The past decade has witnessed an intensifying focus on the development of irrigation in
sub-Saharan Africa. It follows a 20-year hiatus in the wake of disappointing irrigation
performance during the 1970s and 1980s. Persistent low productivity in African
agriculture and vulnerability of African food supplies to increasing instability in
international commodity markets are driving pan-African agricultural investment
initiatives, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme
(CAADP), that identify as a priority the improvement in reliability of water control
for agriculture. The paper argues that, for such initiatives to be effective, there needs
to be a re-appraisal of current dynamics of irrigation development in sub-Saharan
Africa, particularly with respect to the role of small-scale producers’ initiatives in
expanding irrigation. The paper reviews the principal forms such initiatives take and
argues that official narratives and statistics on African irrigation often underestimate
the extent of such activities. The paper identifies five key characteristics which, it
argues, contradict widely held assumptions that inform irrigation policy in Africa.
The paper concludes by offering a definition of ‘farmer-led irrigation’ that embraces a
range of interaction between producers and commercial, government and nongovernment
agencies, and identifies priority areas for research on the growth potential
and impact of such interactions and strategies for their future development.
Keywords: irrigation; sub-Saharan Africa; small-scale agriculture; technology
innovation