ICID Newsletter 2008/4

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Also at http://www.icid.org 2008/4

Message from the PresidentDear Friends and members of ICID family,

I am very pleased to issue this firstmessage in the newsletter in my capacity

as the new President of ICID. It is indeedan honour to serve as your President, andI take this opportunity to thank you and allNational Committees most sincerely for themassive vote of confidence which you haveshown in me. I wish to assure you that Iwill do my utmost to uphold the Office ofPresident and to work with all NationalCommittees and members of various workbodies, in order to advance your goals andultimately those of ICID.

Before I turn my attention to our commongoals for the future, I would be remiss if Idid not thank the members of PANCID, thelocal organizing committee and our hostsfor the 59th IEC and 20th ICID Congress inLahore. The organizers went out of theirway to ensure a highly successful IEC andCongress. We were treated superbly withexcellent attention to all details, safety andcomfort of participants, and well executedcultural shows and dinners. Our hosts tookimmense care of us from the time of arrivalto time of departure. We could not havebeen treated any better. Congrats toPANCID, Government of Pakistan, WAPDAand all supporting organizations!

I was very pleased to have been selectedto deliver the N.D. Gulhati memoriallecture in Lahore as part of the openingceremony of the Congress (see page 5).My presentation focused on the importanceof irrigation as method of reducing death,hunger and malnutrition over severalmillennia, considering our ancientcivilizations which were founded onirrigation, to the green revolution in the1960s and 70s, to the current global foodcrisis. Irrigation has sustained crop yields,reduced the impacts of climatic variabilityin rainfed agriculture and drought affectedareas, and stabilized crop yields in

vulnerable highly populated regions of Asia,and some parts of Africa, the Middle Eastand Latin America. The growth in worldpopulation, climate change, dwindling waterand land resources, and market forces haveall placed a pressure on world food suppliesand availability. The world’s poor havebeen severely impacted. In 2007, therewere estimated to be 850 million peopleexperiencing hunger. The recent rise in foodprices, conversion of food producing landsfor ethanol production, the increase in fueland fertilizer prices, and now the globalfinancial crisis have worsened the situation.It is estimated that the number of hungrypeople in the world has increased to 925million in the past 12 months.

While some argue that the world food crisisemerged suddenly without warning, othersstated the telling signs of the crisis werethere all along and we chose to ignore thefacts. The decline of investment inagriculture by governments and donors overthe past 25 years is indeed a sad story. TheOfficial Development Assistance (ODA) toagriculture fell from 16% to just under 4%of total ODA over this time period. Thedonors were simply mirroring theinvestment to the agriculture sector by thegovernments. While agriculture contributes

29% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indeveloping countries, these countries havebeen investing less than 4% of their GDP.One consequence has been the decline ininvestments in irrigation and drainage andother rural infrastructure including roads,telecommunications, power, postharvesthandling and storage systems, and marketsand food distributions networks. All of theseinfrastructure developments andimprovements must take place hand inhand, if we are to get out of the currentglobal food crisis, and eradicate poverty,hunger, and malnutrition.

The case to reinvest in irrigation anddrainage at this time of crisis cannot bemade more forcibly. The role of ICID in thecurrent food and water crises cannot beoverstated. Our collective responsibilitiesover the next 3 years are therefore toarticulate the case for this urgent financialreinvestment in irrigation and drainage andwater savings technologies, the need tobuild the technical capacity of our watermanagers and irrigators, and to implementan urgent applied research and technologytransfer program which will improve theproductivity of our food producing lands.My immediate task as President of ICID istherefore to work with the NationalCommittees and work bodies onimplementation of such an agenda. The taskwill not be easy given the current financialcrisis, as governments and the private sectorare cutting back on expenditures. But whatis the option? A world of inequity wherethe most vulnerable are driven to furtherdespair? Let us pledge to work together toovercome the odds at this time of ourhistory.

Chandra A. MadramootooPresident

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage(ICID) was established in 1950 as a scientific, technicaland voluntary not-for-profit non-governmental internationalorganization. The Newsletter is published quarterlyby ICID Central Office, New Delhi, India.

