Why Focus on Water Management in Irrigated Agriculture?

Author(s):  
Susanne M. Scheierling ◽  
David O. Tréguer
Author(s):  
P. Glitse ◽  
B. V. Nyamadi ◽  
K. W. Darkwah ◽  
K. A. Mintah

The Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) is a public sector organization established to promote agricultural growth through the provision of irrigation infrastructure and other agricultural water management techniques. Irrigated agriculture in Ghana is categorized into formal, informal or smallholder and large-scale commercial irrigation. Over the years, irrigation development in the country has been faced with a number of challenges, which necessitated the development of the National Irrigation Policy, Strategies and Regulatory Measures and the Ghana Agricultural Water Management Pre-Investment Reform Action Framework. A number of factors affecting irrigation development in the country include lack of capital, commitment by successive governments, cost of energy, access to land and credit, lack of technical know-how and encroachment, among others. Analysis of budget provided by government for public irrigation development was carried out using simple linear regression. Results indicate a bright prospect of irrigation development, with reforms under implementation. A minimum of GHS 633.43 million is required for release into the sub-sector by government together with investments from private sector in the next ten years to shift the balance towards positive growth. To solve the problem of inadequate funding of the sub-sector activities, it is recommended that the GIDA collaborates with Development Partners to fund projects and activities in line with their objectives. GIDA should develop effective programmes for building capacity of contractors involved in development of infrastructure. GIDA should deepen its collaboration with private investors under PPPs and convert electric and diesel/petrol powered irrigation pumps to solar powered ones.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 642
Author(s):  
Jacek RÓŻKOWSKI ◽  
Mariusz RZĘTAŁA

The functioning of Uzbekistan’s economy is closely linked to the water resources of its huge cross-border rivers: the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, as well as to the groundwater present within their basins. Both natural lakes and artificial reservoirs (e.g. the Aydar-Arnasay system of lakes, the Kayrakkum Reservoir, the Chardarya Reservoir) are present there, which retain significant amounts of water, and large canals with lengths of up to several hundred kilometres which involve complex hydraulic structures are used for irrigation purposes. All these are components of a water management system which needs optimisation; as much as 80% of agricultural land is irrigated, with 70% of the water being lost due to inefficient irrigation systems. The consequence of this allocation of river flows and the overuse of water in irrigation systems has been the disappearance of the Aral Sea (1960 year – 68,900 km2, 2017 year – 8,600 km2) and the inflow of water into the Sarygamysh Lake as well as the reduction of Uzbekistan’s groundwater resources by about 40%. The intensive development of irrigated agriculture is associated with changes in surface and groundwater quality caused, inter alia, by the increased use of chemicals in agriculture and the discharge of collector-drainage waters into river systems as well as their reuse. The extent of environmental degradation in some areas (especially in the Aral Sea region) is unique on a global scale. The origins of Uzbekistan’s other hydrological tourist attractions are related to attempts to ensure the availability of water for both human consumption and industrial use under conditions of water scarcity in the country’s arid and semi-arid climates. Not just the spectacular watercourses and water bodies present there (e.g. rivers, lakes, canals), but also small water retention facilities and minor infrastructure elements (e.g. wells, springs and retention basins, canals, ditches and flow control structures) are of potential tourist importance.


Author(s):  
Sassi Mohamed Taher

This document is meant to demonstrate the potential uses of remote sensing in managing water resources for irrigated agriculture and to create awareness among potential users. Researchers in various international programs have studied the potential use of remotely sensed data to obtain accurate information on land surface processes and conditions. These studies have demonstrated that quantitative assessment of the soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer processes can lead to a better understanding of the relationships between crop growth and water management. Remote sensing and GIS was used to map the agriculture area and for detect the change. This was very useful for mapping availability and need of water resources but the problem was concentrating in data collection and analysis because this kind of information and expertise are not available in all country in the world mainly in the developing and under developed country or third world country. However, even though considerable progress has been made over the past 20 years in research applications, remotely sensed data remain underutilized by practicing water resource managers. This paper seeks to bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners first, by illustrating where research tools and techniques have practical applications and, second, by identifying real problems that remote sensing could solve. An important challenge in the field of water resources is to utilize the timely, objective and accurate information provided by remote sensing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4058
Author(s):  
Hassan Bazzi ◽  
Nicolas Baghdadi ◽  
Ibrahim Fayad ◽  
François Charron ◽  
Mehrez Zribi ◽  
...  

