Provisioning services: water use in agriculture
Agriculture is the largest user of water in Kenya, and water is the primary constraint to
agricultural production, along with soil fertility. Kenya needs to expand and intensify irrigated
agriculture as the available land for rainfed crops is already overstretched. Agriculture is rapidly
spreading into marginal zones, where production risks from lack of water are high, and irrigation
will be the answer for increasing food production in the future. The main objective of developing
an irrigation system is to supply water to the soil and crop so that moisture will be readily
available at all times for crop growth, regardless of the rainfall availability. Thus, crop irrigation
is vital in order to provide ever-growing populations with enough food. While changing climatic
regimes could result in some increases in water, the projected increases will not match the water
use demands occasioned by increasing population, urbanization and commercialization.
Article source: https://www.fao.org/3/i5603e/i5603e.pdf
