1. M. Gopalakrishnan
Secretary General ICID
GWP Regional Workshop on
Climate Change, Food and Water Security
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 24-25 February 2011

2.  Introducing International Commission on
Irrigation and Drainage
 Informing what ICID does for “Water for
Agriculture”
 Touch upon ICID‟s Working Groups (thematic
/Generic and Regional)
 ICID‟s Asian Regional Working Group and
 ICID‟s possible role in the “Platform for South
Asia” to address Water ,Food Security & MDGs

3. Managing Water for Sustainable Agriculture —
Water for Food and Rural Development

4.  The Commission is dedicated to enhancing the
worldwide supply of food and fibre for all people by
improving water and land management and the
productivity of irrigated and drained lands.
 The Mission of ICID is to stimulate and promote the
development and application of the arts, sciences and
techniques in allied disciplines in managing water
and land resources for achieving sustainable irrigated
agriculture.
ICID
Managing Water for Sustainable Agriculture —
Water for Food and Rural Development

5. Global coverage of membership
network
Continent Members Developing countries 68
Africa 27 Developed Countries 22
Americas 18 Least Developed 20
Asia and Oceania 36 Countries (LDCs)
Europe 29
Total 110
40
35
Active Countries (65) 30
Developing countries 47 25
Member
20
Developed countries 18
15
10
5
0
Africa
Americas
Europe
Oceania
Asia &

6. 90
78
80
70 66 65
63 63
60
Asia : 34 50 43
40
30
20
11
10
0
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
 Starting with 11 founding member countries in 1950, 110 countries
have so far joined ICID to pool their efforts.
 Best Performing National Committee Award : Instituted in 2002 and
presented at every triennial Congress. The performance of a National
Committee is judged on the basis of various facets demonstrated by the
participating National Committees between two successive ICID Congresses
(over a three year period).
 [1st Award – Korean National Committee (2002),
 2nd Award – Egyptian National Committee (2005),
 3rd Award – Iranian National Committee (2008)]

7.  ICID’s strength lies in its networking and
ensuring its dynamic functionality, on
members’ democratic choices & preferences
 Activities of the Commission are carried out
through technical and other workbodies.
 National Committees nominate experts to
these workbodies.
 There are over 30 workbodies, presently.
 Over 289 World-renowned experts occupy 412
membership slots on ICID workbodies and
contribute.

8.  Activities of the Commission are carried out
through technical workbodiescovering e.g., “on-
farm” , “system” and “Basin” issues. Apart from
the development and management of appropriate
systems, inter-basin water transfer, socio-
economic impacts of irrigated agriculture,
livelihood & poverty alleviation, climate change,
etc. are some areas being looked into.
 Regional water related issues are addressed by
special working groups covering Africa, Europe,
Asia, Americas, Lake Chad Basin and the Aral Sea
Basin.
 Currently, there are over 30 such work groups.
 Best Performing Workbody Award
 This is meant to acknowledge the Best Groups’
Contributions triennially once in every congress..

9. 1.108
0.480
(2010)
(2008)

13. ASIA
Why Asia is important for ICID ? • 60 % of world
For all the good reasons …
population.
• 24% of world lands.
•34% of world arable
lands.
•72% of world Irrigated
lands.
•34% of world drained
lands.
•20% of total world
precipitation.
•62% of the world
hungry people.

14. The
Distribution of the
World Hunger

15. WWDR , 2009

16.  Out of the world‟s 50 Least Developed
Countries (LDCs), 15 are located in Asia

17. ICID Position is reflected best in its latest contribution
to World Water Forum in Istanbul when as the
topic Coordinators, ICID, together with a
consortium of 56 Global Institutions and
Consulting Organisations, pondered and dealt with
Water for Food, Poverty Alleviation and Rural
Livelihood.
Inter-alia, the desirable approach in a vastly varied
settings in the globe emerged during discussions
on Water Governance as well as Sectoral
Allocation Needs.
(Topic 2.3 –WWF 5)

18.  How to bridge between agric and water policies?
 How can water management improvements
contribute to the required increase in food
production? What types of investments are
necessary?
 How can rainfed agriculture contribute more
effectively to enhance food security and improve
livelihoods in rural areas?
 What policies/actions may ensure sustainability of
water resources and river basin services that
underpin increases in agricultural productivity?

19.  Multi-functionality of agriculture/irrigation with
attention to environmental impacts and services.
 Some increase in water withdrawals for
irrigation and increase in crop yields are
required to meet food production in least
developed and emerging countries
 Ensure availability of other inputs: seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, equipments, extension
services
 Optimization of farm holdings

20.  Focus on improvement of all irrigation schemes,
long term O&M and better water productivity
 Organize small-holder farmers into socially
cohesive bodies to operate as one big entrepreneur;
Include and encourage farmers in agricultural
water management initiatives
 Involve women in management and decision
making .
 Development of local markets key to move farmers
from survival mode to market oriented farming
 Ensure enabling governance and policies

21.  Reforms in respect to water management; consider
Water for Food, People and Environment,
 Water pricing,
 Asset maintenance and enhanced investment for
the operation and maintenance,
 Ownership and transfer of resources (PIM and
WUAs)
 Capacity building
 Envisage a fresh programme to Invigorate
Technology Research in Irrigation and Drainage;
ICID National Committees to take a lead role and
twinning efforts of NCs (A New IPTRID)

