CHALLENGES AND NECESSITIES OF APPLYING PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES AND MECHANISMS TO AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT

This paper provides an overview on the challenges and essentials for understanding the starting point of changing a top-down oriented water management towards participatory irrigation management (PIM) and also highlights the elements of the underlying concept and already achieved successes. In recent years, agricultural water has helped meet fast-rising demand for food, and has contributed to the growth of farm profitability and poverty reduction as well as to regional development and environmental protection (Ward et. al, 2005). Irrigation provides some 40% of the world's food from only 17% of the global cropped area. At present, 2400 million people depend on irrigated agriculture for food and livelihood and with global population to increase to 7.9 billion in 2025; additional food will have to come from irrigated agriculture. Hence, water development is critical for food security in many regions of the world. Irrigated agriculture is dominant user of water accounting for 80% of water consumption. (Peter, 2004). According to recent reports, over 60% of the world's irrigation is in Asia. Since 1965, the irrigated area has almost doubled so that irrigated agriculture is now a main source of food security, higher farm incomes and increasing rural population's welfare in Asia (Barker, 2002).