IN THIS ISSUE• Advertisement - SonTek 6

• ICID Awards 2008 7

• Future ICID Events 8

• 59th IEC and 20th Congress Report 2&3

• ICID New Office Bearers 4

• 7th N.D. Gulhati Lecture 5

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59th International Executive Council (IEC) Meeting

The 59th International Executive Council(IEC) meeting and the 20th ICID Congressof the ICID were successfully held atLahore, Pakistan from 13 to 18 October2008. The theme of the Congress was“Participatory Integrated Water ResourcesManagement: From Concept to Action”.More than 500 delegates including nearly150 from over 24 countries and severalinternational organizations participated invarious events. The six day programmewas packed with over 30 workbodymeetings, N D Gulhati memorial lecture,symposium, special session, seminar,workshops, two Congress questions (54and 55), International Executive Council(IEC) meeting, technical exhibition/display, and a technical tour.

All the events were held at themagnificent conference complex ‘Aiwan-e-Iqbal’. Pakistan National Committee

(PANCID) and Water and PowerDevelopment Authority (WAPDA) - theorganizers looked after superbly of safety,accommodation, and offered warmhospitality to the foreign delegates andguests throughout the event. The culturalfunctions and social get-together on almostall the evenings showcasing the tradition,culture, and hospitality of Pakistan madethe entire stay very memorable.

H.E. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Minister forWater and Power, Islamic Republic ofPakistan in his inaugural speech at theCongress opening ceremony said that inPakistan, water has played a very signi-ficant role in the economic developmentand will continue to be a driving force inits development into the future. ‘Agri-culture is the largest sector of Pakistaneconomy, with primary commoditiesaccounting for 25% of GDP and 47% of

total employment, and contributes morethan 60% of foreign exchange earnings.Although Pakistan has one of the largestcontiguous irrigation system in the world,yet the country is approaching theutilization limits of its water resources andheading towards becoming a water scarcecountry’ said the Minister.

Three books namely, (i) Report of ICIDTask Force for Least Developed Countriesin Asia; (ii) Manual on PerformanceEvaluation of Sprinkler and Drip IrrigationSystems; and (iii) Water Saving inAgriculture, as brought out by the CentralOffice were released at the hands ofthe Minister.

The closing ceremony was graced by thepresence of H.E. Rana Muhammad IqbalKhan, Acting Governor of Punjab State.

President Peter Lee in his welcome speechsaid that agricultural water managementcomprises a broad spectrum ranging fromrain harvesting, runoff capture, soilmoisture conservation, supplementary,deficit, and full irrigation to surface andsub-surface drainage. He said that forsurvival we need 100 times more waterfor food than for drinking and basichygiene. Not surprisingly, agriculture isthe largest user of freshwater, after nature.But fortunately agriculture is able to usewater not available to others (e.g. rainwater and soil moisture). ‘Agriculture is alot less wasteful than domestic use as ithas high consumptive use component’said the President.

Water Use by Agriculture is Less Wasteful than Domestic Use

President Leeexpressedconcern overdeclininginvestment inirrigation,stagnation ofcrop yields anddiversion ofland and waterto other usesand stressed the

need for more investment at both, farm(private) and system (public) levels toenable higher water and crop productivity.

President said that ICID is the only

organization of its kind speaking foragriculture in the world of water. ICID isan important partner organization in UNWater, hosts IWALC Secretariat, and alsothe Topic (2.3) Coordinator for the WorldWater Forum 5.

During his three year tenure as thePresident, he represented ICID in all thefive continents. ICID disseminates theknowledge among the professionals acrossthe world by various ways like thewebsite, ICID Journal, News Update andNewsletter, besides annual IEC meetings,regional conferences, and internationalworkshops.

(L to R) Mr. Imtiaz Tajwar, Secretary, WAPDA; Mr. Syed Raghib Abbas Shah, Member, WAPDA and Secretary General Organizing Committee;Engr. M. Gopalakrishnan, Secretary General; Engr. Peter S. Lee, President, ICID; H.E. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Minister for Water and Power, Govt. of

Pakistan; Mr. Shakil Durrani, Chairman, WAPDA; Engr. Dr. Illahi B. Shaikh, Vice President, ICID and Chairman PANCID; andVice President Hon. Dr. Chandra Madramootoo at the Opening Ceremony of the 20th Congress

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The Questions which were central to thetheme of the Congress were: Question 54on “Sustainable integrated water resourcesmanagement” and Question 55 on “Role ofpublic and private sectors in waterresources development and management”.The Central Office has published Congressproceedings (abstracts of the papers in aprinted volume and the full length papersin a CD-ROM).

