Status of water use in agriculture and strategies on water-saving irrigation in Southwest China

Water resources in southwest China are generally abundant, but its temporal and spatial distributions are not suitable to agricultural production. And many irrigation projects there have gone wrong. At the same time, a lot of water is wasted during irrigation, so there is usually a water shortage when the drought comes. This poses a grave threat to agricultural production and even to farmer's daily life. The current situation of agricultural water resources, utilization of water in agriculture and irrigation system in Southwest China was analyzed and strategies on water saving in agriculture, such as a combination of water-saving and agricultural industrialization, integration of relevant technologies, measures and policies, enhancement of R and D in water-saving, strengthening the construction of basic watering facilities and leveling fields, development and application of appropriate technologies and establishment of a good system of laws and policies were put forward in this paper.