A component of the FAO normative programme on land drainage: Mexico case study on the evaluation of the performance of subsurface drainage systems

✍ Scribed by Julián Martínez-Beltrán; Arturo González-Casillas; Rodolfo Namuche-Vargas

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 334 KB
• Volume: 56
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1531-0353
• DOI: 10.1002/ird.373

✦ Synopsis

Land drainage has contributed to sustainable agricultural development in rainfed and irrigated areas all over the world. However, soil salinity still limits crop production in many irrigated areas. Therefore, subsurface drainage is still needed to control soil salinity in irrigated agriculture. It is also needed in waterlogged lands of the humid tropics, in order to increase rice production and promote crop diversification.

The FAO has addressed waterlogging and salinity control through its field and normative programmes. Concerning the latter, three FAO Irrigation and Drainage Papers have recently been published including guidelines for the planning and design of systems; for drainage materials and for the management of agricultural drainage water.

As the implementation, operation and maintenance of drainage systems have been covered by other publications, the FAO normative activities on land drainage are currently focusing on collecting information on the performance of subsurface drainage systems in irrigated lands. So far, this assessment is being based on the vast experience gained in countries such as Egypt and Pakistan, and on the more recent drainage developments in irrigation districts of Mexico. As an example, some findings from drainage assessment made in two irrigation districts of Mexico have been included in this paper.