The Increasing Importance of Irrigation and Drainage in Sustainable Global Food Production

ABSTRACT The World population is expected to grow from 8.2 billion at present to 9.7 billion by 2050. Combined with the expected rise of living standards, urbanisation and growing demand for food, the world requires a substantial increase in cereal production to ensure sustainable food security at affordable prices. Achieving the required increase in global cereal production can be approached through expansion of the cultivated area, improvement in yield per unit area and by reducing postharvest losses. Future gains in production must largely depend on increases in yield per hectare and reducing postharvest losses. Water management plays a critical role in determining cereal productivity. Cereal production systems can broadly be classified into rainfed systems, characterised by the absence of a water management system or with drainage, and irrigated systems, which may function with or without drainage facilities. Given the limited potential for further expansion of land under cereal cultivation at the global scale, a substantial proportion of the projected increase in cereal production will need to be achieved either by introducing irrigation in presently rainfed agricultural areas or by enhancing the efficiency of existing irrigation systems, besides reducing postharvest losses.