess past award-winningcontributions/ innovations based on the subsequent changes/ impact. To gain aninsight about success and the potentiality towards up-scaling, these innovationswere critically reviewed by circulating a questionnaire amongst all past awardeesand the concerned national committees for feedback. The questionnaire designedfor seeking feedback from the contributors is shown in Annex IV. The main focusthat the impact assessment aimed was to determine the extent of water saving andspatial expansion due to technological and managerial interventions

Of the 24 awardees, the feedback was received from 11 award winners only.Nevertheless, the feedback is quite sufficient to provide a feel of the impact of theseinnovative technologies/ management approaches in water saving and unintendedrepercussions, if any. The following is a summary of the responses received fromthe contributors, lessons learned and key messages that emanated from the exercise.The year of contribution to ICID WatSave awards and the year of reporting thefeedback/impact are shown for the respective contributions. The backgroundinformation of these innovations/ contributions is given in chapter 2.

Impact Assessment ofWater Saving Innovations


3.2 Summary of the impact assessment

Contribution No. 1.1 Dripping with success: The challenges of an irrigationredevelopment project:

Contributor: Robert E Merry Country: UKYear of contribution: September 2002 Reported: July 2008

The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC), a joint Government and privatesector company, was formed in the late 1970s to develop the Simunye sugarcaneestate and mill in the northern lowveld of Swaziland. When full commercialproduction commenced in 1982, the estate had two main irrigation systems; draglinesprinkler and surface furrow but in later expansions surface drip irrigation was used.By the mid-1990s there was increasing demand on water resources for furthersugarcane expansion and with the infield sprinkler equipment showing signs ofwear and tear, Simunye estate looked into irrigation redevelopment. A cost analysisof seven different irrigation options was undertaken and one that offered the bestreturn was conversion of the dragline sprinkler system to subsurface drip. Theredevelopment project commenced in 1998 and about 4,000 ha were converted fromsprinkler to drip by 2000. The system design uses a novel cluster house concept forcontrolling irrigation water and fertigation to cane blocks of about 100 ha. Radiocontrollers are used to provide automatic operation of pumps, valves and irrigationschedules. The innovation was targeted to the commercial sugarcane estate, smallgrowers, and farmer associations.

In 2002, the water saving achieved was 1,450 m3/ha/year (5.8 Mm3/yr total). In 2007,the subsurface drip system was extended to the commercial sugarcane estatecovering 9,128 ha with an estimated 13.2 million cubic meters of water saving dueto conversion from sprinkler to subsurface drip system. The saved water has beenused to develop new small grower areas. The sucrose production for the drip fieldson the commercial estate has increased by an average of 2.2 tonnes/ha/year over theprevious sprinkler system. There have been significant drought conditions since2002 but sugarcane productivity has been maintained under the drip system despitethere being water restrictions of 60% of normal irrigation.

There has been a steady rate of conversion from sprinkler to subsurface drip suchthat 50% of the commercial estate is now under drip. Many of the new small growershave adopted subsurface drip as their irrigation system following the experience andconfidence gained by the commercial estate. Other benefits of using subsurface dripirrigation to sugarcane include - reduction in N fertilizer usage by 10 kg/ha/yr,reduction in irrigator labour and better working conditions (no night shift sprinklerchanges necessary), and better sucrose yield and longer ratoon life.

Conversion to subsurface drip from furrow irrigated fields as well as sprinkler fieldshave provided further water savings but at the expense of pumping energy


consumption. Subsurface drip has also been successfully introduced downstreamof the sugar factory where irrigation water quality is poor. The incidence of emitterclogging by algae and fungi has been much reduced by pre-settlement andchemigation using hydrogen peroxide.

Contribution No. 2.1 Water saving and environmentally sustainable irrigatedrice production in China

Contributor: Dr. Mao Zhi Country: ChinaYear of contribution: October 2000 Reported: May 2008

In China, rice is a major food crop contributing about 39% of the total food grainproduction of the country. Due to decreasing water supply to agriculture, variouswater efficient regimes for rice irrigation were tested, adopted and extended indifferent regions of China. The three main types of water efficient irrigation regimesof rice practiced in China are - (1) combining shallow water layer with wetting anddrying, (2) alternate wetting and drying, and (3) semi-dry cultivation.

The improved rice cultivation system using water efficient regimes was developedfor the benefit of farmers, water user associations (WUAs) and irrigationmanagement bureaus/departments in four provinces of China. The estimated watersaving in 2000 was 311 million cubic meters, while by 2008 this was about 1300million cubic meters.

The efforts to promote the water saving technology are ongoing by organizingfarmers’ trainings, conducting experiments on farmers’ fields to demonstrate thecomparative benefits/ limitations of improved and traditional irrigation techniques.

Additional benefits of the improved rice cultivation system include – an increasedrice production by 274,700 tonnes, 20~35% reduction in the losses of nitrogen (N)and phosphorous (P) due to decreased runoff and percolation in paddy fields. Atpresent, the innovative irrigation techniques have spread in more than 10 provincesin South China. Further experiments are being envisaged/planned to find out theeffects of greenhouse gases release from paddy fields under improved irrigationtechniques

Contribution No. 2.4 Efficient water application methods for growing paddyin the Indus Basin

Contributor: Dr. Mohd. Akram Kahlown Country: PakistanContributed: September 2003 Reported: February 2008

Pakistan is a water scarce country and the per capita water availability has decreasedfrom 5600 to 1200 cubic meters during the last fifty years. The availability of water


for agriculture sector has been seriously affected both, in quantitative and qualitativeterms, because of increasing demand to agricultural and non-agricultural sectors anddisposal of untreated industrial and domestic effluents into fresh water bodies. Riceis the major cereal crop grown on 2.5 million hectare in Pakistan and contributesabout 10% of total export earning.

Traditionally farmers apply excessive water for rice crop leading to deeppercolation, surface runoff and evaporation losses. Experiments carried out haveshown that growing paddy on beds and furrows increases water use efficiency. Theinnovation was targeted to farmers, WUAs, agriculture and irrigation agencies, andall those involved in on-farm water management. The field trials of growing riceon bed and furrow method were conducted on 3 acres (1.2 ha), which showed savingof about 15-25% water over traditional irrigation method. Currently, in the Indusbasin, the bed and furrow irrigation method is adopted on about 80%, 50% and 10% of irrigated areas of cotton, maize and wheat crops, respectively.

The innovation, however, did not spread in rice growing area, as it is not so easyto change mindset/ perception of the farmers, who have been practicing flooding/ponding of rice fields since decades. However, the extension agencies are continuingtheir efforts in promoting/spreading the innovation by setting up more field trialsand arranging farmers’ days.

An estimated 4.9 billion cubic meters water has been saved over the last five yearsdue to adoption of the innovative bed and furrow method of irrigation for differentcrops. It is hoped that as a result of the adoption of the improved surface irrigationmethod for various crops including rice, more water will be available to expandcultivated area and/or to meet demand of other sectors. Meanwhile, due to reducedwaterlogging and salinity in the basin investment on drainage works has decreased.However, negative externalities like increase in the secondary salinization due toinadequate leaching, and reduced recharge to the aquifers near urban centers wheregroundwater is the main source of drinking water supply are foreseen.

