Review Of Research And Development Needs In Irrigation And Drainage

The International Programme for Technology and Research in Irrigation and Drainage (IPTRID) was established in 1991 to promote technology and research in and by developing countries. The purpose of this review is to highlight areas where research and development can improve performance and identify gaps in knowledge. In the face of water shortage the problem of one set of water users cannot be considered in isolation from other users and hence there are a number of cross-discipline issues that must also be addressed.

"Irrigation is the method in which water is supplied to plants at regular intervals for agriculture. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Gardeners use hoses and sprinklers to water flowerbeds, vegetable gardens and lawns. This is irrigation at its most basic. Large scale irrigation is where market gardeners, farmers, orchardists and grape growers apply water at critical times to assist plant growth and therefore produce quality crops. Irrigation and drainage is artificial application of water to land and artificial removal of excess water from land, respectively. The amount of water that is to be used for irrigation depends on the type of crop that is being farmed as well as the amount of rainfall in the region. There are some countries where water is used for irrigating land more than it is used for other purposes. In the US, about one-third of the water that is utilized each year is used for irrigation. Worldwide, it is more than half. Some land requires irrigation or drainage before it is possible to use it for any agricultural production; other land profits from either practice to increase production. Some land, of course, does not need either. The sustainability of irrigation and drainage in the face of many variants and constraints like availability of water as a resource, ecological balance, sociocultural impacts, and climate change effects lies in the strategies adopted and systems emplaced. It has always remained a challenge for the users of irrigation waters to maintain sustainability in quality and quantity. Irrigation and drainage improvements are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Often both may be required together to assure sustained, high-level production of crops.Irrigation and Drainage - Sustainable Strategies and Systems aims to discover frontiers of knowledge in coining sustainable approaches and structures directly needed in managing the quality and quantity of water obligatory for crop irrigation, surface and root zone drainage and flood management by available tools of research and development. "

The small farm setting. Definition of farm management research. Conduct of farm management research. The need for farm management research on small farms. Approaches to farm management research on small farms. Role of farm management research techniques...

Approximately half of the irrigated area of Iran falls under different types of salt-affected soils and average yield losses may be as high as 50 percent. Slightly and moderately salt-affected soils are mostly found on the piedmonts at the foot of the Elburz (Alborz) Mountains in the northern part of the country. The soils having severe to extreme salinity are predominantly located in the Central Plateau, the Khuzestan and Southern Coastal Plains and the Caspian Coastal Plain. The process of salinization of the surface water resources is mainly due to natural conditions, and to a lesser extent, to the discharge of drainage water into the river systems. Estimates show that about 6.7 km3 of brackish water flow annually through 12 major rivers. There is no straightforward solution to the complex problems of salt-induced soil and water resources degradation in Iran. The approaches addressing the management of these resources need to be multidimensional and must take into account biophysical and environmental conditions of the target areas as well as livelihood aspects of the associated communities.