Agricultural irrigated land
Agricultural irrigated land (percentage of total agricultural land)https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.IRIG.AG.ZS
| Title | Agricultural irrigated land |
| Unit of measure | Percentage of total agricultural land |
| Source data | World Bank |
| Original data source | Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) |
| Statistical concepts and definition | Irrigated agricultural area refers to an area equipped to provide water (via artificial means of irrigation such as by diverting streams, flooding, or spraying) to the crops. In non-irrigated agricultural areas, production of crops is dependent on rain-fed irrigation. Agricultural land constitutes only a part of any country's total area, which can include areas not suitable for agriculture, such as forests, mountains, and inland water bodies. Agricultural land can also be classified as irrigated and non-irrigated land. In arid and semi-arid countries agriculture is often confined to irrigated land, with very little farming possible in non-irrigated areas. |
| Relevance | Worldwide, irrigated agriculture accounts for about four-fifths of global water withdrawals. The share of irrigated land ranges widely, from 4 percent of the total area cropped in Africa to 42 percent in South Asia. The leading countries are India and China with about 30 percent and 52 percent of all croplands irrigated, respectively. Without irrigation and drainage, much of the increases in agricultural output that has fed the world's growing population and stabilized food production would not have been possible. In the dry sub-humid countries, irrigation is critical for crop production. Due to highly variable rainfall, long dry seasons, and recurrent droughts, dry spells and floods, water management is a key determinant for agricultural production in these regions and is increasingly becoming more important with climate change. The World Bank estimates that rainfed agriculture is most significant in Sub-Saharan Africa where it accounts for about 96 percent of the cropland. Irrigation continues to be an important source of productivity growth, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America that still have large untapped water resources for agriculture. In other regions where the scope for further expanding irrigated agriculture is limited, more efforts are needed to enhance the policy, technical, and governance aspects of agricultural water use. |
| Sector coverage | Infrastructure |
| Data compilation | The data are collected by the FAO from official national sources through annual questionnaires and are supplemented with information from official secondary data sources. The secondary sources cover official country data from websites of national ministries, national publications and related country data reported by various international organizations. FAO sets standard definitions and reporting methods, but complete consistency across countries and over time is not possible. Thus, data on agricultural land in different climates may not be comparable. For example, permanent pastures are quite different in nature and intensity in African countries and dry Middle Eastern countries. |
| Relationship* | -1 |
* This field expresses the impact on vulnerability. The minus sign indicates that it has a vulnerability-decreasing impact (positive impact on resilience), and the plus sign indicates a vulnerability-increasing impact.