The legislative intent of this Act is to ensure food safety and agricultural sustainability; promote the development of farmland water conservancy matters; improve the construction, maintenance, and management of farmland water conservancy facilities in order to stabilize the supply of irrigation water needed for the development of agriculture and expansion of irrigation services; maintain agricultural production and upgrade the usage value of farmland; and appropriately handle reform of the system of irrigation associations.

The Competent Authority for this Act is the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan.

Definitions for terms used in this Act are as follows:
1. Farmland water conservancy activities: This refers to the use of manmade or natural methods to undertake farmland irrigation, farmland drainage, or related activities in farmland water conservancy activities areas or within farmland water conservancy facilities areas as demarcated by the Competent Authority.
2. Farmland water conservancy facilities: This refers to structures and their associated structures used for accessing water, drawing water, transporting water, storing water, drainage, or other activities needed for farmland water conservancy under the jurisdiction of irrigation associations (before the coming into effect of this Act) or newly erected by the Competent Authority (after the coming into effect of this Act).

The Competent Authority shall demarcate farmland water conservancy activities areas based on river systems, the geographical environment, and economic benefits and announce these to the public; the same applies to the alteration or elimination of such areas. In cases where such areas infringe on indigenous people’s regions, the Competent Authority shall make public announcements in cooperation with the central Competent Authority for indigenous affairs.
The Competent Authority shall designate irrigation systems within the farmland water conservancy activities areas mentioned in the previous Paragraph, based on the water source situation, overall regional water resource planning and management, agricultural operational planning, and the functions of farmland water conservancy facilities in these areas, and shall announce these systems to the public; the same applies to the alteration or elimination of such systems.
Regulations governing the standards for demarcation of farmland water conservancy activities areas, their alteration, or their elimination (as mentioned in Paragraph 1 of this Article) and the standards for designating irrigation systems, their alteration, or elimination (as mentioned in the preceding Paragraph) and for other relevant matters shall be stipulated by the Competent Authority.