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With the increasing population and accelerated urbanization, demands for water are rising for different sectors around the world, including in South Asia. Integrated water resource management (IWRM) offers a promising potential to address multifaceted water demands. This study therefore aimed to address this issue by (i) reviewing key issues related to water, land, and food in South Asian countries, (ii) exploring the prevalent irrigation management strategies in those countries, and (iii) examining the IWRM situation based on a Nepalese case study, and it proposes some options to support effective implementation of IWRM. South Asia, the home to 24% of the world's population with only 15% and 7% of the world's arable and permanent crop land and water resources, respectively, is the worst-affected region in the world from undernourishment. Surface irrigation is the dominant irrigation application method in the region, which incurs high water losses due to the lack of flexible water control structures in canal networks. The Nepalese case study revealed a lack of clear institutional arrangements to implement IWRM and disparate and conflicting views about IWRM. Creation and strengthening of basin-level water user organizations, technological improvements, and awareness-raising activities are some potential ways forward to implement IWRM.

This study examined the performance of dairy farming systems in Brazil, Ethiopia, Nepal, New Zealand and the USA, based on existing databases of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and country-specific data sources. There are primarily three types of dairy farming, with pasturebased open grazing being the dominant one in Brazil and New Zealand. In the USA, stall-feeding is more popular, while mixed dairy farming is traditionally adopted in Ethiopia and Nepal. Compared to the mixed and pasture-based systems, the stall-feeding system puts more pressure on water quantity, as the water requirement to produce a given amount of concentrated feed required for a stall-feeding system is higher than to produce an equivalent amount of grass, crop residue and fodder required for pasture-based and mixed systems. Nitrate leaching, and subsequent contamination of water resources, is the biggest environmental problem, with the high-intensity stall-feeding in USA, followed by the pasture-based system in New Zealand, being the most challenging in terms of managing nutrient losses. Irrigation networks with sufficient and appropriate flow control structures, and irrigation scheduling that incorporates plant-available water, soil moisture and plant growth stages, are prerequisites for conversion of low-productive agricultural land into highproductive dairy farming.

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