Irrigation technology investments without accompanying policies might worsen water scarcity, new study finds

Washington D.C.: Increasing irrigation efficiency through irrigation technologies alone is failing to reduce water consumption and, paradoxically, may even be making water scarcity worse, a major new study has found.

The research – published in Science was led by Professor Quentin Grafton of the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, working with an international and multi-disciplinary team of 11 scientists and economists from eight countries, seven universities and three world-leading research organisations, including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC. It aims to respond to one of the greatest policy dilemmas of today: how to reconcile increasing freshwater demands with finite freshwater resources.

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