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countries. The lowlands area in the COMCEC Member Countries is about three-
quarters of the world’s figure. The area covered by spate irrigation in the COMCEC
Member Countries is about 2.2 million hectares. Asian countries have the largest area
under spate irrigation (three-quarters). The African Group of countries has little or no
spate irrigation. The total area under spate irrigation in LDC countries is one-quarter of
the COMCEC (500 thousand ha). The amount of spate irrigation in the COMCEC
Member Countries is almost 95% of the world’s total (Annex 8). With regard to
distribution of irrigation methods, the COMCEC Member Countries mostly have
surface irrigation (80%) (Figure 9.2).
Figure 9.2. Total Area Equipped for Irrigation
Source: AQUASTAT, 2013
The irrigated area in COMCEC Region is slightly higher than 77 million ha. The
highest amount of irrigated land (61 million ha) is found in Asian Group of countries.
Arab countries are the second with a total of 15 million ha. Furthermore, African
countries have close to 1 million ha, while, LDC, OECD and DEV countries have a
smaller area of irrigated land compared to the COMCEC countries. OECD countries
have 61 million ha of irrigated area and this amount is higher than LDC and DEV
countries.