Population growth and increased global water demand has intensified the need to apply water more efficiently. As the main global water user the agricultural sector needs special attention. In this study, the water saving potential of new drip irrigation systems has been investigated in five different regions in Europe and China. From a technical point of view, these solutions have a high potential to increase the water application efficiency at the farm level. In practice, however, farmers often have low economic incentives to adopt these technical solutions. This study assesses the likely institutional and structural barriers for shifting to more water efficient technologies on farms. To deal with the lack of incentives, a holistic and multidisciplinary assessment approach has been taken to cover the various parameters that may influence farmers' choice of technology. A case study analysis has been designed to collect information on agricultural practices, irrigation systems, water availability, and water administrations in five regions in Greece, Italy, Serbia and China from the EU funded research project SAFIR. Findings from this case study analysis indicate that the incentives to shift to new water saving technologies are low in many of these regions due to low profitability of water savings and various institutional and structural barriers. On Crete, however, attempts have been made with regulation and volumetric water levies, resulting in the adoption of water saving technology. In the two case-regions in Beijing and Henan province in China, there is little incentive for farmers to save water. Instead, attempts in China have been made to deal with water scarcity by using treated waste water for agricultural production. Finally, a number of administrative and economic solutions are suggested to improve incentives to save water among farmers.