Water Productivity and Irrigation Management

Agricultural productivity is traditionally and intrinsically measured by crop output per unit of land, such as tonnes per hectare. However, as agriculture uses nearly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and competition for water increases, rethinking agricultural productivity in terms of Water Productivity should be the call to achieving sustainable water use and food security.

Improving water productivity requires integrated approaches that combine better irrigation practices, monitoring tools, adaptive management, and locally appropriate innovations. Advances in data collection, open-source monitoring, and farmer-centered solutions are helping optimize water use.

Irrigation systems of all scales play a critical role in this transition. While recent decades have seen growing attention toward small-scale and decentralized irrigation, large-scale irrigation schemes continue to account for a significant share of agricultural water use worldwide. Strengthening their management — particularly through improved maintenance and operation, equitable water allocation, and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater — presents major opportunities to enhance efficiency and sustainability at scale.

Enhancing irrigation performance across small and large systems can significantly improve water savings, productivity, and climate resilience. This dossier brings together videos, background information, the developments in open source monitoring of water productivity and potential solutions stimulating an increase in water productivity.