ICID News 2010/1
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Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan SinghInaugurates 5th Asian Regional Conference
It was a historic occasion for ICID during its Diamond Jubilee year. Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh joined us
to inaugurate the 5th Asian Regional Conference held alongside of 60th International Executive Council Meeting. The ICID
event stood glorified with the joining of a galaxy of Cabinet Ministers in India – Finance Minister Dr. Pranab Mukerjee,
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission
Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia; Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Mr. Sachin Pilot, and State
Minister of Water Resources Mr. Vincent Pala, thus assuring the importance assigned to food security by the Govt. of India.
The event brought together 740 delegates from 47 countries across the world. The following is the excerpt from the
Prime Minister’s inaugural speech.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singhsaid that challenges of water scarcity,population growth, and urbanizationwere more pressing in Asia than anyother regions of the world. The climatechange is likely to adversely impact onavailability of surface and groundwaterand its quality, affecting crop producti-vity. Year after year, India faces floodsin one part of the country and droughtsin another. The challenges of managingwater resources in a rational andsustainable manner require actions onmany fronts and coordination acrossdifferent sectors of the economy. Toaddress the complex inter-relationshipdue to climate change, the ‘NationalWater Mission’ has brought some actionplans. The main objective of which isto achieve integrated water resourcemanagement by conserving water,minimizing wastages and ensuring itsmore equitable distribution. The WaterMission seeks to develop new regulatorystructures, combined with appropriateentitlements and pricing of water. Itendeavors to optimize the efficiency ofexisting irrigation systems. Incentivestructures will be designed to promotewater-neutral or water positive techno-logies, recharging of groundwaterresources and adopting large-scaleirrigation programmes that rely onimproved irrigation methods likesprinklers, drips, and new technologies.
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage
(ICID) was established in 1950 as a scientific, technical
and voluntary not-for-profit non-governmental international
organization. The ICID News is published quarterly
by ICID Central Office, New Delhi, India.
IN THIS ISSUE
• SonTek – Measuring flow 6
• Highlights of special sessions 7
• ICID events 2010-11 8
• President’s message 2
• Challenges of global food production 3
• Highlights of 60th IEC & 5th ARC 4-5
Prime Minister pointed out that there hasto be a greater synergy between agri-cultural policies and water policies forachieving food security, especially to thepoor and vulnerable sections of thepopulation, through more efficient andsustainable use of scarce water resources.Water Resources development and itsefficient use are the priority areas forinvestment. An assessment of the irrigationsystem in India indicates that efficienciesof surface water schemes can be improvedfrom the present level of 40% to about60% and that of groundwater systems
from the existing 65% to about 75%.Utilization of created irrigation potential isanother crucial issue. Efficient water usewould help in increasing the irrigatedcropped area or the intensity of irrigation.Various available options have to beexplored. Collaboration in research amongcountries will be very useful in improvingwater use efficiency and promotingsustainable use of water, said the PrimeMinister.
(Full text of the Prime Minister’s speechcan be viewed at http://www.icid.org/60iec_messages.htm#pm)
2010/12010/1Also available at http://www.icid.org Managing water for sustainable agriculture
ICID News 2010/1
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President’’’’’s MessageDear friends and members of the ICIDfamily,
In this my first message to you for theNew Year, I take this opportunity to wishyou and all those close to you, the verybest of health and happiness for 2010.May 2010 be a productive and fruitfulyear in all your endeavors. It is myfervent wish that ICID, all its nationalcommittees and work bodies will besuccessful in its engagements on topicswhich we have deemed important in ourvarious deliberations. We have an impor-tant agenda ahead of us in terms of waterscarcity and food security. And it isimperative that we focus our efforts ontackling these very important problems.
