IS THE DAUNTING CHALLENGE OF IRRIGATION ACHIEVABLE?

HERVE PLUSQUELLEC

Consultant. Former World Bank staff. E-mail: plusquel@clark.net

Key words: Irrigation, food security, modernization, groundwater.

ABSTRACT: The projections of food and water demand for 2025, which conclude that

irrigated areas should increase by 15 to 22 percent, assume that the productivity of

present irrigation should also increase at unprecedented rates. This paper discusses

some of the reasons why the contribution of irrigated agriculture to food and fiber

production has continued to increase despite the lower level of investments for

developing new irrigable areas and the focus on rehabilitation of existing schemes. The

shortages of food production projected for the1990s have been averted because of the

explosive exploitation of groundwater and the many-fold increase in water-saving

application techniques over the last three decades. However overexploitation of aquifers

and an associated decline in water quality have been occurring in many parts of the

developing and developed world, particularly in the semi arid regions. This paper

suggests that no further complacency in addressing the long due issue of the poor

management practices of the large irrigation systems is acceptable. The failures to

understand the links between the technical improvements of the large surface irrigation

schemes and required reforms may exacerbate the problem of water scarcity and

threaten food security in the future. Development of reliable irrigation in surface systems

is crucial to realizing the challenge of irrigation. The magnitude of investments and

capacity building in human resources to achieve this goal is likely underestimated.

RESUME: Les etudes sur les previsions de la demande en eau et des besoins

alimentaires pour l’annee 2025 concluent que les superficies irriguees doivent

s’accroitre de 15 a 22 pour cent. Ces previsions prennent pour hypothese que la

productivite des superficies actuellement irriguees devra augmenter a un rythme bien

superieur a celui observe dans le passe. Cet article presente certaines des raisons pour

lesquelles la contribution de l’agriculture irriguee a continue de progresser malgre le

faible niveau des investissements pour mettre en valeur des nouvelles surfaces irrigables

et malgre l’attention portee a la simple remise en etat des perimetres existants. Le deficit

de la production alimentaire prevu dans les annees 1990 a ete evite grace au

developpement explosif des eaux souterraines et a l’adoption des techniques

economisatrices d’eau dans les trente dernieres annees. Cependant la surexploitation des

nappes et la deterioration de la qualite de l’eau souterraine sont apparus aussi bien dans

les pays en developpement que dans certains pays developppes, en particulier dans les

regions arides. Cet article suggere qu’il n’est plus possible de differer plus longtemps la

question de la gestion deficiente des grands perimetres d’irrigation. Ne pas comprendre

les liens entre les ameliorations techniques des grands perimetres d’irrigation et les

reformes politiques proposees peut contribuer a accentuer les penuries en eau et

menacer la securite alimentaire dans le futur. Une meilleure maitrise de l’eau dans les

perimetres d’irrigation par canaux est crucial pour relever le defi pose a l’agriculture

irriguee. L’ampleur des investissements necessaires et des resources humaines

necessaires pour atteindre cet objectif est probablement sous estimee.

Mot-cles: Irrigation, securite alimentaire, modernisation, eaux souterraines,

“Every human being, now and in the future, should have access to safe water for

drinking, appropriate sanitation and enough food and energy at reasonable cost. ..We

are not achieving these goals to day, and we are on a path leading to crisis and to

future problems for a large part of humanity” (World Water Vision 2000)

The global Food Problem and the Challenge of irrigation

There is an increasing awareness that water is a limited resource. A number of

countries in arid and semi-arid zones do not even have sufficient water resources to meet

their present agricultural, industrial, domestic and environmental needs. Many other

countries will face the same water-deficit situation within the next two decades, if they do

not increase their water supplies through additional storage and water saving investments.

Many initiatives were taken by the international community to address the issues of

development and management of water resources and the increasing water scarcity in

many parts of the world. Specialized new organizations were created to deal with these

issues, such as the World Water Council (WWC) and the Global Water Partnership

GWP) that sponsored two highly-acclaimed international World Water Forums in 1997

and 2000. The focus of the former International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI)

shifted from an irrigation-management, a topic considered to narrow, to the broader

subject water-management (IWMI). As part of the Global Vision on Water, Life and the

Environment in the 21 st Century, considerable work on projections of water and food

demand by the year 2025 was produced for the second Water Forum held in the Hague in

March 2000. The challenge is to grow enough food for 2 billion more people while

supplying expanding domestic and industrial water use needs. Different water scenarios

were developed by several organizations and research institutes to explore a number of

issues, such as the expansion of irrigated agriculture, the massive increases in food

production from rainfed agriculture, the water productivity trends and the public

acceptation of genetically modified crops. Opinions differed among the experts with

regard to some of the above issues. However there is a broad consensus that the

contribution of irrigation to incremental food production should be substantial (FAO).

The World Food Summit in 1996 estimates that 60 percent of the extra food required

must in the future come from irrigation. The International Commission on Irrigation and

Drainage (ICID) estimates that the present food production would have to double within

the next 25 years.

Three models of food demand and irrigation water demand were developed by

IWMI, FAO and IFPRI based on a 30 percent increase of world population by 2025, up

to about 8 billion people, and improved standards of living:

According to IWMI model, the worldwide net irrigated area would have to increase

by 52 million hectares or 22 percent and gross (harvested) irrigated areas by 29

percent to meet the required nutrition levels. Irrigated cereal yields are projected to

grow by 40 percent between 1995 and 2025.

