This book addresses strategies for food security and sustainable agriculture in developing economies. The book focuses primarily on India, a fast developing economy, whose natural resource base comprising land and water supporting agricultural production is not only under enormous stress, but also complex and not amenable to a uniform strategy. It critically reviews issues which continue to dominate the debate on water management for agricultural and food production.

The book examines the validity of the claim that large water resources projects cause serious social and...

The litany of alarming observations about water use and misuse is now familiar-over a billion people without access to safe drinking water; almost every major river dammed and diverted; increasing conflicts over the delivery of water in urban areas; continuing threats to water quality from agricultural inputs and industrial wastes; and the increasing variability of climate, including threats of severe droughts and flooding across locales and regions. These issues present tremendous challenges for water governance.

This book focuses on three major concepts and approaches that have...

The principle of transferable groundwater rights is that by making water rights capable of being traded in the market, water resources can be used more sustainably and efficiently. Groundwater would achieve its economic value, by switching from the high volume-low value irrigation, which is prevalent with many farmers, particularly in South Asia, to low volume-high value urban supply or the growing of intensive horticultural or cash crops.

This book discusses transferable groundwater rights in their broader context. It starts with a detailed description of the physical aspects of...

In an increasingly global community of researchers and practitioners, new technologies and communication means have made the transfer of policies from one country or region to another progressively more prevalent. There has been a lot of attention in the field of public administration paid to policy transfer and institutional transplantation. This book aims to create a better understanding of such transfers in the water management sector. These include the adoption of modern water management concepts, such as integrated water resources management and forms of water governance, which are...

Climate change has an impact on the ability of transboundary water management institutions to deliver on their respective mandates. The starting point for this book is that actors within transboundary water management institutions develop responses to the climate change debate, as distinct from the physical phenomenon of climate change. Actors respond to this debate broadly in three distinct ways - adapt, resist (as in avoiding the issue) and subvert (as in using the debate to fulfil their own agenda).

The book charts approaches which have been taken over the past two decades to...

Examining international water allocation policies in different parts of the world, this book suggests that they can be used as a platform to induce cooperation over larger political issues, ultimately settling conflicts. The main premise is that water can and should be used as a catalyst for peace and cooperation rather than conflict.

Evidence is provided to support this claim through detailed case studies from the Middle East and the Lesotho Highlands in Africa. These international cases including bilateral water treaties and their development and formation process and aftermath are...