Agriculture, food and water - FAO.org

20 CHAPTER 3 The use of water in agriculture
Map 1 Area equipped for irrigation as percentage of cultivated land by country (1998)
No data
0 – 5%
5 – 10%
10 – 20%
20 – 40%
> 40%
Source: FAOSTAT, 2002.
Map 1 shows irrigated land as percentage of arable land in developing countries. A high proportion
of irrigated land is usually found in countries and regions with an arid or semi-arid climate.
However, low proportions of irrigated land in sub-Saharan Africa point also to underdeveloped
irrigation infrastructure. Data and projections of irrigated land compared to irrigation potential
in developing countries are shown in Figure 5. The irrigation potential figure already takes into
account the availability of water. The graph shows that a sizeable part of irrigation potential is
already used in the Near East/North Africa region (where water is the limiting factor) and in Asia
(where land is often the limiting factor), whereas a large potential is still unused in sub-Saharan
Africa and in Latin America.
According to FAO forecasts, the share of irrigation in world crop production is expected to
increase in the next decades. In particular in developing countries, the area equipped for irrigation
is expected to have expanded by 20 percent (40 million ha) by 2030. This means that 20 percent
of total land with irrigation potential but not yet equipped will be brought under irrigation, and
that 60 percent of all land with irrigation potential (402 million ha) will be in use by 2030. The net
increase in irrigated land (40 million ha, 0.6 percent per year) projected to 2030 is less than half the
increase over the preceding 36 years (99 million ha, 1.9 percent per year). The projected slowdown
in irrigation development reflects the projected lower growth rate of food demand, combined with