The FAO model assumes that the traditional technical irrigation efficiency will

increase from 43 to 50 percent. The net irrigated area in developing countries would

have to increase by 45 million ha and the total harvested area by 34 percent. An

additional 12 percent in water use for irrigation would be required. The FAO model is

based on the assumption that 2.5 percent of existing irrigation is rehabilitated or

substituted by new irrigation each year.

Under the IFPRI base scenario, the water demand for irrigation would increase by 9.5

percent only. IFPRI also examines the effect of lower investments for infrastructure

improvement, lower groundwater pumping and lower growth rates in reservoir

storage.

Under these three models, irrigated agriculture would have to increase by 15 to 22

percent. Water withdrawals for irrigation and irrigated crop yields are also expected to

increase at unprecedented rates, which are a major challenge for the irrigation profession.

Although the differences between the projections of irrigated agriculture between these

three models are substantial, the differences with the projections made by the

environmental community are of another order of magnitude. These environmental

groups see as imperative that the water withdrawal for agriculture should be reduced.

These groups have great expectations with the potential created by bio-technology.

It is very difficult to anticipate about the materialization of one or another

scenario. Will progress in water use efficiency and more generally water productivity

continue at its historical rates? Will dam building and irrigation investments continue to

decline or rebound? Are the projected increases in water productivity realistic? What is

the validity of some broadcast statements based on global historical trends? Irrigation is a

very diverse field compared to other water sectors. Irrigation projects differ by the origin

of water, the water conveyance facilities (canals or pressurized systems), the method of

water application on farm, the strategy of water allocation and control, the reliability of

water resources, the value of crops and so forth. This paper attempts to provide some

insights to these questions by looking at the decline in investments for irrigation and

drainage, the declining growth in irrigated areas by region, and growth in irrigated areas

by origin of water. This paper then examines the consequences of the inadequate

attention to the poor performance of the large surface irrigation systems. In most

developing country irrigation systems, reliable and timely delivery is the exception, not

the rule1. Typically farmers in the more favored parts of irrigation systems receive an

adequate supply, while those at the tail end can face ruin. Poor management directly

aggravates existing inequities within the farming community. . Many farmers, frustrated

by unreliable water deliveries, have opted to install tubewells. Consequently groundwater

use is exploding in many surface systems to compensate for the unreliable service from

canals systems.

Some analysts believe that what is needed is a new and greener revolution to once

again increase productivity and boost production. But the challenges are far more

complex than simply producing more food because global conditions are different than

they were at the time of Green revolution. Shah (2000) argues that meeting the present

challenges is even more difficult because so few opinion leaders are aware that the world

faces urgent food and agriculture problems. The abundance of grain produced in the

world, and the fact that 840 million of hungry people in the developing world remain

invisible, also obscures the challenges.

The Decline in Investments for Irrigation and Drainage

Although irrigated agriculture still receives a large amount of funding,

expenditures over the last decade has fallen significantly due to a number of factors. Most

frequently cited are:

The potential for expansion of irrigated area remains limited: the water resources of

many rivers have been fully exploited (Colorado in the Western USA, Yellow River

in China, Godavery and Krishna in India). The competition for water resources

between agriculture and the demands of an increasing urban population and more

stringent environmental needs reduces the potential for expansion of irrigation,

World food prices are close to historical lows, reinforcing a perception of food

sufficiency. The economics of irrigation development is less favorable than in the

past two decades,

The unit cost of development increased as the most suitable sites were exploited.

Irrigation construction has risen to two to three times their previous level.

Most investment is now for the rehabilitation of existing schemes. The per hectare

cost of rehabilitation is considerably less than for a new project.

Less advertised but as important, are adverse administrative and behavioral reasons:

1 This IWMI comment may be an overstatement influenced by the selection of projects in which it is

involved. However it reflects the less-than-satisfactory water distribution and allocation in some countries.

Undoubtedly some countries have reached a higher level of performance, for example in Latin America

where water is distributed on a pre-arranged basis, and in China where farmers draw water from millions

of terminal reservoirs.

Environmental concerns have discouraged investments in irrigation and dam

construction, particularly among the international development banks,

Official development assistance is responding to the new broad development agendas

focusing on poverty alleviation, privatization and environment. Private and public

sector development, health and education are now the leading sectors, not the

traditional infrastructure,

The perception of donors, supported by the international community of water

resources and irrigation experts, that the main cause of the poor performance of

irrigated agriculture in many developing countries, were deficiencies in management,

institutions and policies, not the technology. This perception supports the views that

fewer investments for irrigation are needed.

Global statistical data about investments for irrigation and drainage are not available.

Data on official development assistance (ODA) for that sector can provide an indication

of the trends in investments. The trend in lending for irrigation and drainage by the World

Bank is considered indicative of the global picture. Irrigation accounted for 7 percent of

World Bank lending for the 30-year period 1960-1990-more that any other single sector.

Since then lending for irrigation by the World Bank has considerably fallen. Annual

lending for irrigation in the 1990s accounted for only 2.5 percent of total lending. The

average lending for irrigation for the last three years has fallen to about $300 million2

compared to a peak of nearly $2 billion in current dollars in the early 1980s. There is no

indication that lending for irrigation may rise soon. Lending by regional and bilateral

financing organizations fits into the historical picture of the World Bank.