Contribution No. 2.6 Rice irrigation under center pivot system in Brazil

Contributor: M/s. Werner & Herbert Arns Country: BrazilContributed: October 2007 Reporting: April 2008

In Brazil, rice crop is generally grown under traditional surface irrigation methodwhere the fields are flooded with water throughout the growing season. After yearsof increased production costs and decreased revenues due to low market prices forrice, Brazilian farmers are now facing a market that is demanding more rice. Thesehigh expectations are aided by the possibility of Brazilian rice being commercializedin the international market. Therefore, there is a trend of rising prices for rice whichcould increase the production levels as well. However, the amount of water used


for producing rice is a limiting factor in many regions of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.The uncertainty related to the water availability for any growing season is a constantreality among the Brazilian farmers. The 2006/2007 season, for example, had its totalplanted area reduced by 12% due to the lack of water.

The experience with irrigating rice by center pivots has proven that it is possibleto produce 1 kg of rice with 683 liters of water – a reduction of 31.7% over thatachieved by surface methods. It was also possible to produce and market a higherdiversity of crops using center pivot. Other advantages associated with the centerpivot are related to the no-tillage planting system, increasing the CO2 soil fixation,increasing soil fertility, reducing methane emissions and reducing fossil fuelconsumption.

Werner and Herbert Arns’ experience began with a 3 ha center pivot and furtherextended to the first commercial production to 85 ha. Following the Arns’ initiative,another six farmers have already begun using center pivots to irrigate rice. The totalarea covered by the new technique in the Uruguaiana region is about 800 ha. Therehave been other rice growers using center pivots in different regions of Rio Grandedo Sul as well as in Argentina. On average, the center pivot system saves 50% ofthe amount of water consumed by the conventional surface irrigation system.Considering the initial 85 ha covered by center pivot system, it was estimated thatabout 467,500 cubic meters of water have been saved. With the above rationale, andthe increased area under the center pivot (800 ha), the water saving was estimatedas 4.4 million cubic meters per year.

There has been an increase in the area under center pivots; however, it is still lowerthan expected considering the great potential offered. The possible reasons couldbe: (i) resistance of some farmers who insist on raising rice according to thetraditional method, (ii) lack of commitment of research and development institutes,(iii) unfavorable rice market during the past few years. Generally, the farmers areresistant to change. As in any segment of society, a big change is likely to be difficultto adopt. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, surface irrigation has beenused in Rio Grande do Sul, all farming techniques and the mindset were built aroundthat system. Changing almost a century of tradition, even if it is based on watersavings and concrete economic data, the farmer is generally reluctant to invest inan unknown and risky system.

Some farmers have tried irrigating rice with center pivots but were not as successfulas Arns. The frustration led some of those farmers to abandon new trials. The correctapplication of new techniques is of essential importance to the success of thismethod. Therefore, the work of rural extension offices is fundamental. These are theindividuals who will be able to advise the farmers which in turn will help ensurethe success of the enterprise. Considering this, the lack of technicians to promotethis innovation is a serious counter-stimulating factor to the farms that are capableof converting to center pivots.


The main objective of the center pivot irrigation method for rice is to use watermore efficiently. The positive unintended effects are related to the cultural practiceswith less negative impact to the environment (reduction of fossil fuel consumptionand increased CO2 fixation which has helped improve soil conditions) and theelimination of important weeds and pests (red rice and rice water weevil). Theunintended effects that negatively affected the rice crop are also related to weeds.Eliminating tillage also means a considerable reduction of fossil fuel consumption.The savings of fuel and machinery for rice cultivated under center pivots reachesapproximately 20%. Soil analyses carried out in Arns’ farm has indicated aconsiderable increase in the content of organic matter in the soils under the centerpivot. Besides this, there was an increase in the levels of P, K, Ca, S and othernutrients.

It is worth mentioning that, as opposed to the surface irrigated rice, the rice underpivots does not have saturated soil conditions. This means that methane (CH4)emissions, an important gas that increases the green house effect, are greatlyminimized when using the center pivot.

The unintended effects that negatively influenced this innovation are related to thedifferent dynamics of weeds. Plants like Wandering-Jew (Commelina benghalensis)and finger grass (Digitaria spp.) demand more attention under a center pivot. TheArns’ have planned some management practices to mitigate their nuisance. Furtheractivities are being developed to identify the opportunities and barriers on a globallevel and there is a search for institutions that can be partners in the developmentand promotion of the center pivot for rice irrigation.

Contribution No. 3.1 The Water Administration System (WAS) for WaterSaving in South africa

Contributor: Dr N Benadé Country: South AfricaContributed: September 2006 Reported: January 2008

In South Africa, the water administration system (WAS) was introduced as a watermanagement tool for irrigation schemes, water user associations (WUAs) and watermanagement officers to manage their water uses, water distribution and wateraccounts. The main purpose behind the development of WAS program was tominimize for irrigation schemes that work on the human system and distribute waterthrough canal networks.

The innovation was targeted to Government irrigation schemes, WUAs andIrrigation Boards. Initially, the WAS was deployed over 142,843 ha and during 2006-07 it was extended to 2 new schemes. The innovation has led to 20% water savingwhich gave an average water saving between 23 to 46 million cubic meters per year.


The WAS is currently spreading through a project funded by the Department ofWater Affairs. The project includes workshops on WAS and further training. Adisposal report is currently developed and added to the WAS program. The objectiveis to use the WAS to compile disposal reports at scheme level and roll it up tonational level. This development will most probably lead to a number of new WASinstallations. A new water release method was added for a specific scheme that leadto a noticeable decrease in their water losses and improvement to the waterdistribution management. A number of client PC’s were also installed to minimizethe time to capture water orders.

Contribution No. 3.2 Improving Irrigation Districts performance assisted bybenchmarking techniques and IGRA in Spain

Contributor: Dr. Juan Antonio Rodríguez Díaz Country: SpainContributed: May 2004 Reported: 2008

In irrigation, performance indicators are evaluated to facilitate comparison betweentwo or more irrigation schemes. In order to facilitate the calculation of theperformance indicators, a computer tool called IGRA (Irrigation PerformanceIndicators Application) was developed in Spain. In this water saving innovativework, a methodology for auditing irrigation districts management based onbenchmarking techniques was developed and applied in Andalucia (SouthernSpain).The program for irrigation benchmarking (IGRA) was developed and freelydistributed from the University of Cordoba’s website <http://www.uco.es/>. Thissoftware allows managers to benchmark their own irrigation district, compare withothers and analyze temporal trends.

The target audience of the innovation is irrigation districts managers, water userassociations and water authorities. In the first phase of the program, the researchwork was initiated in 2000 in four irrigation districts covering a total irrigated areaof 21,702 ha. In the second phase, sponsored by the Guadalquivir River waterauthority (Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir), the method was extendedto twelve more irrigation districts covering more than 142, 000 ha having extensivefield crops. In the final phase, ten more districts were analyzed, covering an irrigatedarea of 40,551 ha. This research was focused on irrigation districts with predominanceof high-value crops and greenhouses, located in the Southeast in of the region. Thisresearch component was sponsored by the Andalusian water authority.

