World bank irrigation experience

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Abstract
Irrigation is the largest subsector of the agricultural and rural development sector of World Bank* and IDA lending. The very first loan to a developing country, made in March 1948, was to Chile, to the amount of US$13.5 million, for power and irrigation. Since that time, up until June 1982, agricultural lending has amounted to $26.7 billion, of which more than $10 billion was for some 285 irrigation projects. Total project costs have been about 2.5 times the amount of the loans. Irrigation lending represents almost 10 per cent of all past Bank lending and about 38 per cent of agricultural sector lending. It is also worth noting that 90 per cent of all agricultural lending has occurred within the past decade. The experience gained from these activities has been considerable and varied. It is the primary purpose of this paper to discuss briefly several of the important lessons learned from, and issues raised by, this experience and to indicate some of the guidelines and procedures developed to help address them. In addition, a brief summary is given of the types of irrigation projects funded by the Bank and of some of the overall results of past projects.

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