The rate of the global irrigation expansion has slowed down due to changes in bank lending policies,said chairman of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage Keizrul bin Abdullah in Beijing on Thursday.

"For many developing countries, the investments for irrigation and drainage were mainly through loans from International lending banks," said Abdullah at the 19th Congress of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, which opened here on Thursday.

The global irrigation expansion rate increased at 2.3 percent in 1970s, declined to 1.3 percent in the next decade and further slowed down to 1 percent in 1990s. It is anticipated that over the next 20 years, the rate will continuously drop to about 1.6 percent, he said.

He provided data analysis of the World Bank's funding for the irrigation sector, which showed that the loans averaged 1.5 billion US dollars annually 10 to 15 years ago, and has since dropped to 300 to 400 million US dollars a year, because the bank has gradually shifted funding focus to other areas.

Abdullah said at the four-day congress that the main thrust to increase food production in the future will have to come from irrigated agriculture, since with irrigation land is more productive.

"With population growth projected to increase by 2 billion in the next 30 years, there will be a need to double global food production by the year 2025. Irrigation offers the quickest way of increasing food production," he said at the triennial congress of the commission, which has 98 member countries and regions.

Irrigated agriculture occupies less than 20 percent of cultivated land, but produces 40 percent of world food supplies and almost 60 percent of cereal production in the developing world, according to statistics from the commission.

The world's total irrigated area has increased from 90 million ha. in 1950 to about 250 million ha by the year 2000. However, in developing countries where there is inadequate investment in irrigation and drainage food production, said Abdullah.

Source: Xinhua