All the evaluated irrigation districts were representative samples of differentirrigation networks (open channels and pressurized), crops (extensive field crops,fruits, vegetables) and water sources (surface water, groundwater, wastewater, anddesalinated water). In all, 26 irrigation districts took part in the exercise/ evaluationcovering 204,319 ha, which is almost 23% of the total irrigated area of Andalucia.


The IGRA represents a step further for improving water and other resourcesmanagement in irrigation districts. More than a direct saving of water, it is a newconcept or a change in the traditional way in which irrigation districts are managed.The new approach looks forward to best practices and improvements in theirrigation efficiency. Some of the best practices in Andalusian irrigated agriculturewere identified and communicated to managers and water authorities in regularworkshops and meetings.

As a follow up of the benchmarking process supported by the IGRA, some of theinefficient districts have started modernization processes where the old openchannels networks with low distribution efficiency are being replaced with modernpressurized networks. Control elements such as water metering devices, that makethe volumetric billing possible, are being installed. Just with these measures,potential water savings of the order of 30-40% may be achieved. Actually, some ofthe districts which are being improved according to the best practices identified inthe work will become benchmarks for others in the future.

Taking into account Andalucia’s large irrigated area (0.9 million ha), it is hoped thatthe benchmarking will become an essential tool for monitoring water management.This improvement in the management has had positive effects only. Thanks tobenchmarking, managers can know where their districts performance stands, wherethey would like to be and the guidelines to achieve this improvement, based oncomparisons with other districts with similar characteristics.

Probably, until now the weak point of the approach has been the inadequateimplementation of benchmarking in the day to day management of irrigationdistricts. It would therefore be desirable, if the irrigation districts get involved inthe initiative on regular basis. Recently, the research group has been working on asimilar methodology but for optimization of energy consumption in pressurizednetworks. Thus, an optimum balance between two limiting factors in agriculture -water and energy, will hopefully be achieved.

Contribution No. 3.3 Application of rotational irrigation scheduling systemfor water saving in Donghwa district in Korea

Contributor: Dr. Tai-cheol Kim Country: South KoreaContributed: September 2001 Reported: January 2008

In Korea, traditionally irrigation water is distributed equally and simultaneously toall paddy fields within an irrigation district, even in the drought period. However,in absence of proper reservoir rules, water managers faced difficulties in regulatingwater supply especially during the severe drought period. To overcome thesedifficulties, a rotational irrigations scheduling system (RISS) was developed andimplemented the Donghwa irrigation district in South Korea.


The innovation was targeted to the irrigation agencies to install the software in theautomation of water supply in the irrigation systems for the large-scale rice farming.The innovation was first adopted in Dongwha WUA district. In 2002, due toadoption of the innovative rotational irrigation scheduling system (RISS), it waspossible to extend irrigation for 16 days or more compared to the conventionalirrigation method which helped to avert the severe drought situation. The savingswas estimated at 10 million cubic meters of water. It is however difficult to estimatethe quantity of water saved on a long term basis of several years to provide anyestimate as it is related to the rainfall and other conditions.

Notwithstanding the positive gains of the RISS, the innovation did not spread asexpected. This may be due to the mindset and indifference beside the lack ofadequate involvement of irrigation agencies towards water saving aspect. There areno negative effects due to the introduction of the RISS and the system can showpromise if some of the above issues are addressed properly with a particular focusto train service providers.

Contribution No. 3.4 Decision support system for irrigation water managementof Jingtai Chuan pumping scheme

Contributor: Dr. Zhanyi Gao Country: ChinaContributed: May 1999 Reported: March 2008

A decision support system was developed and adopted in the Jingtai ChuanPumping Irrigation Scheme located at the upper riches of Yellow river. The objectiveof the DSS was to increase water use efficiency by improving the water managementof the scheme. The scheme irrigates 54,740 ha with a total design discharge capacityof 28.6 cubic meters. The scheme consists of several stages of pumping (as a veryhigh lift and delivery head was involved). A group of pumping stations, aquaductsand elaborate canal network form the system.

The ‘evolved’ Decision Support System (DSS) is a modern technology in irrigationwater management towards water saving and productivity improvement. It wasdeveloped for Irrigation agencies and decision makers at national and provinciallevel. Adoption of the DSS in Jingtai Chuan Pumping Irrigation Scheme has resultedin saving of about 300 million cubic meters of irrigation water during the last 8 years.

The successful application of the DSS in Jingtai Chuan Pumping Irrigation Schemehad enthused a lot of interest among decision/ policy makers and irrigationmanagers from other irrigation districts for its adoption. Considering the significantachievements in water saving and productivity improvement, 30 irrigation schemeswere set up at irrigation district level national wide, as pilots to extend the innovativetechnology.


Contribution No. 3.5 Winflume: Windows-based software for the design andcalibration of long-throated measuring flumes

Contributor: Tony L. Wahl Country: USAContributed: May 2003 Reported: March 2008

A winflume – computer software have been developed at the Bureau of Reclamation,Water Resources Research Laboratory, Denver, Colorado, USA to facilitate the useof long throated flumes. The scope of the innovation is to design and calibrateexisting and new water measurement structures for new projects and retrofitting ofolder projects without water measurement capabilities. The innovation was targetedto water users, water managers, and design engineers.

Water savings was estimated to be equal to the reduced measurement errorassociated with all structures installed. Total savings was estimated to be 6,000,000acre-feet/year (7.4 billion cubic meters per year), worldwide. No effort has beenmade to better quantify water savings. The software continues to be used widely,so the original estimate of water savings is still believed to be valid. The softwarehas been disseminated through public availability on the internet and by publicizingthrough books, conference papers, and journal articles, including the articlepublished following the WatSave award1.

There are no noteworthy unintended effects. The researchers have continued todevelop companion software products that support the application of the software,including (i) spreadsheets for designing stilling basins downstream from flumes orweirs with large head drops, (ii) spreadsheets for estimating construction quantitiesfor flumes and weirs in typical configurations, and (iii) separate stand-aloneprogram to generate flow-graduated staff gages for any water measurementstructure with a rating table which was under development. The research team wasalso working on similar software to be used for calibrating canal radial gates for flowmeasurement.

Contribution No. 3.6 The Wetting Front Detector: A tool to help irrigatorslearn, Australia

Contributor: R J Stirzaker Country: South AfricaContributed: September 2003 Reported: February 2008

The Wetting Front Detector (WFD) was developed for irrigators, particularly forsmall-scale farmers, as there was no simple soil water monitoring tool available tothem. However, the WFD is mostly used by large commercial farms. The WFD was

1 Wahl, Tony L., Albert J. Clemmens, John A. Replogle and Marinus G. Bos, 2005, “Simplified Designof Flumes and Weirs”. Irrigation and Drainage, International Commission on Irrigation andDrainage, John Wiley & Sons. Vol. 54, No. 2, April 2005.


developed in an attempt to simplify the irrigation decision to measure theapproximate infiltration depth of a wetting front after irrigation. In 2003, the WFDwas still in the process of being commercialized. It became commercially availablein August 2004. The following three and a half years have substantially fulfilledmany of the hopes embodied in the original submission to ICID. Seewww.fullstop.com.au

Much of the current emphasis of the WFD is in solute monitoring, since the detectorcaptures and retains a solute sample from the wetting front. It was found that solutemonitoring and water status monitoring help interpret each other i.e. if the EC isgoing up, it indicates under-irrigation and if the nitrate is going down very fast, itindicates likely over-irrigation.

