During the last decade, the concept of water demand management has received increasing attention from both academics and development agencies and banks. In the face of rising costs for supply augmentation and concerns over the apparently inefficient use of water in agriculture, managing demand appears a priority means of mitigating water scarcity problems. Economists, in particular, have used theoretical frameworks to argue for the use of "economic instruments" to provide incentives that may lead to water saving or enhancing economic efficiency.

This publication provides planners, decision-makers and engineers with guidelines to sustain irrigated agriculture and at the same time to protect water resources from the negative impacts of agricultural drainage water disposal. On the basis of case studies from Central Asia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and the United States of America, it distinguishes four broad groups of drainage water management options: water conservation, drainage water re-use, drainage water disposal and drainage water treatment.

Producing our daily food requires one thousand times more water than we use to drink and one hundred times more than we use to meet our basic need. Agriculture is the major source of food and by far the largest consumer of water on the globe. How can more food be produced with the same amount of water? How does food security connect to poverty and water use? These and many other question are discussed in this publication, a slightly modified version of Chapter 8 of the UN World Water Developmet Report (published jointly in 2003 by UNESCO and Berghahn Books).

AEZWIN stands for AEZ for Windows. This report, previously issued as World Soil Resources Report No. 87, presents the recently developed Windows-based software package for agro-ecological zoning analysis at the national and subnational levels, including models for land suitability and land productivity assessment and a user interface to multi-objective land use optimization. The software package allows models to be generated interactively corresponding to various scenarios of land use and then to be analysed using modular multiple-criteria model analysis tools.

This report includes a review of current understanding and knowledge of the biological management of soil ecosystems through a set of case studies from different production systems and socio-economic conditions, in the areas of indicators and assessment of soil health, adaptive management and innovative technologies.

This report summarizes the findings of an e-mail conference that took place from 9 October to 4 November 2002 and which was organized by the Land Degradation Assessmant in Drylands project (LADA). It contains exchanges of views on data sets and methods that may be used to assess land degradation and a discussion on the biophysical, socio-economic and institutional indicators that explain the root causes, driving forces, status, impact and responses to land degradation at various scales.

This CD-ROM contains the Digital Soil Map of the World in various formats, verctor as well as raster, supported by most GIS software. The base material is the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World at an original scale of 1:5 million. Programs and data files give tabular country information on soil characteristics and derived soil properties from the map are included, such as pH, organic carbon content and soil moisture storage capability.

This report gives a brief diagnosis of the nature of current groundwater use and management practices and sets a path for a more practical approach. The limits of conventional water management are discussed and the prospects for expanding the repertoire of management tools for groundwater are examined. The roles of research, dissemination of data and integrated water management will continue along with adaptive approaches tuned to local settings.

This handbook identifies recent innovations at the global level in the field of land management and pinpoints land tenure trends. It shows how governments, including local government and other stakeholders, are coming to grips with implementing the land related principles enshrined in the Habitat Agenda at a practical level in the cities and towns.

The AQUASTAT programme has been initiated with the view of presenting a comprehensive picture of water resources and irrigation in developing countries. This report presents the results of a survey of the Near East Region taken in 1995 and 1996. The survey relied mostly on country-based statistics and information contained in sector studies and master plans. A general summary presents a regional analysis of water resources and irrigation in the Near East Region, and 29 profiles describe the situation in each country in more detail.

A study was conducted in 1999 to analyse the dynamics of transactions and suggest practical ways of ensuring the security of such transactions and the land-tenure rights which they put into circulation. This document summarises the results of the study. It begins by describing the main features of the transactions and their dynamics in two geographical areas, providing an original analysis of the problem of ensuring security of land-tenure rights. Finally, it presents various proposals for “regulating” and supporting current changes with procedures to facilitate a pragmatic formulation of the new transactions and give them social visibility.

Demonstrates that most arguments leading to the current bias against rental housing are highly flawed. Argues for more tenure-neutral housing policies, and urges governments to modify regulatory frameworks, develop credit programmes and other forms of assistance to support housing production, with a view to creating more rental housing and to improve the existing stock.

Can identifying and recording customary rights contribute to the securing of these rights? This paper looks at this question by describing the aims and content of rural land plan tools, looking at experiences in different countries and seeing how they contribute to securing land tenure. Case studies are from Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin and Guinea.

This CD-ROM provides guidelines, procedures and relevant material for the development of a participatory training and extension programme for technical staff, extension workers and other stakeholders, to assist farmers to take charge of water management at field and scheme level and adopt in a sustainable manner appropriate water technologies. The programme is in particular relevant to irrigation management transfers programme to assist water users' associations in the operation and maintenance of the farmers' irrigation systems and to smallholder irrigation programmes to give guidance to farmers in adopting efficient water control technologies.

This CD-ROM compiles the regional soil and terrain data for southern Africa (SOTERSAF) using material from eight countries in the region (Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and the United Republic of Tanzania) following the SOTER methodology. Additional soil information and maps for selected countries are also included. The scale of the maps presented varies between 1:1 Million and 1:2.

This CD-ROM provides training modules and other relevant material on water harvesting in five languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish), focusing on "runoff farming systems" for improved production of crops, trees and rangeland species in drought-prone areas. The training modules form the basis of in-country training workshops. The interactive menus allow the rapid consultation of the training material by the users and any information can be easily extracted for specific purposes.

All statistical evidence confirms that agriculture is the key sector for water management, now and in the next decades. Nevertheless, the rural water development sector fails at present to get priority, compared to other competing sectors, in international fora. Strong and new arguments are needed to bring rural water back "on line". Agriculture policies and investments will need to become more strategic.

Numerosas pruebas empíricas han puesto de manifiesto que la intensificación sostenible de la producción agrícola es técnicamente posible y económicamente rentable, y que brinda beneficios adicionales como el mejoramiento de la calidad de los recursos naturales y la protección del ambiente en zonas actualmente no mejoradas o degradadas, siempre que los agricultores participen en todas las etapas del desarrollo y extensión de la tecnología.

Biodrainage relies on vegetation, rather than mechanical means, to remove excess water. It is economically attractive because it require only an initial investment for planting the vegetation, and when established, the system could produce economic returns by means of fodder, wood or fibre harvested. This publication is a compilation of existing information, both formally published and unpublished literature.

Empirical evidence has been accumulating that sustainable intensification of crop production is technically feasible and economically profitable. Added benefits are the improvement of the quality of the natural resources and protection of the environment in currently unimproved or degraded areas, provided farmers participate fully in all stages of technology development and extension. This has led to what is called "conservation agriculture".