Impacts of Climate Change on the Agricultural Environment

Abstract

Irrigated agriculture is expected to play a major role in reaching the broader development objectives of achieving food security and improvements in the quality of life, while conserving the environment, in both the developed and developing countries. Especially as we are faced with the prospect of global population growth from almost 6 billion today to at least 8 billion by 2025 [1]. In this context, the prospects of increasing the gross cultivated area, in both the developed and developing countries, are limited by the dwindling number of economically attractive sites for new large¬ scale irrigation and drainage projects. Therefore, any increase in agricultural production will necessarily rely largely on a more accurate estimation of crop water requirements on the one hand, and on major improvements in the operation, management and performance of existing irrigation and drainage systems, on the other.