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Book (stand-alone)Enabling institutional environments conducive to livelihood improvement and adapted investments in sustainable land and water uses
SOLAW21 Technical background report
2022Also available in:
No results found.This report reviews the main global trends in land and water uses, policies and investments that have taken place over the last decade and identifies the institutional arrangements that have been the most conducive to sustainable and equitable use of these resources. The report focuses particularly on family farmers, who have limited access to key resources (land, water, credit and infrastructure). It pays special attention to their common challenges and needs, but also to their diverse conditions. It provides evidence-based information on the institutional conditions needed to ensure inclusive land and water programmes, and to upscale such programmes at local levels. It is based on a systematic review of official documents and academic papers and on detailed case studies, often grounded in the authors’ own significant knowledge. The report is organized in three main parts. The first section begins with a review of the main global trends affecting land and water uses over the last decade, and links them to the public policies and types of private investment that encouraged such trends. The main structural drivers of growing pressures on water resources and land availability are discussed, including population growth, diet changes, climate change, urbanization and biofuel development. The report discusses the direct effects of these drivers, including water scarcity, increased global competition for land use and the degradation of existing resources, on land and water availability. It then examines the main types of private investments and public policies that drive these trends: large-scale land acquisition, reassertion of large-scale infrastructure programmes for surface water irrigation, public subsidies and private initiatives that stimulate access to groundwater. The second section of the report focuses on the impacts of global changes, policies and investments on farmers’ livelihoods and water use. It reviews the numerous beneficial impacts of irrigation on poverty reduction emphasizing that they are highly contextual and unequally shared across social groups. It documents the widening gap between irrigated and rainfed areas, and the risks of a medium-term crisis for agricultural economies that are based on groundwater irrigation. It emphasizes that existing policies are poorly tailored to farmers’ needs. Lastly, the section documents the complex relationship between migration and increased pressures on land and water. The third section of the report charts the way forward for more sustainable and equitable management of land and water. It takes stock of policies inspired by the principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM). -
Book (stand-alone)The future of large rice-based irrigation systems in Southeast Asia 2007
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Most of the large rice irrigation systems in Southeast Asia have been designed for rice irrigation under a supply-driven mode. Despite their huge contribution to agricultural production, there is a general consensus that these large rice irrigation systems have not lived up to expectations because of a legacy of poor institutional arrangements and system design, degraded infrastructure, poor management and stagnation in the face of rapid transformations of agriculture and pressures on their wate r supply. To respond to these shortcomings and to meet new challenges, multiple options and systematic approaches are needed in terms of strategy, institutions, financing, technology and international cooperation to transform large rice irrigation systems in Southeast Asia from supply-driven to demand-driven responsive systems, to improve their water service in terms of reliability, equity, flexibility and multiple uses, to enable farmers to boost agricultural and water productivity, to be more responsive to market opportunities and to contribute to environmental sustainability. Convened in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam from 26 to 28 October 2005, this workshop discussed three critical questions whose answers could determine the way that large rice-based irrigation systems will evolve over the next 20 to 25 years, namely: how will agriculture and rice production evolve in Southeast Asia? What changes will be required in irrigation service provision by the large rice-based irrigation syste ms? How will ongoing and expected reforms and investment programmes measure up against the projected needs of the region? This proceedings is a collection of the workshop papers and outcomes. It offers a useful reference work to professionals, researchers and government decision-makers on sustainable agriculture, water management and irrigation modernization. -
DocumentIrrigation Investment Briefs - 13 Collected Papers
Occasional Paper N. 4 - February 1997
1997Also available in:
No results found.Investments in irrigation can greatly contribute to increased agricultural production and economic benefits when planned, implemented and operated satisfactorily. The range of options available for investments is generally wide. Careful selection on technical and socio-economic grounds is required to ensure optimum returns from the investments on a sustainable basis. This publication presents several papers prepared in the course of providing assistance to developing countries in the prepar ation of World Bank-financed irrigation projects in various parts of the world. They cover a variety of topics raised during field work, including technical and economic issues requiring clarification, and record the experiences of actual case situations.
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