Dr. Hussam Fahmy (Egypt), GeneralReporter of Q54 in his plenary presentationsaid that sustainability of irrigatedagriculture is typically threatened by waterscarcity and soil degradation. Climatechange, emerging world wide food crisisand bio-fuel production will probably addto the viciousness of these threats. Asrecognized by the participants of theCongress, IWRM paradigm provides somehope to achieve sustainability for irrigatedagriculture. However, IWRM is a conceptthat does not easily render itself forimplementation.

Dr. Gao Zhanyi (China), General Reporterof Q55 observed that in many countriesinstitutional reforms in irrigation anddrainage system management towardsstakeholder-controlled management are

on-going. Transfers of systems or ofresponsibilities are especially taking placein Asia, Central and South America, Centraland Eastern European countries.

Prof. Dennis Wichelns (USA), ChairmanSpecial Session ‘Implications of globalchanges on irrigation and drainage systemdevelopment and management’ describedthe importance of managing the world’sland, water, and air resources wisely,particularly in light of recent globalchanges and trends. Dr. Wichelns notedthat the world’s natural resources represent“natural capital” that can be used wisely orallowed to depreciate, just as financialcapital can be invested wisely orsquandered over time.

VPH Dr. Saeed Nairizi (Iran) made apresentation on the Strategy Theme “On-Farm”. He emphasized the need forfocused attention in improvement ofsurface irrigation technology as it is adominant method of irrigation indeveloping countries.

An international workshop on “Capacitybuilding and training in water sector: therole of young professionals” was heldunder the chairmanship of Dr. MauritsErtsen (The Netherlands). The outcome of

the workshop will be available soon athttp://www.wg-ypf.icidonline.org.

A special session was organized at theinstance of PANCID/ WAPDA to discusssome specific issues like impact of globalclimate change on Himalayas and reservoirsedimentation. Major projects like Tarbelasuffer due to high sedimentation yieldsaffecting life of the reservoir. Delegatesfrom Bhutan, China, Chinese Taipei, India,Pakistan, Vietnam, and USA presented theirnational scenarios. A decision to study theproblems of sedimentation by ICIDpartnering other organizations like ICOLD,IHA, etc., was agreed to.

Besides above, a Seminar on ‘Lessons tolearn from the history of watermanagement in large river basins anddrought’ and a Symposium on ‘Integratedwater management in the river basincontext’ were also held. The outcome ofthe deliberations of various meetings,congress questions and key recommen-dations in the form of ‘Lahore Declaration’were brought out <www.icid.org/decl.html#lahore08>.

For further details please access<www.icid.org/20th_congress.html>.

(L to R) Vice Presidents Engr. Dr. Illahi B. Shaikh (Pakistan), Prof. Peter Kovalenko (Ukraine), Dr. Ing. Eiko Luebbe (Germany), Engr. Felix B. Reinders(South Africa), President Peter S. Lee, Secretary General M. Gopalakrishnan, VPs Dr. Gao Zhanyi (China), Dr. Karim Shiati (Iran), and

Dr. A. Hafied A. Gany (Indonesia) at the 59th IEC meeting

and 20th Triennial Congress, Lahore : A ReportPh

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Delegates visited Hydraulic ResearchStation, Nandipur about 80 kms fromLahore. The field station was established in1952 and has been conducting numeroushydraulic model testing studies

An International Exhibition of variouscivil/ irrigation engineering equipments/products was organized at the venue ofthe Congress

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ICID Elects New Office BearersPresident

Prof. Dr. Chandra A. Madramootoo,Canada was unanimously elected as thenew President of ICID. He obtained PhDin Agricultural Engineering from McGillUniversity, Canada. Prof. Madramootoostarted his career as Irrigation Engineer in1977 and steadily rose to the position ofFull Professor of Irrigation and DrainageEngineering, McGill University in 1995.Since 2005 he is the Dean, Faculty ofAgricultural and Environmental Sciencesand Associate Vice Principal, McGillUniversity. He was the founding Director,Brace Centre for Water ResourcesManagement and was named the JamesMcGill Professor, Bioresources EngineeringDepartment in 2000. His other recentappointments include - Member,Governing Board, ICRISAT, India, Board ofDirectors, VALACTA and APIA.

