Future irrigation water demand in Kenya (2030)
Kenya, like many countries in East Africa, is endowed with impressive water resources in some areas and critical water-deficit conditions in others. Kenya’s renewable water resources are estimated at 20.6 billion m3
of surface water per year and 56.0 billion m3 of groundwater per
year (Republic of Kenya, 2013). 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. The amounts of irrigation water that will be needed to meet Kenya’s development goals by 2030 are shown in Table 7. To meet this demand, the country’s goal under Vision 2030 is to increase the new irrigated area from 105 800 ha in 2006 to 1.2 million ha by 2030.
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