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9.1. African Group
Africa is faced with various problems such as poverty, hunger and access to
clean water. According to WHO statistics, by the year 2002, about 12-14 million people
in northern sections of Africa were affected from poverty, drought and adverse health
conditions. A 50% increase was observed in infant mortality rates just because of
adverse health and nutrition conditions. There are available lands in Africa for
agriculture but agriculture is implemented with primitive methods and there are serious
problems in irrigation practices of the continent. Only 4% of total land resources of
Africa are irrigable, while this value is around 15% in Asia.
African Group countries have an irrigation potential of approximately 10 million
ha. Mozambique and Nigeria represent the majority of this sum respectively with 3
million and 2.3 million ha. The potential for irrigation in other countries is very low
(Figure 9.3).
Figure 9.3. Irrigation potential in African Group
Source: AQUASTAT, 2013
Note: Data not available in Sierra Leone