Impact of Irrigation Management Practices on Land and Its Productivity in Addressing Hunger and Poverty

Abstract

Improvement in land and water productivity of existing irrigation and drainage schemes will be required to meet the increasing food demand and attenuate poverty. However, current practices of irrigation water management in quite some schemes are at a low level, with outputs per unit of arable land and irrigation supply substantially below potential. With the view to enhance the productivity levels, this paper analyses various agriculture development and irrigation water management practices in existing irrigation schemes. Based on geographic, economic and climatic conditions four sample schemes were selected for the study comprising two schemes from least developed and two from emerging countries. These schemes represent different water management policies and irrigation supply technologies. The studied schemes include: Sunsari Morang Irrigation Scheme (Nepal) and Goha W Irrigation Scheme (Ethiopia) from the least developed countries, and Sri Ram Sagar Irrigation Scheme (India) and Yaqui Irrigation District (Mexico) from emerging countries. Organizational, financial, technological and operational indicators were used to evaluate the land and water productivity in these schemes. CropWat 4 was used to estimate the potential yields of the currently cultivated crops. The results of the analysis show that institutional and technological improvements can contribute significantly to land and water productivity increment.