**3. Irrigation operation: the need for being climate smart**

Observed climate change impacts are already affecting food security through increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and greater frequency of some extreme events [16]. Increasing temperatures are affecting agricultural productivity in higher latitudes, raising yields of some crops (maize, cotton, and wheat), while yields of others are declining in lower-latitude regions [17]. Changes in land use and an increasing demand for water resources have affected the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, ensure freshwater resources supply, provide ecosystem services, and promote rural multifunctionality [18]. According to the special report "*Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and governance gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems*"—recently published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) activities accounted for 23% of total net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by the period 2007–2016. However, agriculture is not only a contributor to climate change, it will also be severely affected by climate change [19]. Moreover, some effects of warming on crop yields, increased pest occurrences, and the effects of extreme events (e.g., floods, storms, and droughts) on agricultural production are already observed [20]. Although farmers have long adapted to environmental conditions, the severity of the predicted climate changes may be beyond many farmers' current ability to adapt and improve their agricultural production systems and livelihoods [21]. While increased food production will have to be done in the face of a changing climate and climate variability [22], agricultural and irrigation systems should reduce their carbon cost and its contribution to GHG [23]. In order to address this gap, increasing interest has been focused on ensuring that both agriculture and irrigation become climate smart as a driven factor to ensure food security, improve rural livelihoods, and alleviate environmental risks for small-scale farmers [24]. The multi-dimensional aspects of agricultural production under climate change are captured by the climate-smart agriculture (CSA), an approach in which agriculture is transformed and reoriented under the projected scenarios of climate change [25]. The CSA has three concurrent objectives: (i) sustainably increasing farm productivity and income, (ii) increasing adaptive capacity to climate change, and (iii) reducing GHG emissions [26]. In fact, CSA seeks to enhance productivity, water conservation, livelihoods, biodiversity, resilience to climate stress, and environmental quality [27]. Despite the recognized importance of CSA by the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (GASCA) and a range of international and national initiatives focused on climate-smart technologies (CST), the dissemination and uptake of climate smart technologies, tools, and practices is still largely an ongoing, challenging process [28]. At this point, some questions should be addressed:

• To what extent is irrigation an enabler of other CSA technologies and under what conditions (soil/market/demography/crop/water management, etc.)?

**3**

**sources**

*Introductory Chapter: Addressing Past Claims and Oncoming Challenges for Irrigation Systems*

• Which type of irrigation technology is more climate resilient to extremes and long-term change (watershed management, small-scale pumping, small

• Who benefits and what are the implications for food security and food sover-

According to the FAO-IPCC Expert Meeting on "Climate Change, Land Use and Food Security" celebrated in 2017 [29], to secure a resilient food system under climate change requires a range of appropriate sustainability metrics to better support integrated and multidisciplinary scenario analyses combining socio-economic and ecological dimensions. Among other measures, experts highlighted (1) the need to integrate technical and economic assessments when measuring the impact of improved water use efficiency (maximizing "crop per drop") vs sustainable water use (optimized renewable use of water within a river basin) and (2) the promotion of participatory research to develop frameworks to manage water, land, agroforestry, and crops under different water demand, supply, and pricing conditions.

eignty if irrigation becomes an integral part of CSA technologies?

**4. Irrigation impacts and risks: fixing the environmental limits**

on the environment [30]. While negative impacts are serious and can include pollution and degradation of soil, water, and air [31], agriculture can also positively affect the environment, for instance by trapping GHG within crops and soils [32], or mitigating flood risks through the adoption of certain farming practices [33]. In recent years, there have been some encouraging signs that the agriculture sector and irrigation activities are capable of meeting its environmental challenges. In particular, farmers have made improvements in the use and management of nutrients [34], pesticides [35], energy [36], and water [37], using less of these inputs per unit of land and adopting more environmentally beneficial practices, such as conservation tillage [38] or soil nutrient testing [39]. Taking into account the urgent challenge of matching demand for food for a larger population using the same land footprint, the Global Water Forum (an initiative of the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance) discussed the expansion of irrigated areas and their affection to agroecosystems and sustainability [40]. To mitigate that risk while responding to increased global water needs, agricultural management options could include blending different qualities of water sources [41], matching irrigation methods or promoting deficit irrigation [42], and selecting salt tolerant crops [43]. Whatever methods and strategies are used to increase food production, they must also preserve soil ecological functionality and minimize environmental risks.

**5. Irrigation adaptation: water management and alternative water** 

As freshwater resources are under increasing stress in several world regions, with a mismatch between availability and demand and temporal and geographical scales [44], new approaches have been promoted in order to guarantee the agricultural activity (by considering social and economic issues) and irrigation

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a key challenge for the agriculture sector is to feed an increasing global population, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact and preserving natural resources for future generations. Agriculture can have significant impacts

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89787*

reservoirs, etc.)?

*Introductory Chapter: Addressing Past Claims and Oncoming Challenges for Irrigation Systems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89787*


According to the FAO-IPCC Expert Meeting on "Climate Change, Land Use and Food Security" celebrated in 2017 [29], to secure a resilient food system under climate change requires a range of appropriate sustainability metrics to better support integrated and multidisciplinary scenario analyses combining socio-economic and ecological dimensions. Among other measures, experts highlighted (1) the need to integrate technical and economic assessments when measuring the impact of improved water use efficiency (maximizing "crop per drop") vs sustainable water use (optimized renewable use of water within a river basin) and (2) the promotion of participatory research to develop frameworks to manage water, land, agroforestry, and crops under different water demand, supply, and pricing conditions.
