ABSTRACT

Increasing scarcity of fresh water resources is a growing concern in many major foodproducing areas of the world, including some of the major rice-growing areas in Asia and Africa (Godfray et al., 2010; Rijsberman, 2006). Projected future increases in temperatures are also likely to exacerbate the issue of crop water stress (IPCC, 2014). This, combined with the imperative to produce more food for a growing global population, is driving a focus globally on increasing water productivity in irrigated agriculture, or, put more simply, growing more food with less water (Keating et al., 2010).