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Does improved irrigation technology save water?

A review of the evidence

Year of publication 2017

Place of publication Cairo, Egypt ;

Pages 57

Author Chris Perry, Pasquale Steduto

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-109774-8

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region has the lowest per-capita fresh water resource availability among all Regions of the world, consuming more than 85 percent of renewable fresh water resources through irrigation. Demography, food security policies, overall socio-economic development and climate change will accelerate the fast-widening gap between availability and demand for fresh water resources in the coming decades. How can NENA countries simultaneously reduce this gap, promote sustainable water resources management and contribute effectively to food security? Several measures are put in place. However, modernising irrigation systems remains dominant through typically converting the ‘low-efficient’ surface methods into the ‘high-efficient’ drip methods. The often underlying assumption is that increasing irrigation efficiency will allow to ‘save’ substantial amount of water that could be released for environment or other uses. The evidence from research and field measurements shows that this is not the case. While the benefit at local “on-farm” scale may be dramatic, at basin scale total water consumption by irrigation tends to increase significantly.

Language English

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