China: Mainstreaming Climate Change in Irrigated Agriculture

Through the Irrigated Agriculture Intensification III Project (IAIL3), the World Bank worked with China to help raise water and agricultural productivity and resource use efficiency, increase high quality and non-polluting crop production, facilitate adoption of techniques leading to ‘real’ water savings, and improve farmers’ livelihood and incomes, benefiting about 5. 25 million rural people in five provinces of Hebei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Henan. Challenge The basin of the Huang, Huai, and Hai rivers (3-H Basin), also called the North China Plain, is China’s most important agricultural region. Severe water shortages in the 3-H Basin threatened both rural income growth and food security and were exacerbated by high levels of water pollution and potential impact of climate change. Water demand in the region was high and growing while available water resources were already allocated and overexploited. Groundwater levels were dropping in many areas, sometimes by as much as one meter per year. See full Press Release: http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2013/12/20/china-mainstreaming-climate-change-in-irrigated-agriculture