The original study included four case studies illustrating how irrigators using theWFDs identified opportunities where they could irrigate or manage salt or nitratebetter. These studies, however, did not quantify ‘water saved’ but showed theirrigators where the potential to save water lay. The device is now commerciallyavailable and about 12 000 Wetting Front Detectors have been sold since Aug 2004.The innovation spread as it became commercially available. However, the spreadhas largely been confined to places where the research team has been active. In 2006,the South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID)organized a one day workshop on the WFD for irrigation experts from a range ofSouthern African countries under the aegis of Southern African Regional IrrigationAssociation (SARIA). This workshop facilitated translating of some technicalknowledge into an extension and learning framework. The WFD innovation couldbe a useful topic for capacity building for upscaling its adoption elsewhere.

Commercialization of the WFD had induced the researchers to simultaneously studytechnical and adoption issues. The R&D community tends to view irrigationscheduling within an engineering paradigm in which the irrigation ‘problem’ hasa unique solution that can be ‘solved’ by the implementation of various monitoringor modeling tools. Working with many farmers, however brought out that mostrely on their own locally gained experience. Perhaps this is due to the fact thatirrigation management is only one part of a complex farming system that includesconsiderable risk and uncertainty. The research team in South Africa had launchedan attempt that would link different strands of knowledge that have traditionallybeen treated separately into an adaptive learning framework using the WFD as acenterpiece.

A WFD essentially gives a yes/no answer when a water front of specified strength(i.e. tension) passes a set depth. The current version of the WFD is best suited tomicro irrigation. The South African research team has identified the need to developa WFD that respond to ‘weaker’ wetting fronts; the work is in advanced stage.Developing a WFD, especially tailored to flood irrigation is also in progress. Thereis a potential to reduce the cost of the new WFD.


Contribution No. 4.2 Modified drainage system for rice growing areas: a toolfor water saving, Egypt

Contributor: Dr. Hussein El-Atfy Country: EgyptContributed: May 1999 Reported: April 2008

In Egypt, about 2 million ha have been provided with the tile/sub-surface drainagein the Nile Delta. The common layout adopted for tile drainage system is acomposite of the gridiron type consisting of laterals and main collector drain. Someof the rice growing areas have been provided with the conventional drainage system.It was observed that, farmers in rice growing areas use to block the collector drainpipes to reduce drainage/ save water. However, this practice caused damages to thedrainage system and other adjacent crops. So, a modified drainage layout toovercome the drawbacks of the illegal blockage and also to save water wasintroduced in the rice growing area.

The innovation was targeted to farmers, water user associations, decision makers,and drainage and irrigation agencies. Initially, 1760 ha were covered under modifieddrainage layout and presently, about 5000 ha are equipped with the modified layout.It is intended to cover over 10,000 ha by the modified drainage system. It wasobserved that the modified layout led to an average water saving of 3000-4000 cubicmeters/ha. Thus, during the last eight years an estimated 150 million cubic metershave been saved.

The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), Egypt has planned to adoptthe modified layout in the design of sub-surface drainage system in the proposed‘Integrated Irrigation Improvement Management Project (IIIMP)’ on 5000 ha. Otherunintended benefits of the innovation include – increased public awareness, highercrop yields, increased income to farmers, and environmental benefits.

3.3 Lessons learned and key messages

The lessons learnt and key messages from the impact assessment exercise of theWatSave award contributions can be summarized as follows:

Most innovations have succeeded in going beyond the experimental/ pilotstage to the stage of up-scaling and achieving tangible outcomes in terms ofincreasing water use efficiency.Some innovations (eg. winflume, water front detector) do not directly savewater but help better monitoring of water delivery/ application therebyindirectly promoting water saving.In most cases water saved due to innovation is deployed for irrigatingadditional area and/or to overcome the seasonal water shortages.


The pre-requisites for the sustainability of an innovation are - it should besimple to adopt and economically attractive to users/ farmersAlthough the innovation becomes successful at pilot level, it doesn’tguarantee the adoption by the users unless it is supported by strong extensionsupport by the state and other involved agencies. For farmers usually it is“seeing is believing”.Capacity development of all the stakeholders (irrigation managers, WUAs,farmers) is required and this could be an ongoing process. Training of allconcerned, workshops, field visits, promotion of innovations through media,literature in local languages, cultural events in rural areas are effective waysto build capacity.It takes considerable time to change the mindset of the farmers to adopt newinnovations by replacing the traditional one because of the risk of possiblefailure and other uncertainties. Irrigation management is viewed as only oneof the many complexities and other externalities that farmers face.Generally the farmers are reluctant to change. Changing tradition practicesor century old farming procedures in the field, even if it is based on watersaving and financial incentive, is difficult.Initial failures of an innovation on farmers’ fields discourages/ can be a setbackfor its further adoption, even if it is successful on pilot experiments.For up-scaling of innovation, it is important to provide an enablingenvironment like – reliable after sales service support, post harvest (processing,storage, market) facilities etc. The farmer should get remunerative prices totheir produce with the adoption of innovative approaches. Unfavourablemarket can discourage the adoption of new methodologies from state of theart technologies and best innovation.A strong research and development (R&D) support and commitment by thegovernment/ academic/ research institutions is needed for furthering theinnovation and making it more adaptable and cost effective.

The Way Forward 71

The Way Forward

4.1 Future Irrigated Area Expansion and Water Demand Scenario

Of the world’s total land area of 13,000 million ha about 12% (1500 million ha) iscultivated, of which some 18% (277 million ha) is irrigated. The irrigated areacontributes 40% of the cereal production and employs about 30% of population,worldwide.

At global level some 7,130 billion m3/year of water is consumed (as evapotranspirationthrough crops and pastures) for food production, comprising 1,570 billion m3 fromirrigation and reminder from rainfall. By 2050, the total water consumption byevapotranspiration in crop production will almost double the present consumption.Currently, some 3,830 billion m3/year of freshwater are withdrawn from rivers andaquifers for different uses, of which 2604 billion m3/year are diverted for irrigation(IWMI, 2007). Worldwide, irrigated agriculture is the main user of freshwater (70%),and in some countries this share is more than 90%. Irrigated agriculture is oftenaccused as guzzler of water and there is an increasing pressure to limit water usefor irrigation.

As per an estimate of FAO, the developing countries as a whole are expected toexpand their irrigated area by 20% i.e. from 202 to 242 million ha between 1998 and2030. In the same period, the amount of freshwater that will be diverted to irrigationin the developing countries is expected to grow by 14% to 2420 billion m3 (FAO,2002).

