Irrigated agriculture accounts for nearly 20% of cultivated land and contributes 40% of the world's food production. It has been a main driver of increased world food security, agricultural growth, and rural development over the last 45 years.
Nowadays, irrigation - water for food - is by far the largest user of water, accounting for more than 75% of all water use in developing countries. Increasing water scarcity, competing demands of other sectors, pressing environmental concerns, and high cost of investment pose challenges to the new generation of irrigation and drainage projects.
The irrigation and drainage sector has to go through a modernization process including major policy and institutional changes to ensure higher crop per drop, equity in distribution, and sustainability of resources and investments.
The World Bank has played a central role in the irrigation sector in developing countries and will continue as a major actor to help transform the sector into one that is efficiently managed and highly productive. The main objectives are agricultural growth, sustainability and poverty reduction.
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