Water and food security are intimately connected. It is no accident that many of the nearly 800 million people in the world who still go hungry live in water-scarce regions. When FAO launched its Special Programme for Food Security in 1994, it was well aware that limited access to water was often a major constraint to increasing food production. The effect of this trend will be small but noticeable by the year 2030.More importantly, we believe that the efficiency with which irrigation water is used can be greatly increased over the coming 30 years - from an average 43 percent to about 50 percent