Today, agriculture sector is facing a complex challenge of producing more food withless water. The demand for food is driven primarily by population growth, whichis expected to increase from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 8.1 billion in 2030 and 8.9 billionin 2050. Between 1950 and 2000, the world population increased threefold, irrigatedarea doubled, while water diversions to irrigated agriculture increased six fold.Some major river basins approached an advanced level of water depletion. In arid


and semi-arid countries, water is already a limiting factor for agriculturalproduction. About 1.2 billion people, one-fifth of the world’s population, live inbasins having water scarcity. Climate change is likely to enhance the waterrequirements due to temperature increases which in turn will amplify the waterscarcity. Thus, under a business-as-usual scenario there will not be enough waterto produce the food needed to feed the world in 2050. It is therefore imperative todevelop and promote water saving practices on large-scale in agriculture to copewith water scarcity.

4.2 Water Saving Approaches in Irrigated Agriculture

Agriculture being a large consumer of water, a small percentage decline in itswithdrawals could allow a relatively large percentage increase in other uses.

Innovative technologies and management approaches offer many ways of watersavings. Industrial and domestic sectors are already investing in new technologiesand processes that reduce freshwater use as well as wastewater discharges. Inagriculture too, variety of water saving/ conservation options/ measures areavailable. Thanks to the research and technological innovations progressively beingmade in this area.

The water saving approaches in irrigated agriculture (including drainagemanagement) maybe grouped into two broad categories as (a) conventional, and (b)non-conventional. Various measures under each of these categories are enlisted asfollows:

(a) Conventional

Engineering

• lining of conveyance and distribution network,• use of low-pressure pipes for water conveyance,• adopting better on-farm water application techniques like micro and sprinkler

systems,• precision/laser land leveling,• surge irrigation• construction of en-route storages in irrigation schemes,• rainwater harvesting through small and micro reservoirs, and• artificial recharging of aquifers.

Agronomic

• applying water at the critical growth stages of crops,

The Way Forward 73

• irrigation scheduling based on soil-crop-climatic factors,• organic and plastic mulching,• use of drought resistant crop varieties,• selecting crop (varieties) with higher yields per unit of water, switching from

high water consuming crops to less water consuming crops,• soil moisture management,• growing crops in green/plastic houses,• re-use of poor quality/wastewater for irrigation, and• deficit irrigation.

Management

• improved operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage system,• irrigation scheduling ( on-farm and off-farm),• promoting participatory irrigation (and drainage) management (PIM),• irrigation (and drainage) management transfer (IMT), and• groundwater management.

Institutional

• capacity building and training of irrigation managers, field staff, and farmers,• appropriate pricing of water in public managed irrigation schemes and

energy for pumping of groundwater,• effective extension services for dissemination of water management

technologies, and• promoting public awareness in water saving/ conservation measures through

media.

(b) Non-conventional

Innovative technologies

• use of low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) irrigation systems,• canal automation,• total channel control system (TCC),• water administration system(WAS),• use of wetting front detectors in irrigation scheduling,• water tellers,• use of internet, mobile communication and remote sensing,• controlled drainage technique, and• bio-technology/ genetically modified crop varieties


What Technology Could Drive a Second Green Revolution?

So what technology or technologies are going to revolutionize food production, doublingit by 2030? If groundwater development was the water technology behind the first greenrevolution? We are looking for applications, not necessarily new or perfectly executed, thathave similar capability to drive a massive increase in production as was the case in respectof the earlier Green Revolution.

One could as well say that the top of the list must be the technology that puts the controlof water in the hands of individual farmers: Recent advancement in Research andTechnology in the field on scrutiny - yield a list that can sum up as below:

ICID Top 10 Technologies

1. Farmer controlled water supply: farm reservoirs, total channel control, moregroundwater

2. Emitter delivery systems: centre pivot*, drip etc.3. Drainage of seasonal flooding, especially Africa4. Drain controllers*, sub-irrigation5. Wetting-drying rice*, especially Asia6. Irrigation with poor quality waters: reuse, fresh-saline etc.7. Wetting front indicator*8. Improved in-field husbandry: no-till (NT) , runoff farming, catch cropping etc9. Salt and drought tolerant food crops10. Remote sensing with internet and mobile communications*

* Indicates ICID WatSave Award winning contributions

ICID has been promoting some of those which figure as top-ten contenders. Several aretechnologies that have won an ICID WatSave award for outstanding water saving. Theseinclude drain controllers in Egypt, the wetting front indicator in South Africa, wet-dry riceproduction in China, and centre pivot irrigation of rice in Brazil.

It is probably a mistake to imagine that the technology has to be entirely new or innovative.

At first, farmer control of water meant downstream control on large canal systems, suchas the total-channel-control (TCC) devices being adopted in Australia and in the USA. Butmuch more immediately the farm reservoir can provide farmers in seasonally wet regionswith just enough water to support complementary investment in downstream water savingtechnologies. Tanks built and controlled at the village level, are very common in SouthIndia and the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Thus, in those areas which have limited groundwaterresources, farm reservoirs or tanks as they are called traditionally in India could be oneof the principle drivers behind the next green revolution.

The technology of constructing small dams is not new, just as the technology ofconstructing wells. What is needed is to make this technology more readily available tofarmers at an affordable cost. The dam building community may like to find ways of doingthis more effectively and replicating the successful approaches on a scale that will be trulyrevolutionary.

The main purpose of highlighting a technology like this is to get people thinking how thesemight be implemented more effectively to revolutionize food production.

(Peter S Lee, President, ICID)

The Way Forward 75

Innovative management

• Integrated water resources management,• establishing river basin organizations to manage water holistically,• benchmarking of irrigation schemes and water auditing,• introducing innovative water/ energy pricing and cost recovery system,• use of decision support systems,• alternate wetting and drying in rice irrigation,• systems of rice intensification (SRI),• no till/conservation agriculture (NT/CA),• runoff farming,• stakeholders’ consultations,• involvement of women in irrigation management,• public - private - partnership,• establishing water regulatory authorities and / or, water rights,• virtual water trade- encouraging food trade from water-abundant to water

short regions, and last but not the least,• promoting shift to vegetarian diet

4.3. Suggestions for Sustainable Development and Adoption ofWater Saving in Agriculture

As the competition for water is increasing among different sectors, irrigatedagriculture needs to shrink its water withdrawal to cope with growing scarcity.Water scarcity is not always a result of physical lack of water resources but also dueto inadequate institutional and managerial organizations. The key future challengesinclude availability and accessibility of freshwater due to climate change, energyavailability for irrigation, environmental flow requirements, water supply forgrowing bio-fuel crops, and achieving integrated water resource management(IWRM). This asks for innovative scientific and technological solutions usingmultidisciplinary approach based on social, economic, political, and cultural settingof a country.

There are many success stories, best practices, and research studies of water savingin agriculture. ICID through its WATSAVE working group has endeavored torecognize a few outstanding contributions in water savings/ conservation across theworld. Yet, there may be many unrecognized, potent works and non-conventionalpathways of achieving water saving in agriculture. We need to explore all thoseinnovations and share with others. The following are some suggestions towardssustainable development and adoption of water savings in agriculture:

• Globally, irrigated agriculture accounts for some 70% of the total freshwaterwithdrawals. It is therefore of importance to continue with the efforts of


increasing irrigation efficiency so as to expand the irrigated area usingavailable water resources. A judicious balance of supply and demandmanagement strategies should be kept in view.