It is also important to note that the character of irrigation lending by ODA has been

changing over time. Up to the early 1970s, emphasis was on infrastructure. The World

Bank refused to lend for rehabilitation of irrigation, or of anything else. Rehabilitation

was considered something that borrowers should do with their own resources and not

truly an investment. To lend for it would simply encourage poor maintenance (Jones

1995). Progressively lending for irrigation has shifted to rehabilitation associated with

implementation of management institutional and policy reforms. During the last two

decades, ODA has not supported the development of new irrigation schemes in most

countries with few exceptions, such as in China, India (Narmada project) or Pakistan

(Chasma Project). In most countries ODA has at best supported the completion of on-

going projects. About two-thirds of recent international lending has been for systems

which have suffered premature failure.

Collecting and analyzing governments’ statistics about investments for irrigation

would be an enormous task. However, it can be reasonably asserted that, in most

countries, government irrigation investments fit the ODA trend. Most countries invested

heavily when agricultural prices start to rise and there was pessimism about food supplies

2 These figures refer to the projects classified as “irrigation projects”. There is an increasing number of

irrigation components in projects under other categories, such as “water resources management or social

sector projects.

in the 1960s, a trend that intensified during the Green Revolution. The considerable fall

in staple food prices since then has prompted governments to lessen their emphasis on

irrigation and drainage. For example, the Indian government invested 22 percent of 1974-

78 five-year plan expenditures in irrigation. However the percentage for irrigation

declined to only 7 percent in the 1992-97 Plan. The slow down was in response to the

comfortable food situation in the country and declining world prices of grains, as well as

growing opposition to the displacement of people for dams and negative environmental

effects of irrigation. The South-eastern Anatolia project in Turkey, which ultimately will

irrigate about 1.7 million hectares is one of the very few large scale surface projects

undertaken during the last two decades without external financing.

Investments by the private sector in groundwater irrigation for reasons discussed

farther on in this paper have partly balanced the decline in public investments.

Decline in Expansion of Irrigated Areas

Worldwide in 1998, an estimated 271 million hectares of land were irrigated.

Irrigated areas contribute to an estimated 40 percent of total world food production from

only 17 percent of cultivated lands. However there are great disparities in the distribution

of irrigated lands and its contribution to food security in different parts of the world.

Around 65 percent of the world’s irrigated lands are in Asia, while Africa and South

America have less than 5 percent each.

The worldwide rate of irrigation development in the 1960s averaged almost 3

million ha a year. By the 1970s it had increased to about 4.2 million ha a year and since

then has declined to about 3.5 million a year. In terms of rate of expansion, global

irrigated area grew by more than 2 percent a year in the 1960s and 1970s, slowing to 1.6

percent in the 1980s. It is now growing at a slower rate of 1.4 percent because of a

considerable slowdown in new investments combined with loss of irrigated areas due to

salinization and urban encroachment. FAO estimates that the rate of expansion will

continue to drop to less than 1 percent per year in the next decade.

There are great variations in the rate of expansion of irrigated areas between

regions. About 87 percent of the 27.8 million hectares developed in the period 1990-98

were in the Asia region. The rate of expansion per region ranges from nearly 2 percent in

Asia to .36 percent in Europe and about .8 percent in South America.

Table1: Irrigated area, by region, 1990 and 1998 (thousand hectares) Note: The regions listed here are the former regions used in the FAO Productions book before the

dissolution of the Soviet Union. This classification is used here to facilitate analytical work of the trends

Irrigated Area by Region 1990 1998 Increase

Africa

11190 12520 1330

North and central America 28852

30338 1536

South America

9442 10043 601

Asia

154580 178752 24172

Europe

16572 17050 478

Former Soviet Union 20800

19991 -809

Oceania

2174 2688 514

World

243612 271432 27820

There are also great differences in the rates of expansion between countries. A

total expansion of about 25.6 million hectares or 92 percent of the global increase in

irrigated areas during the period 1990-98 took place in 12 countries which together

account for 65 percent of the global irrigated areas. Irrigated area in most other countries

is nearly stagnant or even decreasing as in some Eastern European countries. The

irrigated areas in Asian countries, excluding India, expanded by 10.9 million ha only with

an average rate of 1.25 percent.

Table 2: irrigated areas in countries with an increase of over 500,000 ha during the period

1990-98 (thousand hectares)

Country 1990 1998 Increase

Egypt 2620 3300 680

Mexico 5600 6500 900

USA 20800 21400 600

Bangladesh 2900 3844 944

China 47232 52580 5348

India 45809 59000 13191

Myanmar 1008 1592 584

Pakistan 16860 18000 1140

Syria 717 1213 496

Thailand 4248 4749 501

France 1300 2000 700

Australia 1892 2400 508

Total 150986 176578 25592

India is by far the leading country in expansion of irrigated area. The expansion of

13.2 million hectares in India during the period 1990-98 accounts for about 47.4 percent

of the world’s increase. India and China together accounts for about two-thirds of the

global expansion during that period.

