Resource information
Food insecurity and income poverty are
rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thirty-one percent of
children under the age of five are malnourished and some 72
percent of the population lives on less than US$2 day.
Forty-one percent lives on less than US$1 day. The
impoverished and hungry are concentrated disproportionately
in rural areas and rely mainly on the consumption and sale
of agricultural produce for their food and income. Africa
has experienced increasing dependency on food imports that
its countries cannot afford. Yet an estimated 700,000
hectares of arable land in Africa remains uncultivated. It
is land that could become productive through small-scale
irrigation using basic technology to draw on small-water
resources, such as tube wells, and dambos. The technologies
can be applied to cultivate smallholder plots of up to five
hectares. Employing them will enable up to 4 million
low-income households to intensify agricultural production
and increase productivity. Small-scale irrigation can
increase agricultural productivity and production, thus
contributing to economic growth in rural areas and increased
well-being among small holder farmers. Its potential to
increase and stabilize food supply is especially important
in light of the ongoing food crisis, and especially in
Africa. Expanding the use of small-scale irrigation requires
farmers to have access to financial services. The many
constraints and obstacles that rural financial institutions
in Africa confront must be purposefully navigated if
financial services are to fulfill this role. Effectively
tailoring financial services and products to support
irrigation in different settings and among different client
groups will be essential to success. Carefully targeting
grant funding to the very poorest subsistence farmers and
clearly separating it from lending will be likewise be
critical to the sustainability of these financial services.
