Irrigation Systems, Water Use Efficiency and Environmental Impacts

Recently, there has been an increasing concern about the effective and efficient use of water for agriculture and water conservation in general. The promotion of effective water use and on farm water management was identified as an important contribution to the management strategy needed to address problems of water scarcity and practising intensive agriculture on environmentally sound grounds. Moreover, given the limitation to further expansion of irrigated land in most countries, a large part of the future food requirements will need to be covered from a more efficient and sustainable use of irrigation water (FAO 1993). Therefore, full intensification of agriculture in irrigated lands, while taking all possible precautions against the environmental problems that could follow this approach, is the challenge of the immediate future. This of course affects the needs and modes of future irrigated agriculture.