Publication: Securing Water for Agriculture : A Guide to Investment Decisions
Loading...
Published
2009-04
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
How can the world grow more food, increase incomes, reduce poverty, and protect the environment with growing numbers of mouths to feed and increasingly constrained resources? A big part of the answer lies in better management of agricultural water. Agricultural water management (AWM) encompasses irrigation on both a large and small scale, drainage of irrigated and rain fed areas, watershed restoration, recycling of water, rainwater harvesting, and better in-field water management practices. There is considerable scope for improving returns on water from agricultural use. The key economic challenge is to set up an incentive framework that encourages efficient water use and profitable high value agriculture. Evidence indicates that such a framework improves efficiency and accountability, raises productivity, and promotes sustainable and environmentally responsible resource use. At the same time, irrigation schemes pose a financial challenge: to recover costs at a rate sufficient to finance services to farmers. The broad challenge is to encourage both large- and small-scale private investment.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2009. Securing Water for Agriculture : A Guide to Investment Decisions. Water P-Notes; No. 33. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11725 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Shaping the Future of Water for Agriculture : A Sourcebook for Investment in Agricultural Water Management(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)Agricultural water management is a vital practice in ensuring reduction, and environmental protection. After decades of successfully expanding irrigation and improving productivity, farmers and managers face an emerging crisis in the form of poorly performing irrigation schemes, slow modernization, declining investment, constrained water availability, and environmental degradation. More and better investments in agricultural water are needed. In response, the World Bank, in conjunction with many partner agencies, has compiled a selection of good experiences that can guide practitioners in the design of quality investments in agricultural water. The messages of this publication center around the key challenges to agricultural water management, specifically: building policies and incentives; designing institutional reforms; investing in irrigation systems improvement and modernization; investing in groundwater irrigation; investing in drainage and water quality management; investing in water management in rain-fed agriculture; investing in agricultural water management in multipurpose operations; coping with extreme climatic conditions; and assessing the social, economic, and environmental impacts of agricultural water investments.Publication Making the Most of Scarcity : Accountability for Better Water Management Results in the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC, 2007)Water -- the resource itself as well as the irrigation and water supply services derived from it is important for every country. It is fundamental to human health, wellbeing, productivity, and livelihoods. It is also essential for the long-term sustainability of ecosystems. Here, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the most water-scarce region of the world, good water management matters even more than it does elsewhere. The report suggests that MENA can meet its water management challenge. People have a very real need for water for drinking and for household uses. This domestic use, however, accounts for less than ten percent of a typical country's water consumption. Every country in the region has enough water resources to meet domestic needs, even accounting for the larger populations expected in the future. And policy decisions can help improve the way drinking water and sanitation services are delivered so that people get the services they need. The bulk of a typical country's water consumption goes to agriculture. This demand depends on such factors as the structure of the economy, people's consumption preferences, agriculture and trade policies, and how efficiently water is used. These factors can be influenced by policy choices. Similarly, countries can protect their environmental quality with policy and institutional choices. The necessary policy changes are far from easy. Yet they are essential, and, when coupled with improvements in accountability to the public, water resources and services will support communities and promote economic development and bring benefits to the entire population.Publication Reengaging in Agricultural Water Management: Challenges and Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)The overall goal of this report is to give strategic focus to implementation of the agricultural water management (AWM) components of the corporate strategies. Its specific objectives are to set out the changing context of demand and supply for agricultural water; to identify the policy, institutional, and incentive reform options that will accelerate productivity improvements and pro-poor growth; and to articulate priorities for investment in AWM. It is also intended to define the role of the public sector and other stakeholders, and to set out how AWM can be best integrated upstream into water resources management, and downstream as an input provider into the agricultural economy.Publication A Water Sector Assessment Report on the Countries of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf(Washington, DC, 2005-03)The main objective of the Water Sector Review in the member countries the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) is to (1) conduct a diagnosis of the current situation of the water sector, identify issues in the GCC region, evaluate