The successful conclusion of our 60th IECand 5th Asian Regional Conference in NewDelhi last December was an importantmilestone in ICID’s history. Apart from thefact that the Prime Minister of IndiaHon. Manmohan Singh and several Indiangovernment dignitaries including thefederal and state Ministers of Water wereable to grace our main ceremonies, weused the occasion to celebrate ICID’s 60th
birthday, and it was particularly importantthat all delegates had a chance to visit theCentral Office and meet our very diligentstaff. I was particularly pleased to hearPrime Minister Manmohan Singh reinforceIndia’s commitment to investing inirrigation, and the government’s priority todouble the country’s annual growth rate inagriculture. This is exactly the messagethat needs to be heard around the world ifwe are to reclaim the lost ground that hasled to the current world food crisis.I exhort our national committees toaggressively articulate similar messages togovernments, and to play a leadership rolein pushing the governments to reinvest inagriculture and water.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh furthercalled on us to engage the private sectorin irrigation expansion and foodproduction, and to engage women in ourdecision making, since women play a keyrole in food production in many countries.
We heard similar messages at the FifthWorld Water Forum in Istanbul last year.I therefore urge the national committeesand workbodies to take on these issuesand report back to us either in yournewsletters or at the upcoming IEC inIndonesia on your progress to advancesuch matters.
Let me once again take this opportunity tothank INCID and the Government of Indiafor organizing such an excellent set ofmeetings, and in making our stay in Delhiso productive and hospitable. It willalways remain one of my most memorableIECs. Last but not least we all owe aspecial word of gratitude to our SecretaryGeneral, Mr. M. Gopalakrishnan and thestaff of Central Office for being soattentive and welcoming. They went outof their way to ensure that the meetingsoccurred without a hitch and that allforeign delegates were well received.Several of you mentioned that it was anexcellent opportunity to visit the CentralOffice and to put a face to the name.
The Secretary General and our CentralOffice staff are all hard working peoplewho ensure that ICID business isconducted in a very professional manner.In my view, we get very good value forour money, compared to otherorganizations, and it is important thatnational committees support the work ofCentral Office. I can assure you that the
Management Board, the Staff Committee,and the Permanent Finance Committeework extremely hard to control costs anddrive up the efficiency of the operations.These committees do not take their worklightly, and have been in the vanguard ofchanging the way the organizationoperates. Your support is therefore critical.
I close by reminding you that the themeof World Water Day this year is: CleanWater for a Healthy World. Agricultureand our work in ICID are very muchembedded in this year’s theme. There isno hiding the fact that agriculture gets avery bad rap from the public as a polluterof water. For sure, irrigation and drainagewater and runoff carries pesticides,sediments, fertilizers, and salt. But I havealways said that those of us working inwater and agriculture have also beenleaders in devising new drainage andirrigation technologies to control waterquality. We have led the development ofwater table management, sub-irrigation,controlled drainage, salt managementsystems, and riparian buffers all aimed toimprove the quality of water fromagriculture. We have also worked withcolleagues in wastewater engineering andpublic health to devise safer methods toreuse wastewater and drainage water forirrigation. Furthermore, we understandthe complexities of multiple uses ofwater, and have therefore installedwater quality monitoring networks anddesigned rural drinking water systemsto safeguard human health, particularlywhere irrigation water supplies arecontaminated by drainage water.
I therefore implore you to use WorldWater Day as an opportunity to showcaseICID’s leadership in the above topics. As aprofessional body, we have much to offerthe world.
Yours truly,
Chandra A. MadramootooPresident
Prof. Chandra A. Madramootoo reappointed as Dean of Faculty ofAgricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill Univeristy, Canada
McGill University Board of Governors
has reappointed President Chandra A.
Madramootoo as Dean of the Faculty of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
for a further five-year term. He was
congratulated by the Board of Governors
for the leadership that he has shown
regarding finding solutions to global food
security. ICID fraternity heartily
congratulates Prof. Madramootoo on
this occassion and hopes to derive
more from his leadership.
ICID News 2010/1
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Rising Food Prices: Since last year, risingfood prices have become a global issue;some economists called the food crisis the‘Silent Tsunami’, while others attributed itto ignoring earlier indicators/ signs of thefood crisis. There has been declininginvestment in agricultural research, inwater resources development andmanagement, and in agriculturalproduction, in general. Since we hadignored these to our peril, there were riotsin some countries. Subsequently, Heads ofStates of many countries announcedmeasures to check rising food prices inorder to avoid political turmoil.
