Research Themes

This research theme seeks to provide a better understanding of the tradeoffs and options in agricultural water management at the basin scale and contribute to improved equity and productivity in water use through the development of appropriate tools and methodologies for analysis and management.

Sustainable water use in agriculture:
To develop, test and apply analytical frameworks, water accounting methodologies and supporting tools to quantify and manage water resources for agriculture at a basin scale and to assist managers apply them in selected basins.

Understanding water productivity at basin scale:
To understand the impacts of field, farm and system level improvements in land and water productivity at the basin scale and to provide methods and tools for planners to develop appropriate policies and supporting strategies to increase net basin level water productivity.

Institutions, policies and economic instruments for better water management
at a basin scale :
To analyze, contextualize, evaluate and recommend appropriate institutional arrangements to manage water resources for agriculture at the basin scale, over a range of contrasting conditions, and with special emphasis on the balance between sustainable and productive use of water.

Historically, water management for agriculture was equated with the development and operation of water systems and structures, largely for irrigation. However, the rapid growth of urban centers and industry has led to increasing competition for water across sectors. Thus, the key challenge now for agricultural water management is achieving “more crop per drop” ─ an approach that marked a paradigm shift in IWMI’s thinking on how to increase food production for a growing population while simultaneously meeting the water quality and quantity requirements of other economic and environmental sectors.

IWMI Research Report No.1. The New Era of Water Resources Management from “Dry” to “Wet” Water Savings represented a major change in the Institute’s overall view of water management, from one previously focused on system level analysis to a more holistic, basin scale approach. IWMI began to place irrigation management into the overall context of river basins and to examine the interlinking hydrologic, socioeconomic and environmental aspects of water management at multiple scales. Since then, IWMI’s research on water productivity has matured significantly by incorporating issues of environmental and human health; examining the linkages between water and land productivity as well as identifying opportunities for improved productivity across the entire blue-green, rain-fed irrigated, surface-groundwater spectrum; and, most importantly, assessing the impact of water productivity on the alleviation of poverty and hunger.

IWMI’s Basin Water Management research theme encapsulates this expanded view of water and land productivity. It builds on the former Agricultural Water Management theme, but provides a sharper focus and directly incorporates issues of groundwater and policies and institutions, which were previously addressed in separate themes

This theme serves as the cornerstone of IWMI’s research agenda by providing the context for problem identification as well as the impact assessment of proposed solutions to contribute to IWMI’s mission of improving the management of water and land resources for food, livelihoods and nature.

Farmers, water managers, planners and agencies concerned with policies and practices for irrigation and the use of water resources
Irrigation, health and environmental authorities
Water user associations and related civil society organizations
NARES and Universities