Water and Agriculture: Facing Water Scarcity and Environmental Challenges

Agricultural water use is the main one among all water uses. Despite this use plays an essential role in food and fiber world supplies, provides for mitigating poverty in many regions, and produces a main source of income in many countries, irrigation water use faces severe competition from non-agricultural users and is challenged by opinion makers and decision makers relative to environmental impacts and the so-called less efficient water use. These conditions create important challenges to farmers, managers, engineers and researchers to develop and adopt practices and techniques that favour the sustainable use of water in agriculture.