Investing in irrigation: Reviewing the past and looking to the future

This article gives a brief review of the development and current situation in global irrigation, and looks at the drivers affecting irrigation performance, development and modernization. The article concludes that the options for new developments are limited, and that future investment will need to be more precisely targeted to specific niches in different agroecological and economic contexts. The paper notes the powerful implications of global climatic change on irrigation through changes in hydrology and water supply that, in conjunction with (1) continued demand for cheap food to satisfy continuously growing populations and changing dietary preferences (projected to 2050) and (2) increasing competition for high reliability water from higher value economic sectors, indicate irrigation performance and the productivity of agricultural water use must further improve, and are also likely to become more targeted at higher value enterprises. Improving management, through better institutions and better technology will require constant adaptation and finessing, with no silver bullets currently on the horizon.