Opportunities and Challenges of Irrigated Crop Production in Dry Land Areas. Review

Abstract

Irrigation development is very much needed in developing countries as it enhances land, water and labour productivity and improves use of agricultural inputs. Irrigated agriculture shows significant improvement over rainfed agriculture productivity it provides improved resilience against climate variability improves food security and enhances intensification. Also, with a depleting resource base and with stagnating productivity in irrigated areas, improving the productivity of dryland agriculture is necessary to maintain food security at the national scale.To improve the conditions for agricultural production, investments are needed in soil and water conservation to improve soil fertility, increase soil moisture and allow for supplemental irrigation in critical stages of growth.Generally, over 40 percent of the world area is categorized as dry-land developing countries where its accommodate 2.3 billion people mostly in Africa and Asia, and in these regions about one billion people rely on dry-land ecosystem services through rain-fed, irrigated farming and pastoralism. Dry-land areas are categorized by a scarcity of water, which has an impact on food production. Efficiency in irrigation system would help food production sustain especially in dry-land developing countries. Improvement in irrigation could be extended over an additional 110 million ha in dry-land developing countries, producing enough grain for millions of people where more than half of future increases in crop production are expected to come from irrigated land. There are two types of known irrigation systems, namely large-scale and small-scale irrigation. Most of the dryland developing countries are engaging in small-scale irrigation systems, as they are more affordable than those of large-scale systems, but are still capable of increasing food production. Water harvesting is one of the small-scale techniques of collecting runoff rain water for irrigation purposes and has significantly improved both the yield and reliability of agricultural production. The objective of this review is to examine the Opportunities and challenges of irrigated crop production in dry land developing countries. Ethiopia’s dryland agriculture is a high-risk, low-input enterprise for resource-poor farmers, who frequently use poor quality seed, inadequate and imbalanced fertilizers, and poor crop management practices. Consequently, crop yields are much below their demonstrated achievable potentials. Remedial measures for improving crop productivity include effective rainwater harvesting, land consolidation, improved credit facilities, better soil and water conservation, use of good quality seed, balanced nutrient management, and weed control. Keyword: crop Production, Land Irrigation and dry-land developing countries DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/71-02 Publication date: April 30 th 2021