• Farmers and field level staff are at the centre of any process of change andneed to be encouraged and guided through appropriate technologies andpractices towards water saving/conservation at farm level. Farmers oftenfollow their traditional practices and have little or no access to the newtechnologies and knowledge. The governments should act as a bridge(through extension services) to transfer the technologies and managementinformation to the farmers/ field staff on continuous basis.

• Irrigation institutions should be responsive to the needs of farmers, ensuringmore reliable delivery of water, increasing transparencies in management andbalancing efficiencies, timeliness and equity in conveyance, allocation andapplication of water. This calls for targeted investment in infrastructuremodernization, institutional restructuring, and upgrading of the technical andmanagerial capabilities of farmers and irrigation managers. The MASSCOTEmethodology developed by the FAO (2007) enables experts to work togetherwith irrigation managers in determining improved processes for cost-effectiveservice-oriented management.

• Performance improvement of the pubic managed irrigation schemes, especiallyof the large-scale schemes, is necessary to promote water savings. Thesesystems are facing technical, institutional, socio-economic, and governanceproblems. Modernization (infrastructure and services), participatorymanagement, and public-private-partnership are some of the possiblemeasures to improve their performance. Successful institutional reformsrequire strong political backing and genuine interest in transferringresponsibilities from government agencies to farmers’ associations.

• Modernization of irrigation systems should not only be restricted toupgrading or transformation of physical infrastructure but also to innovationsor transformation in how irrigation systems are operated and managed, i.e.improved irrigation services.

• Rice is grown in nearly 113 countries around the world with a total harvestedarea of about 150 million hectares, of which about 90 million hectares areirrigated (ICID, 2006). IWMI (2007) has estimated that some 34-43% of the totalworld irrigation water is diverted for irrigated rice production. More than90% of the world’s rice is produced and consumed in Asia drawing more than80% of the freshwater. From the water saving contributions received fromthe major rice producing countries (Brazil, China, Egypt, India and Pakistan),the potential for water savings in rice production appear to be very large.China is at the forefront of developing water saving irrigation practices. Morethan 10 water efficient irrigation (WEI) regimes for rice have been adoptedin various regions of China. However, the effects of water saving irrigation

The Way Forward 77

Dilemma of Irrigation Efficiency Usage

Since over a decade, the scientific community has been engaged in an interesting debateover the term ‘irrigation efficiency’. Irrigation efficiencies are basically ratios of volumesin the water balance of an irrigation scheme. However, there is no unanimity amongengineers, irrigation managers, agronomists, economists, and hydrologists as regards theapproach and terminology related to irrigation efficiency.

New concepts to distinguish between consumptive and non-consumptive uses, beneficialand non-beneficial uses and reusable and non-reusable fractions of the non-consumedwater diverted into an irrigation system have been emerging. . In certain cases, even ifthere is low-irrigation efficiency at the farm or project level, basin-level efficiency couldbe high and vice versa. Thus, as per this concept, there is no ‘real saving’ of water dueto increased irrigation efficiency at farm or scheme level. The traditional measures ofimproving irrigation efficiency by modernization of infrastructure (especially canallining) are criticized as extraneous and unnecessary investments.

It is therefore necessary to have a clear and unambiguous understanding of theimplications of enhancing irrigation efficiency on investments keeping the overall basinperspective and its impacts on several contending interests who compete for water. ICID’sCountry Policy Support Programme was a step forward in this direction (ICID, 2005a).

practices on nitrogen uptake efficiency, the environment, and weed population,the downstream and the environmental impacts need to be properlyunderstood. The water saving techniques requires more control over theamount and timing of water application than traditional practices. Thus, thereis a need for further research to determine the additional infrastructuralrequirement and management skills in order to implement water savingirrigation practices (Guerra et al.,1998)

• Although, the pressurized irrigation systems (sprinkler and micro irrigation)are considered as the leading water saving technologies in irrigatedagriculture, its adoption is still low. At present, of the total world irrigatedarea, about 14% (39 million ha) is equipped with pressurized methods,comprising 12% (33 million ha) of sprinkler irrigation and only 2% (6 millionha) with micro irrigation. Most of the pressurized irrigated area isconcentrated in Europe and Americas (Kulkarni et al., 2006). Asia has thehighest area under irrigation (193 million ha and 69% of the total irrigatedarea) but has only 8.75 million ha (4.5%) under pressurized irrigation. Besideslarge scale mechanized systems (like center pivot and linear move), there isa good scope for adoption of small-scale, low cost systems (like drum kit,bucket kit) in smallholder irrigation. Appropriate financial, technical,institutional and extension support is necessary for sustainable and wide-scaleadoption of these technologies, particularly in countries of Asia and SubSaharan Africa.

• Usually, water pricing is advocated as an effective tool for improvingirrigation efficiency and thus encouraging water saving among farmers.However, experience has shown that such economic incentive alone has notbeen successful in achieving desired objective (Perry, 2001). Nevertheless,


reforms in pricing of irrigation water (services) should be an integral part ofa comprehensive policy package. Water markets and tradable water rights arealso increasingly being used to enhance the water use efficiency and allocationwithin and across sectors.

• Groundwater is the major source of irrigation in many countries. Globally,some 800 billion m3 of groundwater is extracted annually to irrigate more than1/3rd of the world irrigated area. It is also the main source of drinking waterfor number of countries. Availability of low cost and wide range of irrigationpumps coupled with liberal subsidies towards energy use has resulted intoover abstraction of groundwater in many countries like China, India, Iran,Turkey, Mexico, USA. Groundwater irrigation is supposed to be moreefficient than surface water schemes. However, there is an urgent need to stopover exploitation and ensure sustainable use by technological and institutionalinterventions.

• Bio-technology includes genetically modified crops and can play an importantrole in reducing crop water consumption. Although there is a generalconsensus that biotechnology has a vital role to play in addressing thechallenge of water scarcity in developing countries, it has yet to show its fullpotential to deliver practical solutions to the farmers.

• Generally, non-conventional water resources i.e. poor or marginal qualitywaters (urban wastewater, agricultural drainage water, saline water anddesalinated water) are not considered as renewable water resources, but arean important source for irrigation in many countries. Worldwide, freshwaterresources are shrinking, while the poor quality water volumes are increasing.The challenge is to manage these flows properly, considering food safety,environmental issues, institutional arrangements, and national and regionalpolicies. Use of wastewater in peri-urban agriculture has become a reality inmany countries facing physical water scarcity. With the increase in urbanpopulation and increased demand for water for municipal and industrial uses,appropriate treatment of wastewater and its reuse for irrigation should be animportant strategy to complement the freshwater resources.