Impacts of Bio-fuel: In some countries likeMexico there were riots due to rising cornflour prices as a result of shifting away ofcorn for food production to fuelproduction. This was exacerbated by thecollapse of the international bankingsystem, particularly in North America andto some extent in the parts of Europefurther worsening the food crisis. As aresult, many people in the least developedand some developing countries were notable to pay for their daily foodrequirements; another 100 million peopleor more were added to the populationsuffering from the hunger andmalnutrition. Thus all the gains that wereachieved towards reaching the MillenniumDevelopment Goal1 (MDG1) suffered setback.
Participation of Women: In some countriesover 80% of the people producing foodare women but their contribution has beenoverlooked for too long. It is thereforevery important to develop trainingprograms and build capacity to strengthenthe participation of women in the localcommunities. Women’s participation in thecontext of improvement in rurallivelihoods to stimulate rural economies,has assumed priority.
Integrated Rural Development: Land andwater are valuable assets of any countryand play a crucial role in boostingagriculture production and improving thesocioeconomic conditions of the people.Instead of looking at land and watersimply as production units or inputs, onecan use them to access credits andmarkets. Although the concept ofintegrated rural development is not newand has been on the international agenda
for many years, ICID need to revisit andexplore its advantage.
Rainfed Agriculture: In the past decadesirrigated agriculture has made significantcontribution to the green revolution.Worldwide, over 50% of our cerealproduction comes from irrigated lands,comprising about 40% in the developingcountries and 10% in the developedcountries. Given the fact of climatechange, drought, water scarcity, ICIDneeds to discuss about water harvesting,water storage, water conservation, andmanagement at the watershed scale to beable to grow more than one crop a yearin the rainfed areas.
Institutional Reforms: Enhancing of landand water productivity through increasingsystem efficiency, rehabilitation andmodernization of infrastructure are to formpart of ICID’s agenda. However, in viewof what is obtained on assets, credits, andmarkets, creating some of the institutionalreforms that would give much higherlevels of efficiency and larger returns oninvestments from small holdings willcontinue to be a challenge.
Impacts of Climate Change: Theimportance of water management, waterharvesting, and water storage should notbe neglected. The arid and semi aridtropics are the home to the world’spoorest of the poor. Nearly 800 millionface the challenges due to unpredictableclimate, low and inadequate rainfall, poorsoils and inadequate physical and socialinfrastructure. It is predicted that in thisregion the temperature will increase byabout 5 degrees Celsius and decrease inthe rainfall of about 10% by the year2050. ICID need to address the challengesof potential impacts of climate change onthese areas
Germplasm and Biotechnology havepotential in developing the droughttolerant crop varieties. This alone wouldnot however solve the problem of lowcrop yields. We need to tackle thechallenge of managing water. Thusadopting an integrated approach of usingimproved germplasm, improved agronomicand water management practices, wouldnarrow the crop yield gap underconditions of scarcity and climate change
Involvement of private sector: Globally,especially in developing countries, it isstill the public sectors that invest heavilyin agricultural research; very littleinvestment for ‘Research andDevelopment’ comes from the privatesector. ICID will have to play a role inbringing the private sector in its fold.More involvement of the private sector inICID activities is required not just forfinancial reasons. A closer contact withindustry can be mutually rewarding forknowledge brokering besides moreresearch investments in water andagriculture.
ICID can rebuild its leadership inirrigation and drainage research to bemore “client driven” rather than “donordriven”. There is a need to make someheadway in bringing back ICID at theforefront of the research agenda to achievesome of the aforesaid goals andchallenges.
