Abstract:
Population •increase in developing countries needs an increase in agricultural production to meet their increasing food and nutritional demand. The goal to meet these demands can be achieved through irrigated agriculture but rapid expansion of new irrigation schemes may not continue in the next decades due to many reasons e.g. scarce resource, economic and environmental conditions. Poor performance of irrigation system in these countries requires greater attention towards planning, management and development of resources of these systems. Efficient resource utilization is the central issue. Integrated or conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources has now been recognized as a significant strategy for the optimum utilization of regional water resources. Integrated use is especially effective within the context of irrigation management. Systems approach and its framework, consisting of mathematical models, have long been used in analyzing complex water resources problems such as conjunctive use and irrigation planning. Conventionally, irrigation planning and management problems have been approached mainly from the economic and engineering feasibility point of view. But, there usually exist multiple considerations, which should be followed in irrigation development. For example, in Nepal, an updated working policy on irrigation development for the fulfillment of the country's basic needs of food and nutrition requirement has been in effect.