• Virtual water1 trading offers solution in certain cases. Global water saving asa result of international trade of agricultural products has been estimated atabout 350 billion m3/year (Chapagain and Hoekstra, 2004). To maintain foodsecurity or food self-sufficiency, many countries in the arid and semi aridregions have over-exploited their renewable water resources. Trade can helpmitigate water scarcity if water-short countries can afford to import food fromwater-abundant countries. But political and economic factors are strongerdrivers and barriers than water. Many countries view the development ofwater resources as a more secure option to achieving food security and

1 Virtual water is the amount of water which is “embedded” into a product

The Way Forward 79

livelihood of its population. Large water exporting countries may influencethe policies of recipient countries. Therefore, there is a strong need to developa set of principles/rules governing virtual water trade otherwise conflict mayprevail over cooperation (ICID, 2005).

• Development and adoption of water saving irrigation measures has improvedour understanding and enriched our knowledge of water saving irrigationpractices. However, one should endeavor to save not only water but also otherfarm inputs viz., energy, fertilizers, and pesticides. Impact on downstreamstakeholders should be kept in view wile implementing water saving practicesupstream of a catchment/ river basin. Water saving irrigation practices shouldbe environment-friendly so as to ensure their sustainable adoption.

• The challenge is how to incorporate innovative technologies and managementapproaches in decision making and long term water management policymaking. Exchange of ideas and communication among planners/ decisionmakers, financial actors, scientists, local and regional authorities; establishingmechanism for international cooperation and experience sharing amonginstitutions for higher education and research and developing action plans forconcrete and practical follow-up are some of the possible options.

• A recent study by SIWI (2008) has brought that by minimizing losses andwastage along the food chain, the need for an additional food production –and therefore water – can be curtailed. A large part of food produced at thefield level is lost or wasted before it arrives on our plate. In developingcountries, a lot of produce perishes right on the farm, in storage, duringtransport. Finally, substantial losses occur during consumption and to a lesserextent during retail, from discarded perishable products, product deterioration,and the food that gets thrown into the garbage bin. According to the repotas much as 30% of the food produced is thrown away that is equivalent toan estimated 40 billion cubic meter of water, enough to meet the needs of 500million people. A combination of policy measures including investmentsupport in post-harvest technologies, the role of food processing industry andsupermarkets, as well as strategic efforts to visualize and educate the publicabout how to practically contribute to the reduction of food wastage arenecessary. This is an indirect way of demand management leading to watersaving.

• Governments of emerging and least developed countries need to acceleratethe adoption of participatory management of irrigation/drainage infrastructure,formation of professionally oriented farmer/water user organizations, enhancelegal systems and financially support irrigation/drainage administration. Itshould also strengthen the process of transfer and dissemination of watersaving technological and management skills from professional experts in thegovernments and international organizations to the farmers’ irrigation/drainage management organizations.


• Water harvesting (WH) is usually employed as an umbrella term describinga range of methods of collecting and conserving various forms of runoff water.Storage structures permit runoff water to be stored for longer periods of timemaking it available to mitigate water stress periods occurring during the cropgrowing season. The aim is to reduce risks of crop failures caused by poorrainfall distribution. Storage structures in such cases connote a range fromsmall farm ponds to micro dams, and include both surface and sub-surfacestorage of water. Conservation of in-situ soil moisture, construction of checkdams and other small storages in rainfed agriculture are useful to providesupplementary irrigation, there by increasing the crop yields.

• Better technologies do not necessarily mean new and expensive or sophisticatedoptions, but ones that are appropriate to the needs and managerial andfinancial capacity of system managers and farmers to ensure their properoperation and maintenance. The challenge before all countries is to translatethe available knowledge into effective water saving/conservation policies andpractices and scaling-up further.

There could perhaps be no single global solution or a blueprint for the futurechallenges in agricultural water management, obviously. In the work presented here,an attempt to highlight the scope offered by some of the innovations in respect ofone or more aspects on water management has been made. The upscaling to achievelarger water saving will depend on many factors. The complexity in simultaneouslyaddressing the overall water management issues is to be acknowledged as was thecase in the studies at basin levels that was undertaken by ICID while proposingpolicy support at country level under CPSP (ICID, 2005a, b, c). A reference to therelated works will highlight the necessity to take on board conflicting issuessimultaneously, involving all the stakeholders. The use of surface and groundwaterand their interaction in a basin, the need to integrate land and water uses forsustainable beneficial uses, the dimensions posed in respect of water quality whenone considers the demands of water (water for people, water for food and waterfor environment) require a good understanding of the implications of the differentpaths of approach for future challenges. And if science could help to provide aninsight as to the appropriate way forward by a holistic consideration of all connecteddimensions, it would be a fitting contribution in the water scarce environment inwhich more and more regions are stepping in.

References

Chapagan A K and A Y Hoekstra, 2004. Water Footprints of Nations, UNESCO-IHE, http://www.waterfootprint.org

Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, 2007. Water for Food,Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture,London, Earthscan, and Colombo, IWMI.

FAO, 2002. World Agriculture: Towards 2015/2030.

The Way Forward 81

Guerra, L. C., S. I. Bhuiyan, T. P. Tuong, & R. Barker, 1998. Producing more rice with lesswater, SWIM Paper 5. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute.

ICID, 2005. Proceedings of the International Workshop on Multiple Roles and Diversity ofIrrigation Water, Beijing, China.

ICID, 2005. A status paper on Global Issues related to Food Productivity, Security and Trade,Task Force Report, www.icid.org/tf2_report_sep05.pdf

ICID 2005a. Water Resources Assessment of Sabarmati River Basin, India, Country PolicySupport Program, ICID, New Delhi, http://www.icid.org/cpsp_link.html#w_cpsp

ICID 2005b. Water Policy Issues of India, Country Policy Support Program, ICID, New Delhi,http://www.icid.org/cpsp_link.html#w_cpsp

ICID 2005c. Water Policy Issues of China, Country Policy Support Program, ICID, New Delhi,http://www.icid.org/cpsp_link.html#w_cpsp

Kulkarni S A, F B Reinders, and F. Ligetvari, 2006. Global Scenario of Sprinkler and MicroIrrigation, Proceedings of the 7th International Micro irrigation Congress, Kuala Lumpur,September 2006

Lundqvist, J., C. de Fraiture and D. Molden, 2008. Saving Water: From Field to Fork – CurbingLosses and Wastage in the Food Chain, SIWI Policy Brief, www.siwi.org/documents/Resources/Policy_Briefs/PB_From_Filed_to_Fork_2008.pdf

Perry C.J., 2001. Charging for Irrigation Water: the Issues and Options with a Case Studyfrom Iran, Research Report 52, IWMI, Colombo.

Renault D., Facon T. and R. Wahaj, 2007. Modernizing Irrigation Management – TheMASSCOTE Approach, Mapping System and Services for Canal Operation Techniques,FAO Paper 63.

UNESCO, 2006. Water - A Shared Responsibility, the United Nations World WaterDevelopment Report 2, World Water Assessment Program.

