ABSTRACT
The last 50 years have seen massive investments in large-scale public irrigation infrastructure as part of a global effort to rapidly increase staple food production, ensure food sufficiency, and avoid devastating famine. Investments in irrigation accelerated rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, with area expansion in developing countries at 2.2% a year reaching 155 million ha in 1982. Global irrigated area rose from 168 million ha in 1970 to 215 million ha over the same time frame (Carruthers et al., 1997).