To reach the target of an increase of about 50 million hectares, as projected by the

models referred above, a growth rate of global irrigated area of .7 percent will be enough,

which is modest, compared to the present rate of 1.4 percent. The question is whether

expansion is going to continue in the above 12 countries-or will expand again in other

countries where irrigated areas have leveled off during the last years. Egypt will reach its

potential after completion of the Toshka project in the New Valley. Irrigation

development is leveling off in France after a considerable growth of groundwater

irrigation in the 1990s. Irrigated area in Saudi Arabia, which has increased three times

from .5 to 1.5 million hectares between 1975 and 1992, is now stable. In some of the 12

countries listed in figure 2, further expansion of irrigation would require major

investments for national or international trans-basin projects. Examples include the

transfer of Mekong water in Thailand, the South-North transfer of the Yang-Tse water in

China. Development of irrigation in the three major countries of China, India and

Pakistan have had and will continue to have considerable bearing on the expansion of

irrigated areas worldwide.

Irrigated areas by origin of water

Over time, the area irrigated by groundwater has increased in importance around

the world. Groundwater development has been growing at an exceptional rate in recent

decades. More reliable water delivery and declining extraction costs due to advances in

technology and, in many instances, government subsidies for power and pump

installation have encouraged private investment in tubewells. For example, in India,

which accounts for 21% of the world’s irrigation, the area irrigated by groundwater rose

from about 28 % in the 1950s to well over 50% in the 1990s, which represents a four-

times increase from 6.7 to 26.5 million hectares.

The FAO AQUASTAT statistics provide data on the areas irrigated by origin of

water for two regions, Near East and Asia only, which are reproduced in tables 3 and 4.

Table 3: Near East: Irrigated Areas by Origin of Water (thousand hectares)

Region Surface water (%) Groundwater % Total area

Maghreb 1,037 43.0 1,355 56.2 2,413

North-east Africa 4,969 95.6 222 4.3 5,196

Arab Peninsula 51 2.4 2,066 96.6 2,139

Middle East 7,198 81.8 1,598 18.2 8,801

Central Asia 17,865 66.0 9,202 34.0 27,067

Total 31,121 68.2 14,446 31.7 45,618

Table 4: East Asia. Areas Irrigated by Origin of Water (thousand of hectares)

Source: FAO/AQUASTAT Notes: 1/Data on Pakistan and Vietnam were missing in AQUASTAT tables.

2/ Areas irrigated by other sources are not included in this table, which accounts for the differences

between total and surface and groundwater columns.

Country Total irrigated area Surface water % Groundwater %

Bangladesh 3751 1158 30.8 2592 69.2

China 52943 38648 73.0 14295 27.0

India 50101 20327 40.5 26538 53.0

Indonesia 4428 4383 99.0 44 1.0

Japan 3128 3128 100 500 ?

Korea –DPR 1460 1255 86.0 204 14.0

Korea-REP 889 844 94.9 44 5.1

Malaysia 362 335 92.0 27 8.0

Burma 1555 1500 96.5 55 3.5

Nepal 1134 837 73.9 140 12.4

Philippines 1550 1397 90.2 152 9.8

Sri Lanka 570 569 99.8 1 .2

Thailand 5003 4991 99.8 12 .2

126874 79372 62.6 44604 35.1

Cumulating the figures for Asia and Near East and assuming that the percentages of areas

irrigated by origin of water are the same in other regions, the worldwide area irrigated by

surface and groundwater would be about 173 and 93 million ha respectively.

Source of irrigation water varies widely between countries depending on the

hydro-geological and climatic conditions and historical development of irrigation. India

has nearly 50 percent of its area irrigated from groundwater, followed by the USA (43%),

China (27%) and Pakistan (25%). That percentage can reach as much as 80 percent in

developed countries with mild climate, such as in Germany (80%) and close to 100

percent in arid countries such as in Saudi Arabia and Libya.

There are no time-series about areas irrigated by origin of water. It can be

reasonably estimated that about two-thirds of the areas put under irrigation since the early

1980s are irrigated from groundwater or about 40 million hectares. However this

expansion of groundwater may be grossly over-estimated because of double accounting.

Groundwater development has largely contributed to delaying next food crisis..

During the last 20 years, there has been an enormous increase in the utilization of

groundwater resources for irrigation because of its widespread distribution and low

development costs. Groundwater has permitted cultivation of high-value crops in various

arid regions. Groundwater has been at the heart of the Green revolution across many

Asian countries.

For example, the rapid expansion in use of groundwater primarily for irrigation in

India has contributed significantly to agricultural and economic development over the last

three decades. The number of wells and the number of energized pump sets have grown

exponentially since the early 1950s. Current projections envision that the rapid rate of

development will continue until the full irrigation potential estimated to be available from

groundwater is reached in about 2007. With more than 17 million wells nationwide,

groundwater now supplies more than 50 percent of the irrigated area and, due to higher

yields in groundwater irrigated areas, is central to significantly higher proportion of total

irrigated output. According to some estimates, 70-80-percent of the value of irrigated

production in India may depend on groundwater irrigation.

The significance of groundwater in the Indian economy is due to the fact that

agricultural yields are generally higher –by one third to half in irrigated areas with

groundwater than in areas irrigated from other sources. This is primarily due to the fact

that groundwater offers greater control over the supply of water than do other sources of

water. As a result groundwater irrigation encourages complementary investments in

fertilizers, pesticides, and high yielding varieties, leading to higher yields. The use of

fertilizers is much higher in areas irrigated by both surface and groundwater in India.

Over the past 30 years, more than 12,500 public deep tubewells were installed in

Pakistan with the primary objective to combat waterlogging and associated salinity.

