INTRODUCTION - Sustainable Irrigation Development in the White Volta Sub-Basin - page 1

Chapter 1
I NTRODUCTION
1.1 B ACKGROUND
The extreme variability in rainfall, long dry seasons, recurrent droughts,
floods and dry spells pose a key challenge to food production. The sole
dependence of farming on rainfall has been a major cause of low food
productivity, food shortages, undernourishment and famine in sub-Saharan
Africa. The world's hotspots for hunger and poverty are concentrated in the
arid, semiarid and dry subhumid regions of the world which depend solely on
rainfall for food production (Faurès et al., 2007). In large parts of Africa, the
fight against poverty and the prospects to reach the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) has been the focus of governments (Birner et
al., 2005).
Irrigated agriculture has been a major solution used in addressing water
challenge affecting food production in areas of unreliable rainfall patterns.
Global efforts aimed at ensuring food sufficiency by increasing staple food
production have adopted irrigation farming as one of the main strategies.
Approximately 70% of the world's irrigated land is in Asia, where it accounts
for almost 35% of cultivated land. Of the total cultivated area in Africa,
estimated at 198 million ha, just 4% (slightly above 7 million ha) is equipped
with irrigation infrastructure (Svendsen et al., 2009).
According to the FAO (1995) sub-Saharan Africa has an irrigation potential
of about 42 million hectares of which only 17% is developed. The average
rate of expansion of the irrigated area over the past 30 years was 2.3%/a.
Expansion slowed to 1.1% per year during 2000-2003 but has since picked up
as a result of renewed investments by multilateral and bilateral donors and
foundations (You et al., 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa there is thus great
potential for expansion of irrigated agriculture.
Irrigation has historically had a large positive impact on poverty reduction
and livelihoods, in both urban and rural areas, producing relatively cheap
food for everyone and providing employment opportunities for the landless
poor (Hussain, 2005). Through increased productivity irrigation produces
secondary benefits for the economy at all levels, including increased
productivity of rural labour, promotion of local agro-enterprises, and
stimulation of the agricultural sector as a whole (Faurès et al., 2007). About
46% of the gross value of global agricultural production comes from irrigated