Artificial recharge of aquifer storage can provide water during drought periods, reverse falling groundwater levels and reduce water losses associated with leakage and evaporation, as compared with surface water storage. We examine the technical and economic potential of artificial storage and...

Food security is a high priority issue on the Chinese political agenda. China's food security is challenged by several anthropogenic, sociopolitical and policy factors, including: population growth; urbanization and industrialization; land use changes and water scarcity; income growth and...

Water is critically important to the livelihoods of more than 1 billion people living on less than $1 a day, particularly for the 850 million rural poor primarily engaged in agriculture. In many developing countries, water is a major factor constraining agricultural output, and income of the...

In its broadest sense, water productivity (WP) is the net return for a unit of water used. Improvement of water productivity aims at producing more food, income, better livelihoods and ecosystem services with less water. There is considerable scope for improving water productivity of crop,...

Investments in agricultural water management should complement or strengthen the livelihood and coping systems of the rural poor, and should thus be instrumental for breaking the poverty trap in Ethiopia. Underdeveloped water resources constrain progress towards poverty reduction. We examine...

Water resources are essential to human development processes and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals that seek, inter alia, to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal literacy, and ensure environmental sustainability. Expanding irrigation is essential to increase...

This paper analyzes the effect of the shallow water table on water use of the winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) that has replaced alfalfa (Medicago sativa) on the irrigated lands of the Fergana Valley, upstream of the Syrdarya River, in Central Asia. The effect of the shallow water table is...

Public-private partnerships have been implemented throughout the world since the 1970s with mixed results. This is mainly due to the lack of long run commitments from governments and other parties involved, lack of scientific understanding regarding clear short-term and long-term potential...