Better management of water consumption and irrigation schedule in irrigated agriculture is essential in order to save water resources, especially at regional scales and under changing climatic conditions. In the context of water management, the aim of this study is to monitor irrigation activities by detecting the irrigation episodes at plot scale using the Sentinel-1 (S1) C-band SAR (synthetic-aperture radar) time series over intensively irrigated grassland plots located in the Crau plain of southeast France. The method consisted of assessing the newly developed irrigation detection model (IDM) at plot scale over the irrigated grassland plots. First, four S1-SAR time series acquired from four different S1-SAR acquisitions (different S1 orbits), each at six-day revisit time, were obtained over the study site. Next, the IDM was applied at each available SAR image from each S1-SAR series to obtain an irrigation indicator at each SAR image (no, low, medium, or high irrigation possibility). Then, the irrigation indicators obtained at each image from each S1-SAR time series (four series) were added and combined by threshold value criteria to determine the existence or absence of an irrigation event. Finally, the performance of the IDM for irrigation detection was assessed by comparing the in situ recorded irrigation events at each plot and the detected irrigation events. The results show that using only the VV polarization, 82.4% of the in situ registered irrigation events are correctly detected with an F_score value reaching 73.8%. Less accuracy is obtained using only the VH polarization, where 79.9% of the in situ irrigation events are correctly detected with an F_score of 72.2%. The combined use of the VV and VH polarization showed that 74.1% of the irrigation events are detected with a higher F_score value of 76.4%. The analysis of the undetected irrigation events revealed that, in the presence of very well-developed vegetation cover (normalized difference of vegetation index (NDVI) ≥ 0.8); higher uncertainty in irrigation detection is observed, where 80% of the undetected events correspond to an NDVI value greater than 0.8. The results also showed that small-sized plots encounter more false irrigation detections than large-sized plots certainly because the pixel spacing of S1 data (10 m × 10 m) is not adapted to small size plots. The obtained results prove the efficiency of the S1 C-band data and the IDM for detecting irrigation events at the plot scale, which would help in improving the irrigation water management at large scales especially with availability and global coverage of the S1 product.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.C. Sirimewan ◽  
A.P.K.D. Mendis ◽  
Damitha Rajini ◽  
Aparna Samaraweera ◽  
Naiduwa Handi Chathuri Manjula

PurposeSustaining the irrigated agriculture, while conserving the natural eco-system, are the two main objectives of sustainable water management (SWM) in irrigation. Achieving both the objectives simultaneously is a complex task in most developing countries. This requires a holistic approach of understanding the issues in irrigation water management (IWM) from social, economic and environmental perspectives. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the issues towards the SWM of irrigation systems in Sri Lanka to help maintain a stable relationship between the aforementioned two objectives.Design/methodology/approachQualitative interview survey was selected as the research strategy to achieve the research aim. 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in IWM sector to collect data in the Sri Lankan context. Data were analysed using code-based content analysis, based on directed approach.FindingsFindings revealed the issues in SWM in terms of efficiency of irrigation infrastructure; equity of water distribution; environmental integrity and economic acceptability. Most of the issues were related to the inefficiency towards SWM of irrigation systems. Conflicts among water users, especially the people in downstreams aggravated the problem of equity of water sharing. Depletion of groundwater and waterlogging were the major issues towards environmental integrity. Loss of water happened due to the issues in different irrigation infrastructure components hindering economic acceptability.Originality/valueTheoretical contribution includes an analysis of issues in IWM from a sustainability perspective. Practical implications include an overview of deficiencies in the SWM to generate appropriate strategies to achieve sustainability for decision-makers such as policymakers in the irrigation sector in developing countries similar to Sri Lanka.


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