An investigation on water productivity in agriculture with evaluating Iran position

Abstract Water has played the most significant role in development all the time and all over the world. On the other hand, agriculture and natural resources section is considered as one the important economic functions due to its critical role in supplying the needed food of a nation, providing food security, and realizing sustainable development. Water is one of the most eminent scarce resources required for supplying agricultural products. Approximately 93 percent of renewable water resources (80 billion m3) are being used in irrigated farms; however the resultant products (51 million tons) cannot meet the national food needs. Several studies have demonstrated that a large amount of water is being wasted by different ways in agriculture section, so its efficiency ranges not more than 33 to 37 percent. Moreover, the index of water productivity in Iran agriculture section has been reported as 0.7 to 0.8 kg dry product per 1 cubic meter of consumed water which is far from international standards (1.5 - 2.5 kg dry product per 1 cubic meter of consumed water). Increasing demand for water in industry and urban sections together with environmental problems will lead to shortage of water for agriculture in future. One of the useful corrective actions to avoid this problem can be realized through increasing productivity of water usage (increasing quantity of product per each unit of consumed water).