Key and Smart Actions to Alleviate Hunger and Poverty through Irrigation and Drainage

In the pursuit of information to support the policies and actions to alleviate hunger and poverty from a perspective of the role and impacts of irrigation and drainage, this paper attempts to provide correlation between water scarcity, community and poverty. Many reviews have found strong direct and indirect relationships between irrigation and poverty. One of the main goals of the international community is to eliminate hunger and poverty and in this perspective, through the Millennium Development Goals much progress has been achieved and evidence obtained. Sustainable Development Goals and various United Nations and other initiatives, intend to move forward this agenda by making it a part of the broader development frameworks. In this paper, the important elements of the irrigation and drainage that affect the alleviation of hunger and poverty have been discussed. These elements are grouped into governance, rights-based developments, water rights and pricing, management, efficiency improvement, and role of technology. Both the potential and the need to make use of innovative technology and solutions in irrigation are underlined and these can be used to cater the challenges in different sub-sectors. The main focus of these solutions are on maximizing productivity and efficiency, reducing water losses, achieving sustainable intensification and managing demands on water resources and the associated trade-offs

Key and Smart Actions to Alleviate Hunger and Poverty Through Irrigation and Drainage

In the pursuit of information to support policies and actions to alleviate hunger and poverty through irrigation and drainage, this paper attempts to provide correlations between water scarcity, communities and poverty. Many reviews have found strong direct and indirect relationships between irrigation and poverty. One of the main goals of the international community is to eliminate hunger and poverty and in this perspective, through the Millennium Development Goals, much progress has been achieved and evidence obtained. Sustainable Development Goals and various other United Nations initiatives intend to move forward this agenda by making it a part of broader development frameworks. In this paper, the important elements of irrigation and drainage that affect the alleviation of hunger and poverty are discussed. These elements are grouped into governance, rights-based developments, water rights and pricing, management, efficiency improvement, and the role of technology. Both the potential and the need for innovative technology and solutions in irrigation are underlined, which can be used to cater for the challenges in different subsectors. The main focus of these solutions is on maximizing productivity and efficiency, reducing water losses, achieving sustainable intensification and managing demands on water resources and the associated trade-offs