•     promote irrigation water auditing and scheduling sys­tems, including remote sensing to monitor crop for op­timal timing of irrigation; •     increase training and incentives for farmers to adopt im­proved irrigation practices; and •     improve water harvesting methods including the con­struction of dams and water distribution systems.

Removal of excess water
In the future, under conditions of climate change, new in­tegrated land drainage technologies will be required. These can include on-farm water treatment and storage, which can help cope with greater variation in precipitation and tem­perature and periods of excessive rainfall and river flows, help mitigate salinity and improve overall water resource management (O'Connell et al., 2004; Lane et al., 2006; Morris and Wheater, 2006; Thorne et al., 2006).

Genetic developments (using conventional and transgenic technologies) to reduce drought stress
Technologies are now available to alter the metabolism of plants to make them more tolerant to water induced stress. Research could help in determining optimal water require­ments of important crops and in developing new stress re­sistant varieties. There is need to develop crops which are tolerant to low water quality, especially associated with salinity.

Water Quality
There are major concerns in many parts of NAE about wa­ter quality and the consequences for ecosystems and human health (Costanza et al., 1989). In the EU, the Water Frame­work Directive sets the context for this over the next 20 years (Morris, 2007). Diffuse pollution from agriculture is of major concern in many parts of Europe (Pretty et al., 2000; EFTEC and IEEP, 2004; Bowes et al., 2005; Neal et al., 2005) and increasingly the subject of targeted control measures (EA, 2002). In this respect, some of the priorities for AKST include:
•     An integrated approach to water resource management, of which agriculture is part, at the catchment scale (Eng­lish Nature, 2002).
•     Improved integrated understanding of pollutant behav­ior and transport mechanisms within the landscape (ni­trates and pesticides in particular).
•     Suitable  measures to  reduce  diffuse  pollution  from farmland.
•     Evidence of the link between land management, runoff and flood generation and options for on farm water re­tention and storage.
•     Methods for on-site passive water treatment systems such as reed-beds, industrial or energy crops and ac­tive systems such as nano-based filtration and purifica­tion techniques using membrane systems to detect and neutralize undesirable chemical, physical and biological properties.
•     Improved understanding of the link between environ­mental water quality and public health (Hallman et al., 1995).

Water policies and water reuse
Ownership and rights to use water are becoming more contentious as aquifers are depleted faster than they are re­charged (Engberg, 2005). Water law and entitlements are typically more complex and less well defined than those for land (Sokratous, 2003; Caponera and Nanni, 2007). Wa­ter reuse is a rapidly evolving water-management tool for supplementing limited water resources around the globe (Lazarova and Bahri, 2004). In this context, future research and investment could help to:
•     Better understand the agricultural use of water and the cost of providing water services.
•     Better appreciate the social, economic and environmen­tal value of water as a basis for sustainable water re­source management.
•     Develop water allocation and distribution schemes to balance food and agriculture with other water needs (Engberg, 2005).
•     Provide water managers and policy makers with deci­sion support tools to guide water resource management and policies that lead to behavioral change and a reduc­tion in water conflicts.
•     Understand the role of water property rights and laws, the benefits of local management of water and the role of collective action by water user groups.
•     Support schemes for water licensing, pricing and, where appropriate, trading to promote water use efficiency.
•     Develop integrated programs to address water reuse, conservation and wastewater reuse  for  agricultural, rural and urbanizing watersheds after having assessed the social and economic feasibility and impacts of water reuse projects.
•     Develop technologies for the exploitation of alternative water sources (e.g., sea water after desalination, air hu­midity after condensation, production of drinking and irrigation water in seawater greenhouses (Pearce and Barbier, 2000).
•     Develop education/outreach programs to foster the de­velopment of criteria and standards for economic and sustainable solutions that will help protect public health and the environment.

AKST will have a critical role in managing the potential benefits and risks of agricultural water use as the resource becomes more scarce and valuable. AKST is required to achieve a much greater integration of ecological land and water management as a basis for sustainable, multifunc­tional agriculture.

6.2.6.3  Potential contribution of AKST to biodiversity and genetic resource management
Agriculture as a whole is based on the human utilization of biodiversity: soil biodiversity, aquatic biodiversity, as well as diversity of plants, animals and microorganisms. Histori­cally, agronomy has led to increased uniformity in the whole farming system in order to facilitate the mechanization and industrialization the whole process (from seedbed to harvest and post-harvest periods) to the detriment of biodiversity. Considering recent advances, it is now obvious that diver­sity and productivity are linked (Hector et al., 2000; Loreau