(President Madramootoo’s PPT presentationcan be accessed at http://www.icid.org/60iec_president_iec_pp.pdf)
Challenges in Doubling Global Food ProductionPresident Chandra Madramootoo in his opening speech at 60th International Executive Council meeting deliberated on the key
issues and challenges in producing sufficient food to meet the demand by the growing world population: A summary
Narrowing the yield gap
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ICID News 2010/1
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Highlights of the 60th IEC and 5th ARCThe 60th International Executive Council (IEC) meeting, pre-council workbody meetings, and 5th Asian Regional Conference (ARC)
of the ICID were held at the magnificent Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi from 6 to11 December 2009. The event marked the
60th anniversary of the foundation of ICID in India. The theme of the 5th Asian Regional Conference was “Improvement in
Efficiency of Irrigation Projects through Technology Up-gradation and Better Operation & Maintenance”. In all 242 papers
received for the 5th ARC were presented in 20 Technical Sessions. Over 32 Workbody meetings and 8 Special Sessions were also
held on the occasion. The events were hosted by the Indian National Committee of ICID (INCID) with the organizational support
from Central Board of Irrigation & Power (CBIP). The key highlights of the event are presented here.
From left: Vice Presidents Mr. S. Ota (Japan), Prof. P. Kovalenko
(Ukraine), Prof. L. Ubertini (Italy); President C. Madramootoo
(Canada), Secretary General M. Gopalakrishnan; Vice Presidents
Dr. K. Shiati (Iran), Dr. A. Gany (Indonesia) and Dr. E. Lübbe
The International Executive Council (IEC) meeting was attended
by representatives of 31 National Committees/Committee;
Presidents Hon. ICID and International Organisations
An exhibition of Irrigation Equipments and
Organisations in Water Sector was
organised alongside the 5th ARC. It was
participated by 30 agencies from
Government and private organisations,
companies from abroad and India
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Bilateral
Collaboration between ICID and Ministry of Energy, Islamic
Republic of Iran (through IRNCID) was signed by President
Chandra Madramootoo and H.E. Mohammad Reza Attarzadeh,
Deputy Minister for Water and Waste Water Affairs, Iran
A Special Cover marking the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ Year (1950-2009)
of the ICID was released by Mr. Sachin Pilot, the Minister of
State for Communications and Information Technology in the
presence of Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of Water
Resources and Dr. Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister
Closing ceremony was graced by the presence of Finance Minister Dr. Pranab
Mukherjee as the Chief Guest, Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of Water
Resources, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission,
Mr. Vincent H. Pala, Minister of State for Water Resources, Mr. Sachin Pilot, Minister
of State for Communications & Information Technology
ICID News 2010/1
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The Best Paper Award 2009 (Australia); and Dr. Gao Zhanyi (China) inrecognition of their outstanding papertitled “Integrated Water AssessmentModel for Water Budgeting Under Future
The Best Paper Award 2009 went toMs. Jianxin Mu (China), Dr. Shahbaz Khan
Development Scenarios in Qiantang RiverBasin of China” published in Issue 57.4of Irrigation and Drainage – The Journalof ICID.
New Vice Presidents (2009-12)
Mr. A.K. Bajaj (India)Dr. László G. Hayde (Hungary)Dr. Willem F. Vlotman (Australia)
Profiles of the new Vice Presidents can be viewed at <http://www.icid.org/ob.html>
Retiring Vice Presidents (2006-09)
Ir. Mohd. Azhari bin Ghazalli (Malaysia)Dr. Karim Shiati (Iran)Dr.-Ing. Eiko Lübbe (Germany)
Award Winning Water Saving Contributions 2009
The work of Messrs Shahaji Somawanshi,
Bharat Kawale and Sanjay Belsare, India
on “Increased Productivity from
Participatory Management of Bulk Water
Entitlements” won the Innovative Water
Management Award.
Mr. Arvind Nalkande, a farmer from
India received a ‘Special Recognition’ for
his initiative on “Rainwater Conservation
through Natural Cracks in Deep Black
Soils”.
Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz
Ahmad (Pakistan)’s
contribution in
developing and
promoting ‘Wheat
Bed Seeder’ won
the Innovative
Technology Award.
Dr. Malcolm Gillies
(Australia)’s work on
‘Observational
Approach to the
Optimization of
Surface Irrigation’
won the Young
Professionals Award.
