It is the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops. It is supply with water by means of pipes, sprinklers, ditches, or streams. Irrigation is the watering of land to make it ready for agriculture. In other word it is the watering of land by artificial means to foster plant growth. Irrigation with wastewater is both disposal and utilization and indeed is an effective form of wastewater disposal (as in slow-rate land treatment). However, some degree of treatment must normally be provided to raw municipal wastewater before it can be used for agricultural or landscape irrigation or for aquaculture. Water resources are used in various ways including direct consumption, agricultural irrigation, fisheries, hydropower, industrial production, recreation, navigation, environmental protection, the disposal and treatment of sewage, and industrial effluents. Irrigation in agriculture, artificial watering of the land, although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. Estimates of total irrigated land in the world range from 543 to 618 million acres