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Water management in irrigated agriculture has been identified as a sustainability challenge due to a combination of continuously increasing demand and the ability of farmers to access water in excess of renewable supply. Intensive irrigation and related agricultural practices can also impair soil and water resources on which they rely by way of pollution and degradation of soil health. Thereby input-intensive farming can generate externalities beyond the intended immediate benefits. These risks are all well understood. However, methods to systematically integrate such measure into irrigation development goals have typically been lacking. Raising the environmental performance of intensive arable production can be accomplished through a broader adoption of good agricultural practice on irrigated land and by enhancing farmers' skills in soil and water management as well as through related national-level governance strategies. Relevant agronomic practices include those that reducing pollution, improving soil fertility, and enhancing biodiversity can minimize the impacts of agricultural production on natural ecosystems and the services they provide. These also include appropriate matching of crop, soil type, and irrigation methods. Conserving the natural resource base and reducing quality impacts while improving producer net returns is a core objective of WSiA. As a practice of responsible use of natural resources, water stewardship in agriculture (WSiA) responds to sustainability challenges presented by irrigated agriculture by protecting farming operations from resource-related risks as well as minimizing potentially negative impacts on water users and the natural environment.

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage --- Agriculture --- Fertilizer --- Salinization --- Soil Erosion --- Wetlands

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Niger is a large landlocked country whose northern two-thirds lies within the Sahara Desert with a population of about 21.5 million people. Most of the population is concentrated in areas around the Niger River in the southwestern corner of the country and along its long southern border with Nigeria. Niger's economic activity is concentrated on traditional activities, primarily agriculture, livestock, forestry, and fishery but also informal trade and production. The country has experienced declining average rainfall, desertification, recurring droughts, and deforestation. Undernourishment is widespread. Agricultural risks, primarily droughts in Niger, have severe economic consequences with wide repercussions. Farmer-led irrigation (FLI) in the Niger context could be defined as irrigation privately owned and managed by farmers. The purpose of this study is to analyze the extent and the environment of FLI development in Niger, the challenges and constraints, and the business opportunities to be piloted.

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage --- Agriculture --- Irrigation --- Irrigation and Drainage --- Water Resources --- Water Supply

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Agriculture plays a vital role in the economy of Georgia despite the relatively small size of the sector. Agriculture is the country's largest employer and makes a significant contribution to exports even though agriculture contributes a modest share to total GDP. Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, actual irrigated area in Georgia declined significantly. Georgia is currently facing important challenges related to the development of its agricultural sector, which requires the rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage systems and the establishment of institutional organizations that makes it sustainable. This policy note on the irrigation sector supports the World Bank-led analytical study on Agricultural, Land, and Water Policies to Scale-Up Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in Georgia. It was carried out during the months of April to July 2021, in close collaboration with the main stakeholders of the irrigation sector in Georgia and the services of the World Bank. The analysis in this policy note identifies the core constraints, which are hindering irrigation sector performance in Georgia and leading to the slow implementation of the irrigation strategy with a brief overview of some of the factors that are contributing to these constraints.

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage --- Agriculture --- Climate Change --- Integrated Water Resources Management --- Irrigation

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Irrigated farming is central to meeting the world's food and fodder needs and will be even more important in delivering on food security and water sustainability development priorities in the future. High population growth, climate change, increasing socio-economic growth, and water stress are key drivers of change. Although irrigation covers only 6.5 percent of the total land used for agriculture, it supports production of forty percent of the world's food and fodder output, with a gross value of fifty-five percent of global agricultural produce. Improving irrigation performance is a priority strategy in addressing rural poverty and in mitigating climate -change impacts, especially for the most vulnerable. Investment in irrigation has seen renewed interest in the past decade, and irrigation and drainage (I and D) governance emerging as a key focus for improved performance. Institutional failures and poor irrigation performance have been blamed on low capacity, perverse incentives, misdirected policies, and weak implementation but these are only contributing factors. Investments in institutions of the past have aimed to fix the institutions, with a focus on form and on organizational structure. The central message of this resource book is that functions, processes, and related capabilities must be the priority focus of all irrigation institutional interventions.

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage --- Agriculture --- Drainage --- Groundwater --- Irrigation --- Irrigation and Drainage --- Water Policy and Governance --- Water Resource Management --- Water Resources

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Sub-Saharan Africa urgently needs to accelerate the pace of agricultural growth to improve livelihoods, ensure food security, and keep droughts from turning into famines. However, this requires the region to increase smallholder irrigation faster than its current sluggish pace. In this respect, explosive growth since the 1970s in distributed farmer-led smallholder irrigation (FLSI) in China, South Asia, and elsewhere may offer Sub-Saharan Africa better guidance than state-led centralized large irrigation projects. Proactive policy support, prominence of market players, economies of scale and scope, village-level irrigation service markets, government incentives, and subsidies on motor pumps and boreholes have all triggered and fueled rapid expansion of motor pump-driven FLSI that made famines history and countries food-secure in Asia in a short span of a decade or two. With its ample shallow groundwater resources and sparse farming areas, Sub-Saharan Africa has immense potential to grow pump-driven FLSI quickly, cost-effectively, and without risking the environmental ill effects observed in Asia and elsewhere. A "big push" to FLSI will work better than an incremental trickle because high-volume-low-margin FLSI growth generates economies of scale and scope, which are essential. Interventions by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are useful for demonstration and piloting innovations, but market players are best placed to achieve scale. Finally, Sub-Saharan Africa can and needs to leapfrog and build its FLSI economy around solar irrigation pumps, which are destined to disrupt FLSI globally in the years to come.

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage --- Agriculture --- Crops and Crop Management Systems --- Green Revolution --- Irrigation --- Irrigation and Drainage --- Water Resources