This book documents the enthusiasm, spread and use of drip irrigation systems by smallholders in the global South, in an attempt to explore and explain under which conditions it works, for whom and with what effects.

Jean-Philippe Venot is a researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD/UMR G-EAU) and is affiliated to the Water Resources Management group of Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He is currently based at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Marcel Kuper is a senior irrigation scientist at the International Agricultural Centre for Research and Development (CIRAD/UMR G-EAU), France, and a visiting professor at the Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Institute Hassan II in Rabat, Morocco. 　

Margreet Zwarteveen is professor of Water Governance at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, and at the Governance and Inclusive Development Group of the University of Amsterdam, both in the Netherlands.　

Section I: Setting the Scene: Diverse Perspectives on Drip Irrigation 1. From Obscurity to Prominence: How Drip Irrigation Conquered the World 2. Decentering the Technology: Explaining the Drip Irrigation Paradox 3. The Practice of Designing and Adapting Drip Irrigation Systems Section II: Efficiency and Water Saving 4. Re-allocating Yet-to-be-Saved Water in Irrigation Modernization Projects, the Case of the Bittit Irrigation System, Morocco 5. Unraveling the Enduring Paradox of Increased Pressure on Groundwater Through Efficient Drip Irrigation 6. Sour Grapes: Multiple Groundwater Enclosures in Morocco's Saïss Region Section III: Modernization and Agrarian Change 7. Creating Small Farm Entrepreneurs or Doing Away with Peasants? State Driven Implementation of Drip Irrigation in Chile 8. Conquering the Desert: Drip Irrigation in the Chavimochic System in Peru 9. An Elite Technology? Drip Irrigation, Agro-Export and Agricultural Policies in Guanajuato, Mexico 10. Collective Drip Irrigation Projects between Technological Change and Social Construction: Some observations from Morocco Section IV: Poverty and Development 11. Historical Perspective on Low-Cost Drip Irrigation Design and Promotion 12. Low Cost Drip Irrigation in Zambia: Gendered Practices of Promotion and Use 13. The Conundrum of Low Cost Drip Irrigation in Burkina Faso: Why Development Interventions that Have Little to Show for Continue 14. The Mysterious Case of the Persistence of Donor-and-NGO-Driven Irrigation Kit Investments for African Smallholder Farmers Section V: Alliances, Networks and Innovation 15. 'Bricolage' as an Everyday Practice of Contestation of Smallholders Engaging with Drip Irrigation 16. The 'Innovation Factory': User-Led Incremental Innovation of Drip Irrigation Systems in the Algerian Desert 17. Intermediaries in Drip Irrigation Innovation Systems: A Focus on Retailers in the Saïs Region in Morocco 18. Drip Irrigation and State Subsidies in India: Understanding the Success of the Gujarat Green Revolution Company Postscript: A Dialectic Inquiry in the World of Drip Irrigation