The basic hypothesis in this paper is that poverty in developing countries can be partly solved by an adequate supply of water for agricultural use through irrigation, The introduction of irrigation will improve and stabilize yearly rice yield, and enable the introduction of new kinds of crops, These effects of irrigation will increase the agricultural income, and will consequently enable the purchase of modern inputs, provide an opportunity for the local children to receive higher eduction, which in turn will result in further increase in productivity. To prove this hypothesis we selected the Nong Wai Pioneer Agriculture Project in North-East Thailand for our case study, as there has been very little research done on this part of North-East Thailand, and is the region which is most striken by poverty. A questionnaire was held involving 75 farm households in villages, in and around the project. The 75 households were divided evenly in three groups depending on the method of irrigation they employed, intensive irrigation, extensive irrigation and rain-fed. From the data collected we verified the agricultural development brought about by irrigation. We also found many obstacles which retarded the agricultural development through irrigation.