Groundwater development through private tubewells has grown exponentially, especially

in Punjab. According to the latest estimates, Pakistan has more than 300,000 tubewells.

According to a 1991 survey, about 46 billion cubic meters of groundwater are used for

irrigation in the Indus basin, of which 85 percent comes from private tubewells. Because

of groundwater extraction, water tables have declined beyond the range over which

salinization can be expected. However, salinity continues to present a threat to the

sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Punjab because of recycling of large quantities of

poor quality groundwater from the top of underlying aquifers. Farmers reduce the risks

of crop failures and improve yields by smoothing operational fluctuations in water

supplies from the main canals. According to a 1978 study, average yields of wheat from

farmers using canal water only (1.7 ton/ha) were 25 % lower than those from farmers

owning wells (2.2 ton/ha). Rice farmers using wells with yields of 2.2 ton/ha are also

doing better compared to those using canal water only.

Groundwater development for irrigation is very recent in some countries. In

Thailand, the explosive use of diesel-pumps in the Chao Phya and Meklong projects

during the last decade has responded to the increased demand for dry season cultivation

of high-value crops and the unreliable supply from these large gravity irrigation systems.

For example, groundwater utilization in the Phitsanulok canal irrigation project built in

the 1980s expanded rapidly in the 1990s. Canal water distribution is very erratic. There

are large deviations between the planned and the actual allocation of water and large

variations of water levels in the main canal, an indication of poor water control. Siltation

has reduced the capacity of the main canal to supply the tail end of the project.

Groundwater development has largely solved most of the problems faced by the farmers.

With an average of one well for 5 hectares, virtually all farmers now have access to

groundwater. The development of groundwater has given farmers a great level of control

over their crop calendar. They do not have to wait for the availability of canal water, and

they can plant their crop at the time that seems best according to their own situation. The

benefits that the changes have brought to farmers include increased quantity of water,

increased reliability of water and freedom for the farm families to choose their own crop

strategies. (Mainuddin et al 2000)

There is no doubt that the proliferation of public and private investments in

groundwater abstraction have conferred a secure water supply to farmers who would

otherwise have to depend on unreliable or rigid supplies from canal systems.

The development of groundwater is reaching its limits..

The recent development of groundwater has led to the overexploitation of

groundwater resources in some semi-arid regions where water tables have been falling at

an alarming rate –often 1 to 3 m a year. These regions include some of the world’s major

breadbaskets such as the Punjab and the North China plain. According to the report of the

World Commission for Water, aquifers are being mined at an unprecedented rate-10% of

the world’s agricultural food production depends on using mined groundwater.

According to IWMI, up to 25 percent of the harvest in India is at risk due to falling water

tables. Water tables are also dropping in fossil aquifers including in the Western Unites

States.

In many arid areas, increases in overdraft areas and associated water-quality

problems are emerging. In India, unreliable power supplies combined with weak

management of groundwater resources greatly constrain the growth of irrigated

agriculture. The focus of the world attention to the environmental degradation and

dislocation associated with dams has shadowed another major environmental issue in the

management of water resources. The explosion of the use of pumps for irrigation,

domestic ands industrial use is degrading groundwater water resources. The point has

been reached in some areas where the overexploitation is posing a major threat to the

environment, health, and food security. Groundwater overuse is causing fluorite or

arsenic contamination in vast areas of South Asia.

The potential of groundwater development for irrigation in world’s major

breadbasket countries may be reached in a few years-before the end of the present decade

in India. Overexploitation of groundwater resources in arid and semi-arid countries has

been documented in recent studies: Olagalla aquifer in the United States, Coastal aquifer

and Souss aquifers in Morocco, Hermosillo in Mexico.

All these considerations lead to the conclusion that the development of

groundwater for agricultural irrigation is going to slow down in the coming years.

However there are still some river basins in the world that offer large opportunities for

development of groundwater, such as the Red River delta in Vietnam.

The puzzle of statistics on groundwater irrigation

The greater flexibility and reliability of groundwater and the dissatisfaction of the

farmers with the quality of service in large and medium-scale canal schemes has

stimulated an enormous development of groundwater in canal-irrigation areas in some

countries, particularly in Asia, during the last decades. Amazingly most government

statistics do not provide any information on areas under conjunctive use. There is

therefore a high possibility that some irrigated areas have been duplicated in both surface

and groundwater irrigation. This was confirmed in the case of India by a statement from

the Planning Commission in 1981: “the figures should be corrected somewhat because

tubewells and dugwells operating in the command of irrigation channels create duplicate

accounting”. This may also be the case in countries where canal-areas and groundwater

areas are reported by different administrations. Given the present development of

tubewells in canal systems in Thailand, it is puzzling that only 12,000 hectares are

reported in official statistics. In the case of Pakistan, government statistics indicate that

4.2 million hectares are irrigated by groundwater, of which 92 percent are in Punjab. It is

likely that most of this area is located in the canal command areas. The low degree of

confidence in groundwater data affects many of the countries with irrigation

development.3

In most countries, in other regions, conjunctive use is less developed and there is

no ambiguity about the origin of water. However the likely duplicate accounting in many

Asian countries may have led to an overestimate of the global irrigated areas and a

distortion of the distribution of irrigated areas by origin of water. The lack of confidence

in global irrigated areas and historical trends may also affect the projections for 2025.