Prof. Madramootoo is an internationallyrecognized expert in irrigation, drainage,water quality, agricultural research, anddevelopment. He has successfullysupervised over 50 water, irrigation,drainage and soil/land managementresearch and development projects atMcGill University, trained over 75 MScand PhD students and published over 300book chapters, manuscripts in refereedjournals, technical reports and papers.Prof. Madramootoo has been invited todeliver over 75 keynote talks to nationaland international audiences, and presented

over 200 papers at national andinternational conferences.

Since over two decades, Dr. Madramootoois associated with the Canadian NationalCommittee on Irrigation and Drainage(CANCID) and has served on manyworkbodies of ICID. He was VicePresident of ICID (2000-2003) andpresently is the Chairman of the CANCID.Prof. Madramootoo is member of variousprofessional societies. He is a consultantto the Canadian International DevelopmentAgency (CIDA), World Bank, International

Program on Technology and Research inIrrigation and Drainage (IPTRID),Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, FAOand the Inter American Development Bankon water resources, irrigation, drainage,water quality, agriculture, and landresources projects in Asia, Africa and theCaribbean.

Dr. Chandra Madramootoo may becontacted at Tel:+1 514-398-7707, E-mail:<chandra.madramootoo@mcgill.ca>.

Prof. Dr. Lucio Ubertini, Italy

Prof. Ubertinistarted hisacademic careerat the Institute ofAgriculturalHydraulics of theUniversity ofPerugia as a FullProfessor andwas its Director for about ten years.During this period, he led a research teamon non-structural interventions for theimprovement of irrigation systems and alsoin deriving the characteristics of agri-cultural drought from agro-meteorologicaldata. Prof. Ubertini has led the ITAL-ICIDas its Vice President (1994-2000) and asthe President (2000-2007). He may becontacted at <ubertini@cidra.ing.uni>.

Dr. Samia El-Guindy, Egypt

Dr. Samia El-Guindy is anemeritus professorat the NationalWater ResearchCenter, Ministryof WaterResources andIrrigation (MWRI),Egypt. Her research interests spanned overmore than 35 years and focused on landdrainage and salinity control as well aswater quality aspects and its environ-mental impacts.

Currently, Dr. Samia El-Guindy is theDirector of the Egyptian-Dutch AdvisoryPanel Project on Water Management (APP)and may be contacted at<app@link.net>.

Mr. Shinsuke Ota, Japan

Mr. Shinsuke Ota isan AgriculturalEngineer and hasserved as theSecretary Generalof JNC-ICID (1997-1998), besidesbeing member inmany ICID work-bodies. Mr. Ota has worked for Ministryof Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries(MAFF) for 32 years and was engaged indesign, planning and policy makingconcerning agriculture and rural develop-ment in Japan. He was instrumental inestablishing the International Network forWater and Ecosystem in Paddy Fields(INWEPF). Dr. Ota may be contacted at<shinsuke_ota@water.go.jp>.

Vice Presidents

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Irrigation in the Context of Today’s Global Food CrisisThe 7th N.D. Gulhati Memorial Lecture for International Cooperation in irrigation and drainage was delivered by VPH ChandraMadramootoo at Lahore Congress. The lecture provided an overview of the challenges facing irrigation and drainage community,and the need to better manage our irrigation and drainage systems to reduce poverty and hunger. The following is a summaryof some key aspects of his presentation.

Global Irrigation Development

Of the 1500 million ha of global cropland about 277 million ha (18%) areirrigated. The largest share of the irrigatedarea is in Asian region (70%), followed byNorth and Central America (11%), Europe(9%), Africa (5%), South America (4%),and Oceania (1%). During the last fourdecades the crop land has increasedmarginally, while population has morethan doubled leading to a reduction inthe area of land needed to produce foodfor a person. Irrigation has played animportant role in increasing cropproductivity. However, the rate ofirrigation expansion has declined from2.3% in 1970-80 to 0.6% in 2000-05(see figure). Some countries willincreasingly face water scarcity. Futureneeds of water for food are huge andimproved water management systems willbe required to cope with the demand.

preliminary goal of MDG attempts tohighlight this given its importance. Thistranslates into a need of reducing 22million per year, while current rate isonly 6 million per year - posing a bigchallenge to bridge the gap between thetarget and achievement.

