Irrigation Expands Slowly

Despite a steadily growing global demand for food and limited opportunities for farmland expansion, the global area equipped for irrigation grew by a mere 0.3 percent to 280 million hectares between 2004 and 2005, the last year for which global data are available. This represents one of the slowest years of growth in the past decade for a technology that is partly responsible for the dramatic increase in global agricultural output since the 1960s.

According to the latest Vital Signs analysis on irrigation:

Irrigated area accounts for about 20 percent of cultivated land area but provides roughly 40 percent of the world's food, supporting yields two-to-four times greater than rainfed farming.
Limited land resources, diminished return on investment due to declining food prices, and social and environmental impacts have led to a decrease in surface irrigation infrastructure such as dams and canals.
In contrast, groundwater-based irrigation that uses pumps and wells is expanding rapidly. In India, the number of wells has grown from fewer than 100,000 in 1960 to more than 25 million by 2008. These individually controlled water sources have left 15 percent of India's aquifers in critical condition.

This new irrigation update includes the latest figures on irrigation capacity by region and projections for irrigation capacity over the coming decades.

Read the Vital Signs analysis, "Irrigated Area Expands Slowly."

Complete trends will be available with full endnote referencing, Excel spreadsheets, and presentation-ready charts as part of our new subscription service, Vital Signs Online, slated to launch this fall.

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