The current state of irrigated agriculture in Ecuador is reviewed, and recommendations are made for improving national hydraulic and irrigation planning to maximize social benefits. Setting the context is a discussion of the Government of Ecuador's (GOE) administrative capacity for irrigation and lessons learned from rural development activities; the failure of public irrigation projects to live up to estimations is addressed. Future irrigation programs, including those in frontier and colonization regions, must be capable of helping meet a demand for food that is expected to double by the year 2000. The report's major conclusion is that the GOE should devote considerable effort to upgrading all existing irrigation works and irrigation methods (in both public and private systems) and to expanding the amount of agricultural land under irrigation. A final section of the report presents a lengthy description of the range of strategies and policy options for irrigation development. An 18-item list of references (1972-82) and 4 appendices are included.