Summary

Water conservation must be examined within the context of a water balance for a zone of specified boundaries.  On-farm conservation may not result in basin conservation, and may actually damage water supplies within the basin, especially if groundwater supplies dwindle.  Conservation must also take place with recognition of water rights, and therefore concepts such as Irrigation Efficiency and Irrigation Sagacity must be well understood.  Because of the diversity of hydrology, there is no single menu of water management improvements which are applicable in all cases.  In the future, more emphasis will be placed upon improving crop yields with a given amount of water consumed, thereby maximizing the utilization of the scarce water resources.