the GCC governments' current water policies, and propose recommendations for improved Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Phase I of the study; (2) present key findings and recommendations at the GCC Water Conference in Bahrain, September 19-20, 2005, where Government officials, academic specialists and technical experts from the region would provide inputs to this study; and (3) if amenable to the GCC governments, conduct Phase II of the study to develop specific policies and action plans for more sustainable water resources management in individual GCC states.Publication Deep Wells and Prudence : Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India(World Bank, 2010-01-29)India is the largest groundwater user in the world, with an estimated usage of around 230 cubic kilometers per year, more than a quarter of the global total. With more than 60 percent of irrigated agriculture and 85 percent of drinking water supplies dependent on it, groundwater is a vital resource for rural areas in India. Reliance of urban and industrial waste supplies on groundwater is also becoming increasingly significant in India. Through the construction of millions of private wells, there has been a phenomenal growth in the exploitation of groundwater in the last five decades. The potential social and economic consequences of continued weak or nonexistent groundwater management are serious, as aquifer depletion is concentrated in many of the most populated and economically productive areas. The implications are disturbing for attainment of the millennium development goals, for sustaining economic growth and local livelihoods, and for environmental and fiscal sustainability. The consequences will be most severe for the poor. Furthermore, climate change will put additional stress on groundwater resources; while at the same time will have an unpredictable impact on groundwater recharge and availability.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication The World Bank Group in Tanzania, Fiscal Years 2012–22(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-22)This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group's support to Tanzania between Fiscal Years 2012 and 2022. Over the past decade, Tanzania has experienced resilient growth, with an average annual per capita GDP increase of 2.2%. However, poverty remains widespread and slow to decline, underscoring the need for more inclusive growth. The report examines the Bank Group's strategic and operational approaches during this period, which were aligned with Tanzania's development priorities and focused on industrialization, human development, and public sector reforms. The evaluation includes thematic chapters on the Bank Group's support for private sector-led growth and spatial transformation, as well as lessons to inform future support to the country.Publication FY 2024 Seychelles Country Opinion Survey Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-27)The Country Opinion Survey in Seychelles assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Seychelles perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Seychelles on: (1) their views regarding the general environment in Seychelles; (2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Seychelles; (3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Seychelles; and (4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Seychelles.Publication The World Bank Group in Georgia, 2014-23(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-30)This Country Program Evaluation assesses the performance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s support to Georgia in achieving the country’s development objectives. In the decade leading up to the evaluation period, Georgia pursued economic reforms to attract critical investments for becoming a regional trade and transport hub. Ambitious economic reforms went hand in hand with efforts to improve human development and strengthening social protection systems. Growing geopolitical tensions and internal political polarization have challenged Georgia’s reform progress in recent years. The Bank Group’s strategy adapted well to Georgia’s development needs and was well coordinated with other development partners. It successfully employed a range of instruments to help increase competitiveness, growth, and job creation, and effectively contributed to improved infrastructure and increased trade by using programmatic and innovative approaches. The Bank Group’s regular investments in analytical work and the switch to results-based programmatic support helped improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education and health care systems. The IEG offers the following lessons based on the evidence and analysis in the Country Program Evaluation: (i) Prioritizing Bank Group support around the move towards deeper regional integration was an effective anchor for key economic reforms for economic convergence. (ii) Pursuing a selective and adaptive approach in a country with high implementation capacity and institutions, strong coordination among development partners, and access to a wide range of external resources can allow the Bank Group to exercise significant influence in areas of comparative advantage and global expertise. (iii) A stronger focus on outcome-based programmatic approaches helped to build local capacity and crowd-in partner financing.Publication FY 2025 China Country Opinion Survey Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-04)The Country Opinion Survey in China assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in China perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in China on 1) their views regarding the general environment in China; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in China; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in China; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in China.