Mansour Esfandiari Baiat - Retired academic member of Fars Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and EducationCenter

Water security is a major issue of concern not only for the arid and semi-arid regions, but also for the international community. In arid and semi-arid countries, like the I.R. of Iran, food production depends heavily on irrigation water, which is supplied mostly from groundwater sources. Mismanagement and overexploitation of groundwater has significant drawdown in water table and deterioration of groundwater quality. This seriously threats not only food security (or human security) but also sustainable life in the regions in near future. Effective and applied programs must be planed and implemented through participatory approach for conservation of water resources. More than ۷,۰۰۰,۰۰۰ ha land is annually irrigated in the I.R. of Iran mainly by different traditional surface irrigation methods. The main problems of the traditional surface irrigation in Iran are non-uniformity of water application and over-irrigation. Uneven fields and poor designs and management are generally responsible for inefficient irrigation, leading to wastage of water, water-logging, salinity of irrigated area and pollution of surface and groundwater resources (Esfandiari,:۲۰۰۸). Making improvement in the efficiencies of the traditional surface irrigation methods, require precision land leveling and appropriate design and management of the farm fields are of utmost importance. Precision land leveling can be performed applying the laser technology. I am the first and only technocrat who has introduced the Iranian irrigators to this valuable technology in ۲۰۰۲ (Esfandiari,:۲۰۰۲). It is worth emphasizing that the common agriculture tractors are employed for land leveling in this method. Laser land leveling has some advantages as compared with other such methods. These include no need for heavy machineries, skilled operators, and large expenditure (Esfandiari,:۲۰۰۴). In addition, we benefit from high accuracy of operation of laser system and less compaction of the soils. Due to the above mentioned advantages, laser land leveling technology has been adopted quickly by irrigated–farmers, skilled tractor operators, private companies and farm cooperatives. Since ۲۰۰۲, ۱۰۰۰ laser leveling systems have been purchased by individuals and companies who do the laser leveling of the fields. One million ha have been laser–leveled in Iran since ۲۰۰۴.

Laser land leveling, water crisis, food security, Iran