There are contradictory views as regardsthe impact of increasing bio-fuel cropproduction on food availability. Someview that this might cause food shortageand consequent hike in the food prices;while a few others opine that bio-fuelsprovide LDCs and poor farmers newopportunities for employment to improvetheir economy and livelihoods.

On-farm Water Management andSystem Modernization

There has been growing concerns overdeclining irrigation system performanceand investment benefits, especially in thelarge-scale public irrigation schemes.Improvement in both viz., conveyanceefficiency and on-farm water managementis a key for increasing the overallirrigation efficiency. Efficiency gains of14% in gross withdrawal can also beachieved through reuse of return flows.Improved surface irrigation methods likelevel furrows, sprinkler and microirrigation methods and use of advancedtechniques of irrigation scheduling canhelp improve on-farm water management.Modernization of irrigation and drainagesystems in a broad sense (technical,management, financial, environmental) willbe required at a large-scale, especially inemerging countries to achieve the requiredincrease in food production, and also, insome cases, to save water for other uses.

Investment in Agriculture

It is seen that the public spending onagriculture is the lowest in the agriculturebased countries, while the share ofagriculture in GDP is the highest. Nationaland international investments inagriculture, official development assistance(ODA), and the World Bank’s lending inirrigation have been declining steadily anda complacency set in that is a major causeof the recent global food shortage.

The Way Forward

In most developing countries, theagricultural sector is considered as anengine of growth and nationalgovernments therefore should reinvest inagriculture and associated infrastructure. Inorder to reduce water withdrawals forirrigation, upgrading of irrigationinfrastructure through rehabilitation andmodernization should be given priority.Other aspects like timely maintenance ofirrigation and drainage infrastructure,investment in water storage and watersaving technologies, combating the twinmenace of waterlogging and salinitythrough drainage are required. Public-private investment in infrastructure is to beencouraged. One size does not fit all, andsolutions have to be case specific.

Maximizing basin water productivitythrough multi-objective decision makingprocess, developing a rapid innovativeresearch agenda, capacity building at alllevels and building of institutional supportfor local, regional and internationalmarkets will go a long way in achievingfood security. External factors, likeimpacts of bio-fuel production, climatechange, virtual water trade, changes inagriculture markets and the prices ofcommodities will influence agriculturegrowth and allied activities. Such changeswill require additional adaptations in thedevelopment of water managementmeasures to sustain global food productionto desired levels and avoid the probabilityof a severe crisis in the coming years.

The power point presentation by Prof.Madramootoo can be accessed atwww.icid.org/nd_gulhati_2008.pdf

Percentage increase in global irrigated area

Global Food Situation

During the last four decades the crop areaharvested has hardly increased, while theworld cereal production has increased byabout two and half fold. In general, theoverall food prices (in USD) are up by75% since 2000. Cereals, in particular riceand wheat dominate food supply andprovide the largest share of energy to theworld’s population. However, globally,close to one billion people still remainmalnourished, of which some 800 millionlive in least developed countries (LDCs).The Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) has targeted to reduce thisnumber by half by 2015. In fact the

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ICID Awards 2008

Dr. Reddy receiving the award fromH.E. the Acting Governor of Punjab, Pakistan

Dr. Atta receiving the award from H.E. the ActingGovernor of Punjab, President Lee Looks on

Dr. Amgad Elmahdi

WatSave Awards

Iranian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (IRNCID) has won the3rd Best Performing National Committee (BPNC) Award for its outstandingachievements and contributions to ICID activities. IRNCID joined ICID in theyear 1955 and has been very effectively contributing to its various activities sincethen. IRNCID is fairly broadbased and has organized several scientific andtechnical events. The award was received by VP Dr. Karim Shiati fromH.E. Rana Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Acting Governor of the Punjab State.

