18th Congress and 53rd IEC meeting of the
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID)


FAO/ICID International Workshop
on
Irrigation Advisory Services
and Participatory Extension in Irrigation Management
24 July, 2002, Montréal

Background	Objectives
Topics	Venue and date
Organising Committee	List of papers

The great challenge for the coming decades will be to increase food production with less water, particularly in countries with limited water and land resources. The effective and sustainable use of water for agriculture has become a global priority of vital importance, requiring urgent and immediate solutions in view of intensifying competition.

The problem is not new and much research and investments have been made to develop more refined techniques and practices to apply water accurately to the crop according their requirements. There still exists a large gap between the availability of technologies for effective water use and the adoption of these technologies. One of the reasons is that relatively little attention is paid to establish an effective support system to assist farmers in the adoption and properly operation of new techniques and technologies. As a result the impact of the investments in many irrigation projects is considerable lower in terms of production, water savings and sustainability both economically and environmentally.

Irrigation advisory services can play an importantly role in assisting users to adopt new techniques and technologies for more efficient water use and increased production. Such services can be provided by private, public or co-operative agencies. Increasingly commercial agencies can take over the traditional role of the public agencies, although often restricted to the more lucrative parts of irrigation sector. Critical in the promotion of irrigation advisory services is the financial sustainability of such institutes, as in particular in many developing countries inadequate funding is available to finance public services.

In order to focus attention on the vital role irrigation advisory services can play in achieving a more effective water use for sustainable crop production, the workshop will present relevant experiences from a range of selected case studies:

The overall objectives of the workshop will be to provide advise to the ICID national committees on the introduction of irrigation advisory services for more efficient and sustainable water use for food production.

The workshop will through a range of case studies from different member countries highlight the role of irrigation advisory services. More specifically the workshop will review the specific function of advisory services in:

• selection, installation and use of irrigation equipment at farm level;
• irrigation scheduling advise to farmers
• use of simulation models and computers for irrigation management at farm level;
• use of simple irrigation management advise and irrigation calendars;
• farm irrigation evaluation and performance assessment;
• promotion of participatory water management and water users associations
• integration of agricultural and irrigation extension services.

It is hoped that based on the outcome of the workshop, the Working group will have a suitable foundation to embark on the preparation of comprehensive guidelines for advisory services.

• ICID Committee on "Sustainable use of natural resources for crop production"
• FAO Land and Water Development Division
• Canadian National Committee of ICID
• other national ICID Committees

List of papers