The contribution of water-saving application techniques to the production of high-

value crops

A number of irrigation technologies such as sprinkler and trickle irrigation have

been developed that improve reliability and precision in irrigation delivery. About 20

million hectares worldwide are now irrigated by sprinkler irrigation. Micro-irrigation as a

technology has matured into reliable water and fertigation management system for crop

production over the past decades and the usage continues to increase rapidly. A total of

3.2 million hectares are being irrigated by micro-irrigation techniques throughout the

world, which represent one percent of the total area irrigated in the world. A growth of

more than six times over the last 20 years has been achieved, which is a remarkable

achievement. Micro-irrigation is an important tool in the drive towards food security.

Micro irrigation systems have great potential to create significant opportunities for small

3 An FAO paper under preparation quotes a statement from the Ministry of Water Resources in China: “The

complete lack of Groundwater Data Base is seriously constraining the formulation and implementation of

effective groundwater management throughout China”.

holder agriculture. During the 1980s micro-irrigation started penetrating developing

countries, mainly India. A few years later fearing a water and food shortage, the Chinese

Government declared drip irrigation technology to be amongst the top priorities for

development in the last decade.

From the responses to an ICID questionnaire (ICID 1998), the use of pressurized

water application techniques is widely different between countries. The percentage of

modern technique declines with the total area irrigated in developed countries from a low

of 27 percent in the USA and 33 percent in Spain to 80 percent or over in Northern

European countries (Germany). Sprinkler has a much greater application compared to

that of the drip systems with the exception of Israel.

Table 5: Areas irrigated by modern application techniques in selected countries

(million ha)

Country Area irrigated by

sprinkler

Million ha

Area irrigated by

drip

Area irrigated by

modern application

methods

As of total area

( %)

China .676 .034 .71 1.4

Cyprus .02 .003 .0229 69

France .89 .14 1.11 47

Israel .07 .15 .22 100

India .78 Not available .78 .1

South Africa .67 .05 .72 59

USA 3.38 .34 3.89 27

In South Asia and Africa very low cost bucket-and-drip sets are becoming

increasingly popular with farmers. In areas where shallow groundwater is plentiful,

thousands of poor farmers in Bangladesh have used low-cost treadle pumps to supply

water for crops for their own food security and additional income.

There is still a huge potential for development of water-saving pressurized

application techniques in the areas presently irrigated from wells. The energy cost

associated with pumping, if properly priced, provides an incentive to increase water

conservation. Sediment-free groundwater allows the introduction of water efficient

technology. Application of these techniques has and will continue to expand with the

market potential for high-value crops and the availability of low-cost techniques. The gap

between the areas under groundwater irrigation (about 93 million ha) and the areas served

through water-saving techniques (23 million ha) may indicate that the potential for the

use of these techniques is still considerable for the production of high-value crops. Much

more challenging is the improvement of performance of canal systems, which will

continue to play a major role in production of other crops.

Improving irrigation service from large surface systems through better design is

now ineluctable

Technology of irrigation in canal irrigation has not kept pace with irrigation

expansion, resulting in the existence of large areas of land that call for modernization.

First, most systems in Asia even those constructed in the last 50 years are based on

cropping intensities that were too low to meet present needs. Second, there are inadequate

control structures to permit good water management. Third, canals have excessive

seepage losses. Fourth, there has been a failure to allow for the exploitation of

groundwater as an integral part of the total water supply system. Fifth, there was a failure

to face up with the creation of waterlogging and salinity. (Rangeley 1985). There has

been considerable debate about the causes of poor performance of canal irrigation.

“Irrigation schemes in many parts of the world are known to be performing well below

their full potential… There is now wide recognition that deficiencies in management and

related institutional problems, rather than technology of irrigation, were the chief

constraints of poor performance of irrigation systems” (Keynote ICID Congress 1992).

The above statement epitomizes the thinking of many irrigation professionals

about the causes of poor performance of large surface irrigation systems. The

International Water Management Institute was created in 1984 based on the merging

consensus among irrigation professionals that most problems were found in the field of

irrigation management. The focus of IWMI was mostly on irrigation management and

irrigation technology received a very small level of attention (Horst 1998). In the late

1980s, the International Program for Technological research in Irrigation and Drainage

(IPTRID) was created by ICID and the World Bank to specifically address the technical

aspects of irrigation research. Until recently that organization has mostly focused on

drainage research possibly because of its perceived closest relation with environment.

There is no question that management of irrigation systems has been haunted by a

multitude of problems. Admittedly there are some important management-related and

institutional deficiencies, such as conflicts between farmers and irrigation agencies,

farmer interference and lack of discipline, poor coordination between government

agencies and poor recovery of investments and recovery costs and poor farmer

incentives. Few irrigation experts have challenged the widespread wisdom that these are

the main causes of poor performance of irrigation systems. Horst stated the underlying

reason for the writing of his book on “The dilemmas of irrigation” were a combination of

the denial of the importance of technology vis-a-vis management, the increasing

indifference to system design and the lack of transparency of technology and operational

procedures. In this book Horst raised some rather provocative questions:

Is management really the crux of irrigation problems? … Do we not apply cosmetic

surgery by only trying to improve the management environment without considering the

technology? Is it no time to examine the root of the problems: the design of irrigation

systems? (Horst )

Why there is so little recognition of the importance of irrigation technology as a principal

cause of poor project performance? What are the causes of deficiencies in designing

irrigation systems?

