Focus on Proportion of cultivated land (including arable land and land used for permanent crops) that is equipped for irrigation.

 

In 2022, the total area equipped for irrigation represented 23 percent of global cultivated land, an increase of 1.66 percent compared to 2015, when the share stood at 21.5 percent. Southern Asia had the highest proportion of cultivated land equipped with irrigation infrastructure, covering 46 percent of its total cultivated area in 2022, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (32 percent) and Central Asia (25 percent). In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest share, with only 3.8 percent of its cultivated land equipped for irrigation in the same year. Since 2015, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the most significant growth inirrigated areas, with the share of cultivated land equipped for irrigation increasing from 17.4 percent in 2015 to 32 percent in 2022. In contrast, Western Asia and Central Asia saw a decline in irrigated land, with decreases of 1.96 percent and 1.78 percent respectively over the same period (Figure 11). At the national level, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Suriname, and Uzbekistan reported The highest irrigation coverage in 2022, each with over 90 percent of their cultivated land equippedwith irrigation infrastructure. On the other end of the spectrum, 35 countries – primarily in sub-Saharan Africa – had less than 1 percent of their cultivated land under irrigation (Figure 12).

Surface irrigation was the most widely used method globally in 2022, accounting for 77 percent of the total area under full control irrigation, followed by sprinkler irrigation, covering 13 percent, and localized irrigation, at 5 percent. Surface irrigation was most prevalent in Southeastern Asia (99 percent), Central Asia (97 percent) and Eastern and Southern Asia (94 percent each). Sprinkler irrigation had primarily been adopted in Europe and Northern America, where it accounted for 45 percent of the area equipped for full control irrigation, and in Oceania, with 39 percent. Localized irrigation was most commonly used in sub-Saharan Africa, where it represented 33 percent of the equipped area in 2022 (Figure 13). China and India were the countries with the largest area equipped with full control irrigation, with over 70 million hectares (ha) of their territory equipped with the required infrastructure (Figure 14).