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Concept
Rainfed agriculture
Summary
Rainfed agriculture is a type of farming that relies on rainfall for water. It provides much of the food consumed by poor communities in developing countries. E.g., rainfed agriculture accounts for more than 95% of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa, 90% in Latin America, 75% in the Near East and North Africa, 65% in East Asia, and 60% in South Asia.
There is a strong correlation between poverty, hunger and water scarcity in part because of the dependencies on rainfed agriculture in developing economies. Moreover, because of increased weather variability, climate change is expected to make rain-fed farmers more vulnerable to climate change.
Rainfed agriculture is distinguished in most of the literature from irrigated agriculture, which applies water from other sources, such as freshwater from streams, rivers and lakes or groundwater. As farmers become more aware of and develop better water resource management strategies, most agriculture exists on a spectrum between rainfed and irrigated agriculture.
There is a correlation between poverty, hunger, and water scarcity. The UN Millennium Development Project has identified the ‘hot spot’ countries in the world suffering from the largest prevalence of malnutrition. These countries coincide closely with those located in the semi-arid and dry sub-humid hydroclimates in the world (i.e., savanna and steppe ecosystems), where rainfed agriculture is the dominant source of food and where water constitutes a key limiting factor to crop growth. Of the 850 million undernourished people in the world, essentially all live in poor, developing countries, which predominantly are located in tropical regions.
Levels of productivity, particularly in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, are low due to degraded soils, high levels of evaporation, droughts, floods and a general lack of effective water management. A major study into water use by agriculture, known as the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, coordinated by the International Water Management Institute, noted a close correlation between hunger, poverty, and water.
Official source
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Related publications (5)
Limited role of soil texture in mediating natural vegetation response to rainfall anomalies
Evidence suggests that the response of rainfed crops to dry or wet years is modulated by soil texture. This is a central tenet for certain agronomic operations in water-limited regions that rely on spatial distribution of soil texture for guiding precision ...
2022Related concepts (5)
Effects of climate change on agriculture
The effects of climate change on agriculture can result in lower crop yields and nutritional quality due to drought, heat waves and flooding as well as increases in pests and plant diseases. Climate change impacts are making it harder for agricultural activities to meet human needs. The effects are unevenly distributed across the world and are caused by changes in temperature, precipitation and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels due to global climate change. In 2019, millions were already suffering from food insecurity due to climate change.
Water security
The aim of water security is to make the most of water's benefits for humans and ecosystems. The second aim is to limit the risks of destructive impacts of water to an acceptable level. These risks include for example too much water (flood), too little water (drought and water scarcity) or poor quality (polluted) water. People who live with a high level of water security always have access to "an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production".
Water resources
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slightly over two-thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. Natural sources of fresh water include surface water, under river flow, groundwater and frozen water.