Most civil engineers are well trained in structural engineering and construction

techniques but not in the practical and theoretical aspects of unsteady flow hydraulics

that are the norm in most irrigation systems. They are also unfamiliar with the

constraints of the end use-i.e. on-farm irrigation management requirements.

Appropriate irrigation design and management is much more complicated than most

engineers, administrators and donors assume,

Second, designers are rarely confronted with the consequences of how their designs

function once they are installed,

Third, many irrigation agencies cling to outdated design standards and often resist

changes by external experts. Most consulting firms have no contractual motivation

and no financial incentives to introduce new concepts,

Operational failures of irrigation systems are not dramatic and are not widely

publicized. Operation staff can operate canal for a while by infringing on freeboard

and farmers are adjusting to the poor delivery by sinking wells or building reservoirs.

Many failures and problems are caused by a design approach that pays insufficient

attention to operational aspects. The point is that if hydraulic design was simple to

operate for good water delivery service, safety and efficiency, then management and

institutional problems may disappear. Many management and institutional problems are

self-inflicted wounds that could be minimized or eliminated with proper designs and

operational instructions (Burt 1999).

A frequently heard argument is that modernization is too costly and too sophisticated.

In modern schemes, irrigation is provided as a service to users that should be as efficient

and convenient as possible. A good design, even with sophisticated devices, result in

simple rules of operation at all levels in canal systems.

Combining Technical Changes and Reforms

It is the association of technical changes with institutional and policy reforms that

contribute to the success of reform programs in irrigation. Deficiencies in management as

well as in design of irrigation projects are the causes of the poor performance of

irrigation. This observation does not suggest that design of irrigation projects should be

refocused to the conventional engineering aspects of the past. Modern approach to design

means taking into account the quality of service, the ease of operation, the social and

institutional aspects, in brief the needs of the farmers and field reality.

The importance of technology vis-a-vis management can no longer be denied. The

combination of technical changes with institutional and policy reforms have largely

contributed to the success of reform programs in irrigation as illustrated in two examples

in Australia and Mali.

Victoria State, Australia: Irrigation enterprises of low profitability, aging

infrastructure, large public debt and environmental degradation through salinity and

waterlogging were the situation in Victoria State, Australia in the early 1980s.

Operation of the complex irrigation channel systems was inflexible and highly

reactive. Renewing infrastructure provided the opportunity to redesign the system to

create much more effective water delivery systems. The first step taken was to

fundamentally change the approach to managing the irrigation systems with the

objectives of reducing the costs of delivering services and of building a base with new

technology to allow more sophisticated water services and tariff arrangements. The

roster system requiring the irrigators to take water on a fixed schedule was converted

into a water-on-order system allowing the farmers to better meet the needs of their

crops, make more efficient use of water and reducing pumping costs. A telemetry

system combined with a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA)

provides real operation of flows and water levels. The new system allowed leasing of

water rights, diversion licenses, and sale entitlements between established farms

within certain conditions. The shortfall of revenues was considerably reduced.

(Langford et al 1999)

Office du Niger, Mali: This project turned out from a failure to a success story

during the late 1980s. The Office du Niger, created for cotton cultivation in the early

1930s, was managed by a parastatal organization. In the 1950s cultivation of cotton

was abandoned because of rapid development of waterlogging conditions and

replaced by paddy. The restructuring of the Office du Niger focused on both

institutional and technical aspects. The paddy processing and commercialization

functions of the Office du Niger were progressively privatized. The activities of the

Office are now concentrated around it essential functions of water services, planning

and maintenance. The physical upgrading consisted in modern water control of the

main conveyance and distribution network and precise leveling of paddy lands. The

improved water delivery and land leveling makes possible the adoption of

transplanting and high-yield varieties with an increase of paddy yields from 1.5 to 6

ton per hectare. The technical and institutional restructuring of the Office du Niger

made it possible for the agronomic and economic performances of that project to

skyrocket, responding to the need for financial balance, market opportunities in a

context of liberalization and privatization. (Couture et al 2000)

State officials in the 1960s to 1980s have been criticized for their “construction

bias” and their lack of interest for social considerations. Equally erroneous would be the

approach that software would solve all the irrigation ills. Most policy and institutional

reforms cannot be fully implemented without the right physical environment. Application

of volumetric water charges and quotas, implementation of water rights and active water

markets, and demand management are reforms tools which require confidence from the

users in the delivery system, and proper water control to provide that service. The

implementation of institutional reforms without considering the need for technical

changes may lead to a failure of the reform process.

The Way Ahead

Shah states that the world enters the 21 st century on the brink of a new food

crisis that is as dangerous, but far more complicated than the threats it faced in the 1960s.

Thirty years ago, extensive use of fertilizer and expansion of irrigation, mostly from

groundwater, together with high-yield food crops were the critical factors in preventing

global famine. The drop in increases in yields may be an indication that these

instruments have reached their effective limits. Most analysts believe future increases in

food supplies will come mainly from improved production, since the natural resource

base will not support either significant expansion of farmlands or more extensive

irrigation (Shah et al 2000). One option, and may be the most important one, to improve

the productivity of irrigated agriculture is to improve the water distribution service to

individual or group of farmers. A statement made by Bottrall (1981) twenty years ago has

not yet been translated into effective action for many surface irrigation systems:

“The most important of all functions of irrigation projects is to ensure that water is

efficiently and fairly distributed. It is only if the main water distribution system is well

operated that many other important objectives can be satisfactorily realized; and it is

only then that high returns can be obtained from agricultural extension advice and the

increased application of other complementary inputs..” .

