Current status and recent trend of irrigation water use in China*

ABSTRACT China's irrigation water use witnessed a continuously increasing trend from 1949 to 1990, while it has begun to show a decreasing one with fluctuations since then. During 2003–2013, the amount of agricultural water use, of which over 95% is for irrigation, increased to a peak value of 392 × 10 9 m 3 . In 2017, it decreased to 377 × 10 9 m 3 and accounted for 62.3% of total water use for the whole of China. It can be concluded that irrigation water use has reached its limit in China. In the northern part of China, the water scarcity situation sets a cap on irrigation water use, which will have further competition from environmental water use. In the southern part of China, the limited amount of irrigable land sets a cap on irrigation water use, which will have further competition from urbanization. Water‐saving policies and high‐efficiency irrigation technologies have been adopted by the Chinese government as the national strategy for sustainable irrigation water use. The challenges of irrigation development faced by China are increasing water productivity to reduce water consumption in north‐west China, reducing groundwater exploitation to restore aquifers in north China, increasing food production to ensure national food security in north‐east China, and promoting water conservation to control pollution in the southern part of China. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.