Water scarcity has been showing an increasing trend the world over with the passage of time due to increased demand for water in its multiple uses. During the developmental process in Water Management, modernization of existing methods of irrigation has been leading to an increase in water use efficiency thereby leading to overall irrigation efficiency and water saving. More so, higher crop productivity has been obtained under the irrigated situations as compared to the rainfed situation, therefore global water scarcity and increased demand for food on account of increasing population can be met only by increasing the extent of irrigated areas and water use efficiency. Irrigation water from its source is conveyed up to a farm and subsequently applied to crops through various irrigation methods- surface (basins, furrows, and border strips), sprinkler, and micro irrigation. A vast amount of water goes to waste if it is not applied efficiently and uniformly all over the field. Improperly planned, designed, and laid/ installed irrigation system leads to losses such as deep percolation, runoff, evaporation, and wind drift affecting the performance of the system. Today a vast range of sprinkler and micro irrigation technology is available to fit all types of soil, crops, climates, and farm sizes. Modern micro irrigation systems can achieve as high as 95% application efficiency leading to significant water saving. Knowing the fact that the major share – about 70-90% of the fresh and groundwater withdrawals is being consumed by the agriculture sector, the multi-sectoral use of water requires more improvements in the existing types and methods of irrigation so that crops’ productivity can be achieved up-to the potential yield levels of germplasm. Thus, to sustain the overall agriculture sector and optimize the economic and environmental benefits in arid and semi-arid areas, the ‘relative’ sustainability of all the agricultural inputs needs to be developed over some time by addressing the following issues:

1. Water Accounting (conjunctive availability/Supply of surface and groundwater, demand for and distribution of available irrigation water; identification of gaps); Irrigation Auditing covering irrigation scheduling as per cropping patterns highlighting gaps in demand/supply; and water use or irrigation efficiency; 
2. Organizational and institutional arrangements covering policy issues in managing and developing irrigation water through developmental schemes/systems; 
3. Off and On-Farm irrigation structures, water-saving devices, and water distribution system networks’ designs, installation, operation, and maintenance; 
4. Technical monitoring of soil moisture for enhancing water infiltration and retention capacities of soils leading to water saving; 
5. Trade-offs among on-farm and off-farm irrigation technologies, socio-economic and environmental benefits up to the optimum level of irrigation water use; 
6. Use of new technologies for sustainability like automation, drones, artificial intelligence, etc. in the management of within/transboundary surface and groundwater to sustain the cost-effective use of irrigation water and overall efficiency improvement 
7. Performance monitoring and evaluation of irrigation schemes/systems for making actionable recommendations on existing technical efficiency measures to the respective policymakers.

These issues will form the core mandate of the Working Group on Irrigation Water Management & Development (WG-IWM&D).

CONCEPT NOTE

As per the decision of the 75th IEC Meeting, WG-IWM&D was established with the amalgamation of the erstwhile workbodies WG-SON-FARM, WG-WATS, WG-M&R, WG-IDM