For details of the award winning water saving contributions, please access <http://www.icid.org/awards.html#watsave>
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ICID News 2010/1
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ICID News 2010/1
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Highlights of the Special SessionsOn the sidelines of the 60th IEC meeting/ 5th ARC, 8 Special Sessions of current importance were held. This issue covers key
highlights of some of them. The remaining sessions will be covered in the next issue of the ICID News.
Mekong River Commission
An overview of the Mekong River Basin’sresources, development opportunities, andchallenges were the highlights of thisSpecial Session. The importance ofregional cooperation particularly, ‘BasinDevelopment Process’ for the waterresources development and planning wasemphasized. The resettlements relatedissues are managed on `project by projectbasis’. Rules and procedures for waterutilization have been negotiated, agreedand approved by MRC Council. Theseinclude procedures for data andinformation exchange and sharing,procedures for notification and priorconsultation and agreement, water usemonitoring, maintenance of flows on themainstream, and water quality. Theminimum flows of the Mekong River willbe implemented based on the proceduresfor maintenance of flow on themainstream following the ‘Technical
Guidelines’ beingdrafted by the MRCmember States.
The Climate changemay not be a majorissue for theMekong basin;however, rapiddevelopments inthe basin in thenext 20 years willhave potentialimpacts likeincrease in salinity intrusion onVietnamese delta, impacts on mangroveforest, accelerated coastal erosions etc.Integrated river basin developmentplanning might be difficult to achievewithout active participation of theupstream countries. The MRC has strongmodelling tools; however, fishery impactscould not be calculated usinghydrological and hydrodynamic models.
The big challenge for MRC would be toharmonize and satisfy all those needs ofthe riparian states in the near future.Basin development planning programmewould be an important tool in bringingthe integrated basin perspectives intonational planning, and for sustainabledevelopment and management of waterresources.
Water Governance
The Middle Eastern Water Governance
Benchmarking Project was devised to
characterizing countries’ capacity for water
governance: it has evolved a methodology
for assessing and benchmarking national
level water governance. An overview of
the water governance concepts, the
project’s approach to assessing water
governance, and the online database for
the project (www.rewab.net), which
enables researchers to query policy andlegal documents in the database was
presented. Good water governance incombination with physical infrastructure isthe key to the effective, fair, and efficientsharing of increasingly scarce waterresources.
It was suggested to recognize importanceof dealing with variability and thedifferences in practicing water governancein closed and open basins. Indonesiancase of dealing the challenges ofgoverning multiplicity of organizationsinvolved was mentioned. The importanceof developing sound indicators of thequality of water-related services, the
relationship between water governanceand Integrated Water ResourceManagement (IWRM), and the challengesof scaling up a water governanceassessment program was emphasized. Itwas concluded that trans-boundary basingovernance is a perspective that strives forsustainable, equitable and efficient waterresources management, whileincorporating the political realities ofinternational borders. Building thecapacity of trans-boundary institutions is akey to mitigating future conflicts overinternational water resources.
Future of Irrigation in Asia
Irrigation will continue to play animportant role in Asia in view of therecent food crisis and climate changethreats. By 2050, population in Asia willreach 5.0 billion people, up from 3.5billion in 2000. In much of Asia, land andwater resources are already usedintensively and there is not much scopefor expansion. While a judiciouscombination of unlocking value fromrainfed farming, sustainable use ofgroundwater and international trade infood grains has the potential of providingthe extra food that Asian population willneed by 2050. Increasing productivity in
irrigated lands would still remain centralin meeting the food demand. Groundwaterirrigation plays a significant role andirrigation reform is needed to make itperform better. However, virtual watertrade would remain politically challengingsolution. And the dependence on rainfedfarming alone could be risky. The use ofthe term “atomistic irrigation” to describegroundwater irrigation is not appropriatesince, groundwater use is often enabledthrough surface water recharge andthrough electricity subsidies and henceinterconnected with other sectors of theeconomy. There was limited success toPIM/IMT in Asia so far but ways andmeans to enhance its value are tried.