Best Performing Workbody Award

ICID Journal Editorial Board (EB-JOUR) isthe winner of the Best Performing Work-body Award (BPWA) 2008. The awardwas presented by H.E. Rana MohmmadIqbal, Acting Governor of Punjab toPresident Hon. Prof. Dr. Bart Schultz (TheNetherlands), Chairman, EB-Journal.

Dr. Yella Reddy, Mr. Satyanarayana andMrs.G Andal (India) have jointly receivedthe Innovative Technology award for theirwater saving contribution on “Microirrigation: A Technology for Prosperity”.The innovation is related to thereplacement of a fully portable sprinklersystem with a semi-permanent system inAndhra Pradesh State of India. In usingportable sprinkler systems, farmers havebeen experiencing problems with respectto storage and operation time needed toshift the system to different areas.Changing to a semi-permanent sprinklersystem provides for advantages like laboursaving, operational convenience and betterworking conditions in the field. Theinnovative sprinkler system has becomepopular in the state and its adoption leadsto water savings of about 50% overtraditional surface irrigation methods.

Dr. Yousri Ibrahim Atta, AssociateProfessor at Water Management andIrrigation Systems Research Institute(WMRI), Egypt received the InnovativeWater Management award for his watersaving contribution “Innovative Method forRice Irrigation”. In Egypt, rice is traditi-onally grown under flood irrigation. Toreduce the amount of irrigation waterrequired as well as to increase waterproductivity, a new method of growingrice on stirps has been adopted. Thisinvolves planting of rice in two stripsalong each furrow. In the traditionalmethod, the rice seedlings are planting ata distance of 20x20 cm giving a density of25 tillers/m2, while with the new method,the seedlings are planted in 2 strips 10 cmapart but still maintaining the samedensity of 25 tillers/m2. This strip methodor ice cultivation has now been mademandatory by the MWRI as it allows for a40% savings in water.

Dr. Amgad Elmahdi, Research Scientist atCSIRO Land and Water, Australiareceived the Young Professionals awardfor his water saving contribution ‘WaterBanking: A Conjunctive Water UseManagement Approach for Water Savingand Improve Productivity andEnvironmental Performance’. Waterbanking is the storage of surplus in-streamflows during the wet season into aquiferstorage to be used during deficit periodsi.e., when the irrigation demand exceedsthe available requirements by diversion ofin-stream flows. Underground storagereduces greatly evaporation losses ascompared to surface storage.

Based on work in the Murrumbidgee Riversystem, the research has helped increaseunderstanding of how to improve theenvironmental quality of the river throughbetter irrigation demand management.

(For details about the water saving contributions please access <www.icid.org/awards.html#t1>)

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Best Performing National Committee Award

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(L to R)Mr. S. Durrani,Chairman,WAPDA;H.E. RanaMohammad IqbalKhan, ActingGovernor of thePunjab State; VPDr. Karim Shiati;and Mr. SaeedKharazi, ConsulateGeneral of Iran

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Editor: Dr. S A Kulkarni, Executive Secretary, DTP: K D Tanwar, ICID Central Office, New Delhi, IndiaE-mail : icid@icid.org, Website : http://www.icid.org

Forthcoming and Future ICID Events23rd European Regional Conference,17-24 May 2009, Lviv, Ukraine. Thetheme of the conference is “Progress inManaging Water for Food and RuralDevelopment’’. Authors wishing to give a

presentation (oral or poster) should submitan abstract of their paper(s) not later 20January, 2009 to: Ukrainian NationalCommittee on Irrigation and Drainage(UKCID), 37, Vasilkivska Str., Kyiv, 03022Ukraine, E-mail: <ukcid@igim.org.ua>.

For details, please contact: Prof. Dr. PeterKovalenko, Vice President, ICID, andPresident, UKCID, Tel: +38 (044)2573348, Fax: +38 (044) 257 40 01,E-mail: <kovalen@igim.org.ua>,website: <http://europeicid2009.org>.

USCID Irrigation District SpecialtyConference, 3-6 June 2009, Reno,Nevada, USA. The theme of theConference is “Irrigation District

Sustainability – Strategies to Meet theChallenges”. For details, please contact theUnited States Committee on Irrigation andDrainage (USCID), 1616, 17th Street, #483,

Denver, CO 80202, USA. Tel: 303-628-5430; E-mail: <stephens@uscid.org>;Website: <www.uscid.org>.

