Standards are important tools for all members of the irrigation community. A complete irrigation standards program includes not only the standards documents, but also standards development procedures, testing and enforcement mechanisms for standardscompliance, and vehicles for communication with all interested parties. Standards benefit the irrigation community by: facilitating comparable product information; setting performance and safety minimums; ensuring compatible connections; protecting consumers and suppliers alike from substandard equipment; and setting consistent procedures for field evaluation and acceptance. Benefits of special significance in. developing irrigation markets include: assisting local manufacturers to improve and maintainquality; providing consumers with reliable and comparable technical information on products, systems, and practices; aiding educational efforts; and facilitating technology transfer. Irrigation standards in developing markets encourage the adoption of high efficiency technologies because product failures are minimized. Case study results from Egypt support these observations. Many irrigation markets throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, like Egypt, depend on a combination of locally produced and imported technologies, suggesting that the principles presented here may have widespread application.
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