Water policies and agriculture

This paper is extracted from the Special Chapter on Water Policies and Agriculture, published in The State of Food and Agriculture, 1993. It is primarily intended for agricultural policy-makers, water managers, researchers, students, development planners and agricultural project donors. It is intended to help reflect on the ways water resources are managed at present; to contribute to the discussion on sustainable water use; and to stimulate thinking, research and change. The full text of the Special Chapter consists of four sections. This document only extracts from Sections I and II. Section I gives an overview of world water resources and briefly discusses the key issues: scarcity, quality, and health. The second section stresses the need to integrate the water sector with the national economy and analyses the physical, economic and social aspects of water. It then provides a conceptual foundation for understanding the circumstances under which water policies either work or fail. Section II also assesses the advantages and disadvantages of broad alternatives to public water policy.