Climate Change is real and its implications are going to be borne by the poorest of the poor. If climatic change is accompanied by an increase in climate variability, many agricultural Producers will experience define hardships and increased risk. The Sat regions, which have economies largely based on weather-sensitive agricultural productions systems, are particularly vulnerable to climate change | S P Wani, K Boomiraj, 'Climate Change- Water Food and Environmental Security', pp.1302-1328, 2011

As economies develop and societies change, emerging sets of challenges are placed on water resources and its governance. Population growth and economic development tend to drive the demand for more water, and push river basins into situations of scarcity. Agriculture, globally the largest user of water, is a major driver of water scarcity, and also the sector that has to bear the consequences of scarcity. Yet governance arrangements the world over have difficulty coming to grips with the management of agricultural water within the larger water resource context. The four major agricultural water governance challenges are: to manage transitions from abundance to scarcity; to deal with the large informal sectors of the agricultural water economy; to adapt to the changing objectives of society; and within each of these challenges, to craft contextspecific solutions. This paper presents examples of these challenges and uses them to derive a conceptual framework to help us understand present agricultural water-use contexts, and to develop context specific solutions. The framework is based on two important and shifting contextual dimensions: the degree of scarcity within a basin, and the degree of formality in water use. Looking at agricultural water governance within this framework shows that some standard prescriptions for water problems may not always be appropriate and that â??second bestâ?? solutions can in fact be the best way forward. The challenge for governance is to facilitate the development of these solutions | David Molden et al., 'Governing to Grow Enough Food without Enough Water?Second Best Solutions Show the Way', International Journal of Water Resources Development, vol. 26(2), pp.249-263, Informa UK Limited, 2010

Irrigated agriculture is the backbone of Central Asian economies. Therefore, efficient irrigation water management is of crucial importance to the sustainable crop production in the region. Presented here are two studies aiming to improve agricultural water productivity â?? ET-based irrigation scheduling in Uzbekistan; and valuation of ecosystem services in Kazakhstan. The ET-based irrigation scheduling method has potential to replace subjective daily water management decisions at Water Users Association level with crop water demand-based decisions to improve water-use efficiency. Results from a two year study show that there can be a 32-35% saving of water when irrigation is applied using the ET-based scheduling method. The pilot plots are representative of 38% of irrigated area in Fergana Valley (241,407ha) and 50% in Khorezm (137,500ha) area. If this methodology is widely adopted, large amounts of water can be saved which can be diverted for other purposes. Flood irrigation of cotton is practiced on 128,000ha in the Bugunski Reservoir watershed of Kazakhstan. This practice is unsustainable due to seasonal unavailability in water supply and depletion of river discharges that were historically important at maintaining water levels downstream in nearby wetlands and the Aral Sea. Farmer surveys were used along with RIOS and SWAT modeling to evaluate alternative irrigation practices and cropping systems that can conserve water from the Bugunski Reservoir while maintaining farmer incomes. Simulations show significant reductions in irrigation water demand in the alternative scenario relative to the baseline scenario. Under baseline flood irrigation of cotton, annual irrigation demand was 928 MCM/yr averaged over the 32 year climatic record simulated. Irrigation demand decreased by 38% to 573 MCM/yr when 40,439ha of flood irrigated cotton was converted to drip irrigated cotton, sprinkler irrigated alfalfa and drip irrigated grapes. This represents a savings of 355 MCM/yr in water extracted from irrigation canals and groundwater wells | Vinay Nangia. (7/11/2016). Managing Scarce Water Resources in Irrigated Agri-Food Systems of Central Asia Two Case Studies. Phoenix, United States: American Society of Agronomy.