This paper highlights the increasing importance of irrigation for future food security in a changing context driven by economic growth, population growth and climate change impacts. Given the complexity of future irrigation management, it argues for a multilayered approach to water management that boosts ecosystem services and water productivity, promotes water conservation, maintains water quality across agriculture, fishery and livestock, facilitates multiple water use and their supply chains, and adopts bottom‐up participatory approaches right from local to river basin level. It further calls for reforms in policy and institutions and the increased capacity of the stakeholders to address future water management challenges. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.