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The core of this paper consists of an analysis of the forces and conducive conditions which historically have driven the drainage development of agricultural land. Such forces and conditions are recognised at three levels of discretion: (i) the generic level (ii) the government level (iii) the on‐farm level. The drainage development for salinity control of irrigated land in the (semi) arid zone is treated as a special case of drainage development driven by its own specific forces and considerations. Relevant comparisons have also been made with the development and adoption of other agricultural technologies such as farm mechanisation the seed–fertiliser package and irrigation. It is concluded that drainage development in regular rainfed agricultural land is primarily driven by its (farm) economic utility as an instrument for achieving more profitable land use and for overcoming constraints to further agricultural development. For drainage development to become a priority the level of agricultural development must generally have passed the threshold level at which the prevailing drainage conditions of the land have become a critical constraint to higher yields crop choice and efficient farm operations.
