Agriculture will remain the dominant user of water at the global level. In many countries, in particular those situated in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, this dependency can be expected to intensify. The contribution of irrigated agriculture to food production is substantial but in future the rate of growth will be lower than in the past. Both irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture still have scope for increasing productivity, including water productivity. Arguably, the expansion of irrigated agriculture protected people on the nutritional fringe from premature death, and preserved tracts of land under forest and wetlands from encroachment by hard-pressed farmers.
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