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.
However, the consensus among policy-makers in the developing world and aid agencies is that a lack of capacity is constraining the development of irrigated agriculture. Although this concern is not new, it is now receiving much attention in the irrigation and drainage world, where it is becoming an issue in its own right rather than being embedded in infrastructure investment projects.
Many organizations working for development have carried out activities of a capacity development nature for decades. As one of these, FAO felt that it was timely to have a more professional analysis on this specific activity focusing on irrigated agriculture. In order to address this issue FAO Land and Water Development Division (AGL) organized a one-day workshop "Capacity building in irrigation, drainage and flood control" on 16 September 2003 alongside the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) Fifty-fourth International Executive Council meeting in Montpellier. It was organized by the ICID Working Group on Capacity Building, Training and Education and FAO-AGLW in association with Alterra-ILRI and other supporting agencies. It brought together a range of case studies from different parts of the world in order to demonstrate that capacity development should be central focus of future strategies on irrigation and drainage.
This publication contains a synthesis of the workshop as well as three keynote papers prepared for the workshop based on the available literature and experiences. The complete workshop materials, which include several country papers and complementary documents, are included on a CD-ROM that accompanies this document.
It is anticipated that the wealth of information supplied here will provide background for those contemplating capacity development in irrigated agriculture in their own countries.
