ABSTRACT
Water is becoming increasingly scarce resource that is limiting agricultural development in many developing and developed economies across the world. A study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) shows that around 50% of the increase in demand for water by the year 2025 can be met by increasing the effectiveness of irrigation [18]. In India, almost all the easily possible and economically viable irrigation water potential has already been developed, but the demand for water for different sectors has been growing continuously [17, 22]. Moreover, the water use efficiency in the agricultural sector, which still consumes over 80% of water, is only in the range of 30-40% in India, indicating that there is considerable scope for improving the water use efficiency.