Some entrepreneurial farmers have taken the matter in hand, where feasible, by

tapping groundwater, building small terminal reservoirs and capturing drained water.

Where water becomes reliable, farmers have invested in water saving techniques which

have influenced the choice of crop, amount of fertilizer applied and a host of other

agronomic practices depending on market conditions. However, a large majority of

farmers cannot because of too deep or poor quality groundwater, lack of lands for

building reservoirs. The only option is to improve the delivery systems. Achieving that

objective would require a number of changes.

First the irrigation profession at large, including leading international experts and

senior policy-makers, would have to be convinced that both deficiencies in

technology of water distribution and management are the causes of poor performance

of irrigation.

Second, donors may have to change their criteria for the economic feasibility of

irrigation projects. At today’s low prices it does not pay to invest in improvements in

irrigation improvement. But because of the long gestation period, the failure to invest

now could exacerbate the problem of water scarcity, threaten food security, and push

up prices of agricultural commodities to unacceptable levels.

Third, engineers and planners need robust information on the links between design,

maintenance spending, performance, whole life cost and sustainability. They would

have to better understand the process of modernization of large surface systems and

to be aware of the concept of quality of services to the users.

Fourth, a massive effort is needed to increase awareness of the deficiencies of

outdated designs and the potential of modern technologies for water control and

sustainable agriculture.

The increased participation of users in the management of irrigation systems

offers a unique opportunity to improve system operation. However the design of user

associations, their size, their level of financial autonomy and responsibilities vis-a-vis

government agencies determine the type of activities they can undertake. Farmers have

little reason to make turn over work unless they get an improved service from the main

system.

On the positive side, a number of progressive irrigation agencies and governments

have embarked in the modernization of their irrigation canal infrastructure or have

adopted modern concepts for the development of new irrigation. The motivation could be

the modernization of the entire economy and the resulting high labor cost, as in Korea,

Taiwan and Malaysia, the scarcity of the water resources, as in Jordan and other Middle

East Countries, the commitment to a modern agriculture, as in Brazil, and the

requirements of high quality products for export markets, as in North Africa.

Th environmental profession and others strongly believe that the progress in genetics

will be the main engine in increasing food production. IRRI estimates that the varieties it

developed during the Green revolution, and after, has increased water productivity 3-fold

through increase yield and reduced crop duration. One of the major expectations is to

improve yield performance of crops grown under mild water deficit. However this mild

deficit requires an excellent control of water which cannot be achieved under the present

management performance of many irrigation systems in developing countries. Many

crops are highly vulnerable to moisture stress at critical times of crop growths. Future

improvements in genetics will benefit irrigation under reliable and precise water control,

much less the areas under canal commands with poor irrigation services.

Conclusions

The three models for the predictions of food and water demand developed by

IWMI, FAO and IFPRI suggest that irrigated agriculture would have to expand by 15 to

22 percent by 2025. An assumption common to these three models is that the productivity

of presently irrigated lands should improve considerably in terms of cropping intensity,

water efficiency and crop yields.

The annual rate of expansion of irrigation would have to drop by less than half,

from about 1.4 to .7 percent, not to meet the required global target of 320 million hectares

by 2025. However, the global rate of expansion depends mainly on the development of

irrigation in a few countries. In addition, the present expansion might be overestimated

because of duplicate accounting in the large irrigation systems where conjunctive use has

progressed exponentially during the last three decades.

The growth rate of expansion of groundwater irrigation, which has led the global

development of irrigation since the 1970s, is likely to decline substantially in coming

years. However there is a considerable potential for the utilization of water saving

techniques in groundwater areas in response to the markets for high-value crops.

More challenging is the increase of agricultural productivity in existing schemes.

There is much less attention by the water leading experts to that issue and a low

awareness of the magnitude of the investments required to achieve the goals set up by the

above models. The lack of consensus on the causes of the poor performance of canal

systems may have contributed to the slow progress in addressing the main challenge of

irrigation: the performance of surface irrigation systems.

The shortages of food production projected for the 1990s have been averted to

some extend by the explosive exploitation of groundwater and the increase in water

saving technologies over the last three decades. However overexploitation of

groundwater and an associate decline in water quality have been occurring in many parts

of the world, particularly in the semi-arid regions. In many regions, the farmers reacted to

the inadequate service of irrigation water from the large surface irrigation systems.

With the approaching end of groundwater exploitation in irrigation, addressing the

reasons of the poor management and performance of large-scale surface irrigation

projects in a holistic manner cannot be longer evaded. Food trade agreements, alleviation

of rural poverty and reduction of outmigration from rural to urban areas are also strong

arguments in favor of improving irrigation service to users.

When the food crisis will be on us, it would be too late to explore in an efficient

way the technical and institutional options for improving the performance of existing and

new irrigation systems. The next shock in food production should be anticipated.

Changes in management and design of surface irrigation systems are an urgent matter.

An important limitation in the exercise of water and food demand projections is

the unreliability of data about irrigated areas, particularly from groundwater. FAO and an

University from Germany are currently cooperating on the development of a global

irrigation mapping facility, which will develop GIS coverage of irrigated areas. That

initiative can greatly contribute to a better data base for modeling future needs in food

and water.

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