In Sub-Saharan Africa, rainfall ishighly variable and, in many places, plainly in sufficient.Although irrigation has the potential to boost agriculturalyields by at least 50 percent, food production in the regionis almost entirely rain-fed. The irrigated area, extendingover 6 million hectares, makes up just 5 percent of thetotal cultivated area, compared to 37 percent in Asia and 14percent in Latin America. Two-thirds of that area is inthree countries: Madagascar, South Africa, and Sudan. The2005 Commission for Africa report, for example, called for adoubling of the region's irrigated area by 2015. Toachieve expansion on that scale, however, we must deepen ourunderstanding of the locations that could benefit most-andof the technologies best suited to those locations. Onepurpose of this study of irrigation in 24 countries,undertaken as part of the Africa infrastructure countrydiagnostic, is to identify agricultural areas, whereirrigation investments promise to yield significant returns.A related purpose is to estimate the amount and scope ofinvestment needed to secure those returns. Water forirrigation can be collected in two ways: through large,dam-based schemes, or through small projects based oncollection of run-off from rainfall.
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