Irrigation and farm water management in Pakistan

Present irrigation practices and water management techniques in Pakistan are the result of a long process. Through a cultural-historical approach, generic relationships of some present patterns are traced to their origin. The origin of irrigation was probably in small alluvial valleys of Southwest Asia, which is also considered the hearth of seed agriculture. From a simple beginning the irrigation and water management systems have become extremely complicated to support Pakistan's largest irrigation network in the world.Part of the research for this paper was done at the Department of Geography, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany during the summer of 1992.