22.  Triennial World Irrigation and Drainage Congress (21st
International Congress on Irrigation & Drainage, Oct. 2011,
Tehran, Iran)
 Annual Conference [International Executive Council Meeting
(IEC)] (62nd IEC, Oct. 2011, Tehran, Iran)
 Regional Conferences [African, Asian, European, American] (3rd
African, Sept. 2011, Mali; 7th Asian, June 2012, Adelaide,
Australia; 24th European, March 2011, Orleans, France; 25th
European, May 2011, Groningen, The Netherlands)
 Micro Irrigation Congresses (8th International Micro Irrigation
Congress, Oct. 2011, Tehran, Iran)
 International Drainage Workshop – IDW (11th IDW, Sep. 2012,
Cairo, Egypt; 12th IDW, June 2014, St. Petersburg, Russia)

23. 1 September Seoul,
2001 South Korea
2 March Echuca, Irrigation in the total catchment management
2004 Australia
3 September Kuala Lumpur, Transforming irrigated agriculture into an
2006 Malaysia
efficient engine of growth
4 May 2007 Tehran, Participatory Irrigation Management
Iran
5 December New Delhi, Improvement in Efficiency of Irrigation
2009 India
Projects through Technology Up-gradation
and Better Operation & Maintenance
6 October Yogyakarta, Improvement of irrigation and Drainage
2010
Indonesia efficiency under the small land holding
condition
7 June 2012 Adelaide Water Productivity towards Food Security
Australia

24.  UN Water Systems- WMO, WHO and FAO
 WWAP & World Water Development Reports
 WWC and World Water Fora, 1 to 5 and …6
 WWF 5 Istanbul
 Theme 2 Topic 2.3
 WWF 6 (Food Security by Optimal Use of Water)
 Comprehensive Assessment IWMI
 Country Policy Support Programme (ICID)
 Issues relating to Aral Sea Basin, Lake Chad …

25. Provides all
information on
ICID and its
activities

26.  Are we rightly projecting to the society the notions on
„efficiency‟ - especially of Surface Irrigation diversions?
Its achievements or the lack of it?
 Are we right in concluding that large scale Surface
Irrigation fail to deliver in a regional context? Does it
favour of an enhanced reliance on the use of GW for
irrigated agric food production?
 Are we justified in arguing that just by improvement
in agricultural water management & attaining better
efficiencies, future needs for doubling the production,
an acknowledged need for SA is attainable?
 What does the “atomistic irrigation” teach us? Is it a
panacea? What change t we attempt to suggest in
improving developed Surface Irrigation Systems? Any
Solutions to enhance PIM?

27. Water
Rainfall included
& Land
The type of
Resource
Scarcity
Food Security
Rs. Or $$
needs
Efficiency improvement, viewed in different perspectives
can mean different things to different players.
And experts in water sector will look for better water productivity…

28. Surface Irrigation (87%)
Paddy (100 Mha) Other Crops (134 mha)
Sprinkler Irrigation (11%) Micro Irrigation (2%)
(6 Mha)
(30 Mha)
{ World Irrigated Area : 270 Million Hectares}

29. India: Surface Irrgn. System Efficiencies
Sources of losses Seepage Evaporation
Total
Main canal and Branches 13.6 3.4 17.0
Distributaries 6.4 1.6 8.0
Field and Water Courses 16.0 4.0 20.0
Field application losses 13.2 3.3 16.5
Total 49.2 12.3 61.5
About 60% of the losses in Surface Irrigation are seen to be beyond the
main canals & distributaries. These losses are recoverable by
conjunctive use as it recharges ground water (or appear as return flows)

30.  Efficiency concept itself is ‘Scale dependant’
 The interpretation could mean differently when
one looks at „On farm‟, „System as a whole‟ & the
„Basin‟
 Relevance of WUE is high in water scarce basins
(closed basins) with more (& more) emerging
demands
 Depending on the individual situation,
investment needs may have to be borne for more
value usage or meeting nature sector needs
 What is of greater significance is to enhance the
“beneficial uses” and minimise “non beneficial”

31. Water Use Indicators
Beneficial Non Beneficial
(consumed fraction) (Non consumed fraction)
Reusable Non Reusable
(Preserved Quality) (Degraded Quality)
How can future actions avoid or reduce all non Beneficial
components ? That can help better WM..

32. Revamping Surface Irrigation:
China Reduces Irrigation Water Withdrawals by 25 %
402 large irrigation schemes (LISs) covering
about 25% of country’s total irrigated area of
56 million ha.
From 1998 to 2005, China has invested a total
of 18.9 billion RMB Yuan to modernize 255
large irrig. Schemes.
Post-evaluation of the program revealed that,
0.65 million ha irrigated area was restored,
3.31 million ha irrigated farmland was
improved leading to an increase of 5.82 m.
tonnes of food annually.
The total agricultural output in the program
area increased by 46.1% and net per capita
income increased by 43.8%.
The staff deployed for management reduced
by 25.7% i.e. from 5.68 persons to 4.12 persons
per ten thousand ha of irrigated area.
The irrigated area managed by water user
associations increased from 9.1% to 36.0% of
the total irrigated area.
The average annual losses due to natural India is also focusing on actions
disaster reduced by 3.2 billion RMB Yuan
on large SI schemes…

33.  Let us however be not complacent that actions
on the „efficiency improvement‟ alone will
suffice to achieve the regional food security in
the future
 The importance of sufficient storage is all the
more important, given the likely variations in
climatic situation under „Climate Change‟
Scenario
 Additional External Drivers (oil price, global
markets, financial crisis etc., add fuel to the fire