3rd African Regional Conference,11-14 October 2009, Abuja, Nigeria.The theme of the Conference is “The Roleof Irrigation and Drainage in FoodSecurity: Towards attaining the MillenniumDevelopment Goals in Africa”. The sub-topics are – (i) Food production andincome generation through irrigatedagriculture; (ii) The role of private publicpartnership in irrigated agriculture inpoverty reduction; (iii) Performance

appraisal of different irrigation systemstowards achieving MillenniumDevelopment Goals and the way forward;(iv) Irrigated agriculture as a strategy forpoverty reduction in developing countries;and (v) Environmental sustainability andpursuit of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals.

For details, please visit the Conferencewebsite: <http://www.icid2009.org/> or

contact: Engr. D.B. Madu, SecretaryGeneral, Nigerian National Committee onIrrigation and Drainage (NINCID), FederalMinistry of Agriculture and WaterResources, Department of Dams andIrrigation, Old Secretariat, Area 1, Garki,Abuja, Nigeria. Tel: +234 803 2977965;+234 804 4108000, Fax: +234 92347394, E-mail: <nincid@yahoo.co.uk>,<nincid@icid2009.org>.

USCID 5th International Conferenceon Irrigation and Drainage, 4-7 Nov.2009, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

The theme of the conference is “Irrigationand Drainage for Food, Energy and theEnvironment”. For details, please contact:

USCID, 1616, 17th Street, #483, Denver,CO 80202, USA. Tel: 303-628-5430; E-mail: <stephens@uscid.org>; Website:<www.uscid.org>.

60th IEC Meeting and 5th AsianRegional Conference, 5-11 December2009, New Delhi, India. The theme ofthe Conference is “Improvement inEfficiency of Irrigation Projects throughTechnology Upgradation and BetterOperation and Management”. The sub-topics include : (i) supply management

including pipe distribution system; (ii)Organization management; (iii) Demandmanagement; (iv) Irrigated area drainage;(v) Command area improvement, waterconservation, technology improvement,and (vi) Legal aspects and gender issues.For details, please contact: MemberSecretary, Indian National Committee on

Irrigation and Drainage (INCID), CentralWater Commission, Room No. 424(North), Sewa Bhawan, R.K. Puram, NewDelhi-110066, India. Telfax: + 91-11-26107086, E-mail: <iadcwc@yahoo.com>,Website: <www.cwc.gov.in/main/INCID/welcome.html>.

61st IEC Meeting and 6th AsianRegional Conference, 10-16 October2010, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Thetheme of the Conference is “Improvementof Irrigation and Drainage Efficiencythrough Partici-patory IrrigationDepartment and Management under the

Small Land Holding Conditions”. Fordetails, please contact: IndonesianNational Committee on Irrigation andDrainage (INACID), Ministry of PublicWorks, Directorate General of WaterResources, Main Building, 3rd Floor, JalanPattimura No. 20, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta

Selatan, Indonesia. Tel: 62-21-7230317;7230318; Fax: 62-21-7261956;E-mail: <inacid2010@gmail.com>;<inacid_indonesia@yahoo.co.id>;<secretariat@icid2010.org>; Website:<www.icid2010.org>

62nd IEC Meeting and 21st Congresson Irrigation and Drainage, 15-23October 2011, Tehran, Iran. Thetheme of the 21st Congress is “WaterProductivity towards Food Security”. Thecongress will discuss on Question 56“Water and Land Productivity Challenges”and Question 57 “Water Management inRainfed Agriculture”, besides Symposium

on “Climate Change Impacts on Soil andWater Resources”, and Special Session on“Modernization of Water ManagementSchemes”. Parallel to these,8th International Micro IrrigationCongress (IMIC) will also be held.

For details, please contact: IranianNational Committee on Irrigation and

Drainage (IRNCID) Secretariat, No. 24Shahrsaz Alley, Kargozar St., Zafar St.,Tehran, Iran, Postal Code: 19198-34453.Tel: (+9821) 2225 7348 – 2225 0169,Fax: (+9821) 2227 2285, E-mail:<irncid@gmail.com>,<icid2011@gmail.com>, Website:<www.icid2011.org>.