Agricultural water management is a concept including not just irrigation in its more traditional sense, but also water harvesting, drainage of non-irrigated land, flood control to protect land from erosion, etc.

Agricultural water management can play a fundamental role in reducing hunger and poverty in the developing world. This statement derives directly from the following evidences:

	Irrigation can raise productivity by as much as 2-3 times over traditional rainfed methods.
	It provides economic and social benefits to households and protects them from droughts.
	It provides work opportunities for the land-poor.
	It combats rural poverty.

However, most developing countries lack the capacity to enable their farmers, smallholders and other stakeholders to make use of the technologies available and to realise the benefits of irrigation.

One of the best ways in which external agencies can support farmers is to help governments and the private sector to identify capacity constraints and to take action and remove them.

In order to better meet these needs, in December 2003 IPTRID redefined its mission, which became mainly focused on Capacity Development for sustainable water management and increased water productivity in agriculture.

In real terms, Integrated Capacity Development (ICD) covers:
• research and development capacities,
• training centres and programmes,
• water user associations,
• demonstration centres,
• monitoring systems,
• data processing and management systems,
• models and decision support systems,
• planning capacities,
• laws and regulations,
• information networks.

IPTRID's activities include helping developing capacity around water management at strategic and operational levels in such a way that it can create some of the significant changes needed to improve both the social and economic environment in which farmers live and work. Evidence from many countries including Indonesia, Morocco, Ecuador, Senegal, Niger, Zambia and others show that this is both possible and realistic.