Irrigated agriculture is at a crossroads. Irrigated lands now account for about 20 percent of the world’s farmed area and 40 percent of global food production. Increases in irrigated area, cropping intensity, and crop yields have helped to stabilize food production per capita, even though population and per capita food intake have grown significantly. Investments in irrigation and drainage have driven rural growth in many developing countries, creating jobs and reducing poverty.

Key Challenges The world is facing an unprecedented food crisis. For 2 billion people, high food prices are now a matter of daily struggle, sacrifice and even survival. It is estimated that 100 million people may have been pushed into poverty as a result of high prices in 2006 till 2008.

The change in food markets could be an opportunity to raise farmer incomes, reducing poverty, and promoting rural economic growth. The largest potential for higher yields comes from the 450 million smallholders in developing countries. However, poor farmers often cannot respond to increased food prices – public investment in infrastructure such as irrigation and drainage will be required.

The extension of agriculture will have to be done in a sustainable manner to more efficiently use scarce resources, including water, and protecting the environment. Water use in agriculture consumes more than 75 percent of water in the developing world. Increased demand for water will have to be balanced with the competing demands of other sectors. Water productivity will have to be raised. Land degradation has to be avoided and pollution from non-point sources needs to be managed. Also, many poor countries will require upstream investments in water infrastructure to deal with climate variability and climate change.

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World Bank Response
To confront these challenges calls for a broad approach towards agricultural water management. This combines a concern for water resources, agriculture, rural development, and the environment. With the 2006 publication of   Re-engaging in Agricultural Water Management, the World Bank set the stage for assistance guided by this approach. Bank supported interventions to improve agricultural water management include:

	Increasing water productivity in both irrigated and rainfed areas.
	Creating effective and sustainable institutional arrangements, including by establishing and strengthening water users’ associations, promoting the involvement of the private sector, and ensuring that irrigation systems are financially viable.
	Improving links to input supply and marketing chains.
	Helping farmers adapt to climate change.
	Factoring poverty and gender concerns systematically into agricultural water resources.

The current World Bank portfolio for irrigation and drainage is US $3.7 billion dollars. Sub-Saharan Africa is where changes in agricultrual water management can make the biggest difference. The Bank has quadrupled its lending to the region in the last three years. And, together with other multilateral agencies, it supports a program for scaling up agricultural water development in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide a platform for comprehensive support to agricultural water in the region.

Topics covered by the Bank’s analytical and advisory work include private-public partnerships in agricultural development and management; poverty impact analysis in agricultural water operations; watershed management; and monitoring and evaluation of agricultrual water management projects.