Annexes 83

Annex I

List of WatSave Contributions

1. PRECISION IRRIGATION

1.1 Dripping with Success: The Challenges of an irrigationRedevelopment ProjectR E Merry, UK

1.2 Modernization of Mula Irrigation SchemeFrancisco del Amor Garcia, Spain

1.3 Micro Irrigation: A Technology to Save WaterNeelam Patel, India

1.4 New Low-cost Irrigation Technologies for Small FarmsJack Keller, J.N. Ray, Andrew Keller, Xiaoping Luo, Robert Yoder, USA,India

1.5 Controlled Alternate Partial Root-Zone Irrigation Practices in ChinaTaisheng Du, Shaozhong Kang and Jianhua Zhang, China

2. IMPROVED RICE-PADDY IRRIGATION PRACTICES

2.1 Water Saving and Environmentally Sustainable Irrigated RiceProduction in ChinaMao Zhi, China

2.2 Development of Water Saving Irrigation Technique on Large PaddyRice Area in Guangxi Region of ChinaXijin Wu, China

2.3 Water Saving Irrigation Practice in ChinaGu Yuping, China

2.4 Efficient Water Application Methods for Growing Paddy in theIndus BasinMuhammad Akram Kahlown andAbdur Raoof, Pakistan

2.5 A Scientific Approach for Water Management in Rice FieldsA. Upadhyaya and S.R. Singh, India

2.6 Rice Production using Center Pivot IrrigationWerner and Herbert Arns, Brazil


3. BETTER MONITORING AND CONTROL OF IRRIGATION

3.1 Water Administration System (WAS) for Water Savings in SouthAfricaNico Benadé, South Africa

3.2 Improving Irrigation Districts Performance Assisted by BenchmarkingTechniques and IGRAPérez, L.; Rodríguez Díaz, J. A.; Camacho, E.; López, R.; Roldán,J.; Alcaide, M.; Ortiz, J. A. and Segura, R., Spain

3.3 Application of Rotational Irrigation Scheduling System for WaterSaving to Donghwa Irrigation District in KoreaKim, Tai-cheol, Jae-myun, Lee, Dae-sik, Kim and Jong-pil Moon, SouthKorea

3.4 Decision Support System for Irrigation Water Management ofJingtai Chuan Pumping Irrigation SchemeZhanyi Gao, China

3.5 Winflume: Windows-based Software for the Design and Calibrationof Long-throated Measuring FlumesTony L. Wahl, Albert J. Clemmens, John A. Replogle, MarinusG. Bos, USA

3.6 The Wetting Front Detector: A Tool to Help Irrigators LearnRJ Stirzaker, JB Stevens, JG Annandale, JM Steyn, Australia

3.7 A New Approach towards Implementing Computer Based DecisionSupport for Sugarcane Farmers and Extension Staff : A MycanesimCase StudyDr. Abraham Singels, South Africa

3.8 Low Cost Information Technology for Integrated Water ManagementMohamed Rami Mahmoud, Jeffrey W. Fredericks, Egypt

3.9 Computer-Aided Mapping Irrigation Scheduling: A Case Studyfrom EgyptM. Maher, Egypt

4. INTEGRATED APPROACH IN AGRICULTURAL DRAINAGE

4.1 The Role of Agricultural Drainage in Water SavingSafwat Abdel-Dayem, Egypt

4.2 Modified Drainage System for Rice Growing Areas: A Tool for WaterSavingEng. Hussein El Atfy, Egypt

Annexes 85

4.3 Spatio-Drainage Approach: A Tool for Cost Effective SubsurfaceDrainage Design and Water SavingMahmoud Moustafa, Egypt

5. SAVINGS REPLICABILITY ON A LARGE-SCALE

5.1 Strategies for Conservation of Irrigation Water in MaharashtraState, IndiaS. V. Sodal, India

5.2 Water Saving Technology for Winter Wheat CultivationRedjepov Omar, Turkmenistan

5.3 Improving Surface Irrigation PerformanceA.J. Clemmens, USA

5.4 Irrigation Water Saving/ Conservation in ChinaLi Daixin, China

5.5 Participatory Irrigation Management in Katepurna Irrigation Projectin IndiaSanjay Belsare, India

5.6 System Analysis to Quantify Real Water Savings: Examples fromAustralia and ChinaShahbaz Khan, Jianxin Mu, Tariq Rana, and Gao Zhanyi, Australia,China

5.7 It Is Not Always Safe to Save WaterFrank W. Croon – Ies A. Risseeuw, The Netherlands

Annexes 87

Annex II

List of WatSave Award Winners(Upto 2007)

S. No. Name of Winner(s) Country Year

(A) Innovative Water Management Award

1 Dr. Abraham Singels South Africa 20072 Dr. Nico Benadé South Africa 20063 Prof. Li Daixin China 20054 Er. Suresh. V. Sodal India 20045 Dr. Muhammad Akram Kahlown Pakistan 20036 Dr. Mahmoud Moustafa Egypt 20027 Prof. Gu Yuping China 20018 Dr. Francisco del Amor Garcia Spain 20009 Eng. Hussein El-Atfy Egypt 199910 Prof. Wu Xijin China 1998

(B) Innovative Technology Award

11 Mr. Werner Arns and Mr. Herbert Arns Brazil 200712 Prof. Kang Shaozhong China 200613 Mr. Omar Redjepow Turkmenistan 200414 Dr. Richard John Stirzaker Australia 200315 Mr. Robert E. Merry UK 200216 Prof. Tai Cheol Kim Korea 200117 Prof. Mao Zhi China 2000

(C) Young Professionals Award

18 Ms. Neelam Patel India 200619 Dr. Mohamed Maher Mohamed Ibrahim Egypt 200520 Dr. Juan Antonio Rodriguez Diaz Spain 200421 Mr. Tony L. Wahl USA 200322 Dr. Ashutosh Upadhyaya India 200223 Er. Sanjay M. Belsare India 200124 Mr. Gao Zhanyi China 1999

Annexes 89

Annex III

Year ICID National Committee(s)

2007 United States National Committee (USCID), USA

2006 Malaysian National Committee (MANCID), Malaysiaand Spanish National Committee (CERYD), Spain

2005 Spanish National Committee (CERYD), Spain

2004 French National Committee (AFEID), France

2003 Japanese National Committee (JNC-ICID), Japan

2002 Canadian National Committee (CANCID), Canada

2001 Korean National Committee (KCID), Republic of Korea

2000 Indian National Committee (INCID), India

1999 Chinese National Committee (CNCID), China

1998 Netherlands National Committee (NETHCID),The Netherlands

List of WatSave Award Sponsors

Annexes 91

Annex IV

Questionnaire for ex-Post Review ofICID WatSave Innovation Impacts

1. What was the target audience for the innovation, i.e. farmers, WUAs, irrigationagencies?

____________________________________________________________________

2. What area was originally covered by the innovation or practice?

____________________________________________________________________

3. What area is currently covered by the innovation or practice?

____________________________________________________________________

4. How much water was reported as saved at the time of the original submission?

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5. How much water has been saved since that time?

____________________________________________________________________

6. If the innovation spread, describe how this happened. If the innovation did not,spread, discuss the reasons.

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7. What were the other unintended effects, positive and negative, resulting fromthe introduction of the innovation.

____________________________________________________________________

8. Describe any recent developments related to the introduction and spread of theinnovation.

____________________________________________________________________

Innovation

Awardee

Date of Award Date of Review

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