Water productivity can be worked outfrom the district to sub-district level tonational and the basin level, using bothconventional measures as well as remotesensing techniques. There is a scope inimproving water productivity throughincreasing crop yields, wider access togroundwater irrigation, improved farmmanagement practices, multiple use ofwater for irrigation as well as fishproduction and on farm water harvesting.The access to irrigation and levels ofpoverty were closely correlated andprovision of irrigation can be a powerfultool for poverty alleviation.
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ICID News 2010/1
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Editor: Dr. S A Kulkarni, Executive Secretary, DTP: K.D. Tanwar, ICID Central Office, New Delhi, IndiaE-mail : [email protected], Website : http://www.icid.org
The theme of theconference is“Improvement of
irrigation and drainage
efficiency through
participatory irrigation
development and
management under the
small land holding
conditions”. The deadlinefor submission of
ICID Events 2010-11
abstract(s) has now been extended to
26 March 2010. For more information,please contact: Indonesian NationalCommittee of ICID (INACID), Ministry ofPublic Works, Directorate General ofWater Resources, Main Building, 3rd
Flood, Jalan Pattimura No. 20, KebayoranBaru, Jakarta Selatan, Indonesia. Tel: +6221 723-0317, 723-0318; Fax: +62 217261956, E-mail: [email protected];[email protected];
[email protected]; Website: http://www.icid2010.org.
For assistance related to participationsuch as travel, accommodation, groundtransportation, local tours and car rental,please contact the Conference Organizer:Pactoconvex Ltd., Lagoon Tower Level B1,The Sultan Hotel, Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto,Jakarta 10270, Indonesia. Tel: +62-21-5705800; Website: http://www.pacto-convex.com
The title of theconference is “Integrated
water management for
multiple land use in flat
coastal areas”. For moredetails, please contact:
Bert Toussaint, Chairman of OrganizingCommittee, Ministry of Transport, PublicWorks and Water Management,Rijkswaterstaat Centre for CorporateServices, P.O. Box 2232, 3500 GEUtrecht, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 6
207 91 372, E-mail: [email protected] contact Pol Hakstege, Secretary,NETHCID, Tel: +31 88 7972316,E-mail: [email protected]@rws.nl, Website: http://www.nethcid.nl
The theme of the 21st
Congress is “Water
productivity towards
food security”. Fordetails, please contact:
IRNCID Secretariat, No. 1, Shahrsaz
Alley, Kargozar St., Zafar St., Tehran,
Iran, Postal Code: 19198-34453.
Tel: (+9821) 2225 7348 – 22250162,
For details, pleasecontact: Dr. AdamaSangare, SecretaryGeneral, Association
Malienne des Irrigations et du Drainage(AMID), Au Modibo Keita, Im Sulla andFils, BP 1840, BAMAKO, Mali. Tel:(223)222 75 21, Mobile No: (223 )674
08 94, Fax: (223) 223 48 82, E-mail:[email protected]; [email protected]
61st IEC Meeting and 6th Asian Regional Conference, 10-16 October 2010,
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
25th European Regional Conference, 16-20 May 2011, Hampshire Hotel Plaza,
Groningen, The Netherlands
21st International Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, 62nd IEC Meeting, and
8th International Micro irrigation Congress, 15-23 October 2011, Tehran, Iran
E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected], Website: http://
www.icid2011.org. The Call for Papers
can be downloaded from the website.
3rd African Regional Conference, 2011, Mali
24th European Regional Conference, December 2010, Orleans, France
The title of theconference is“Groundwater resource:
An essential resource to
be saved and managed”.
For details, please
contact: Mr. Sami Bouarfa, SecrétaireGénéral, Association Française pourl’Etude des Irrigations et du Drainage(AFEID), 361, rue Jean-François Breton,F - 34090 Montpellier, France.
Tel: +33.4.67.04.63.16,E-mail: [email protected],[email protected], Website:http://afeid.montpellier.cemagref.fr
Please note that commencing from this issue the ICID Newsletter is renamed as ICID News�����