A comprehensive study on irrigation management in Asia and Oceania

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to study the land use index (equipped area for irrigation per cultivated area, AI) and irrigation management in Asia and Oceania during past decades. For this purpose, all necessary information was collected from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Among all presented data in the FAO database, 10 indices were selected. These indices were analysed for all 64 countries in Asia and Oceania, and the extent of AI was estimated by two different methods and other 9 indices. The results show that using all the 9 indices, the value of relative error will be less than 20%. Prioritization of the indices has shown that national rainfall index (NRI) and the difference between NRI and irrigation water requirement had a highlighted effect on the estimation of AI.

Keywords:

• agricultural water management
• Asia
• land use
• Oceania
• sustainable development
• area equipped for irrigation to cultivated area