ICID Insights

ICID 24 th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS AND THE IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION SYDNEY 2021 While the ICID 24th International Congress and the Irrigation Australia Conference and Exhibition, to be held in Sydney has been rescheduled for 2021, preparations for this important joint event continue, as does work in other areas of ICID.

For information about Irrigation Australia 2021 Conference and Exhibition and the ICID Congress, go to the conference and exhibition website.

DATE PLACE DETAILS

1 – 7 December 2020

6 - 12 July 2021 Marrakech, Morocco

Sydney, Australia

Theme is sustainable Management of irrigation for improved resilience of agriculture in Africa. W: http://5arcid.ma/

and 71st IEC Meeting. For more info E: info@irrigation.org.au, W: http://www.icid2021.com.au

TBA

Agadir, Morroco 10th International Micro Irrigation Conference (10MIC)

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS TAKE A FRESH LOOK AT MANAGING IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE WATER During 2019, a focus of online discussions held by members of ICID’s Young Professionals (ICIDIYPeF) was how irrigation and drainage water will be sourced and managed in the future.

Their discussions have been summarised and published in the latest edition of ICID’s Irrigation and Drainage Journal in an article titled “Non‐conventional sources of agricultural water management: Insights from young professionals in the irrigation and drainage sector”.

A feature of the paper is that it contains insights from young professionals who have spent most, if not all, of their careers in working in a space where demand has outstripped supply of water for irrigation and drainage (and often personal use).

With this as the basis for their discussions, the focus moved beyond the need to promote resource efficiency to examining innovative approaches to conserve resources in IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA'S COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE (IACID) Momir Vranes, Chair, IACID M: +61 451 955 215, +93 729 28 26 63, E: mvranes@hotmail.com Kathleen Murray, Deputy Chair, IACID M: +61 427 138 118, E: kathleen.murray@verterra.com.au Bryan Ward, Member, IACID P: +61 7 3517 4000, E:bryan.ward@irrigation.org.au Geoff Harvey, Member, IACID M: +61 418 888 876, E:geoff.harvey@irrigation.org.au Peter Durand, Member, IACID M: +61 407 975 401, E: Peter.Durand@netafim.com Peter Hayes, Member, IACID M: +61 418 842 700, E: grapwine@senet.com.au Eddie Parr, Member, IACID M: +61 412 359 131, E: ammenviroservices@gmail.com Carl Walters, Member, IACID P: +61 3 5822 7700, E: carlw@gbcma.vic.gov.au Anthony Slatyer, Member, IACID M: +61 4170 40 158, E: tony.slatyer@gmail.com Karlene Maywald, Member IACID E: Karlene.maywald@gmail.com Erik Schmidt, Member, IACID M: +61 423 029 976, E: Erik.schmidt@usq.edu.au Steve Whan, Member, IACID P: +61 2 6273 3637, M: +61 429 780 883, E: ceo@irrigators.org.au Christine Delphin, Secretariat P: +61 7 3517 4000, E: chris.delphin@irrigation.org.au

their use cycle. It is these innovative approaches, called nonconventional, that were the subject of intense discussion.

What emerged was agreement on the need to take much more of a systems approach when planning for availability of water resources for irrigation and drainage. A systems approach is underpinned by the premise that natural resources such as water, soil and vegetation are intricately linked to form a system. The most efficient and effective way of ensuring the future health and sustainability of the system - and those who rely on it - is to manage it in integrated fashion. This requires a different way of thinking as well as flexibility.

Another important and related insight from their discussions was that, in a context of water resource availability being highly variable, it is crucial that managers and policy makers look beyond system efficiency to a mix of interrelated approaches to optimising the use of water resources if the world is to be able to feed its growing population.

For the full paper, whose contributors were Amali A. Amali, Adey N. Mersha, Eman R. Nofal, Kathleen Murray, Sahar Norouzi, Shoaib Saboory, Heidi Salo, Sneha R. Chevuru, Mahdi Sarai Tabrizi, Paavan K. Reddy, Abdulrahman O. Abdullahi, Hassan Farahani, Pravin Kolhe, Reza Dowlati Fard, Abdul W. Salik, Abdullahi H. Hussein, Husain Najafi, Mojtaba Poormoghadam and Monday Adiaha, go to the Wiley website.

Momir Vranes, Irrigation Australia Board member and Chair, IACID