Irrigated Agriculture vs.

Rain-Fed Agriculture
under Sustainability: Literature Review

Globally, rainfed crop yields are about 50% lower than yields obtained under irrigated
conditions. The low productivity of rainfed agricultural systems is the main factor that accentuates
hunger, poverty, unemployment, and illegal migration in Central America and other regions in Latin
America. Because of Rainfall dependence, farmers can cultivate their crops during only one growing
season per year, with high vulnerability to periodic droughts and flooding. Climatic conditions in this
region are difficult for agriculture because of the unimodal pattern of precipitation that permits cultivating
crops only during a 6-months rainy season. (Jamillo, Graterol and Pulver, 2020) [1]. In many areas,
increasing population has placed substantial pressure on rainfed cropland. The challenges of low and
depleting essential nutrients and organic matter in soils are prevalent on rainfed croplands. Moreover, due
to the fact of expanded climate variability, climate change, is anticipated to make rainfed farmers more
vulnerable to local weather change. (Thakur et al., 2022). [2] Low and sporadic rainfall in rainfed
cultivated regions impacts crop water uptake and nutrient mineralization in soil of poor fertility. (Phogat
et al., 2023). [3]
23 m/ha is suitable for crop production and nearly 25 percent of total cultivated area is designated for
rainfed agriculture. Unfortunately, Rain-fed agriculture is constrained with multifarious problems such as
moisture stress, soil erosion and crusting, nutrient deficiency, depletion and poor nutrient use efficiency,
and weed infestation limiting the yield potential of these lands. (Baig, Shahid & Straquadine, 2013). [4]
Rainfed agricultures covers 80% of the world’s cultivated land and produces 60% of total crop
production. The relatively low productivity in rainfed agriculture is often due to limited water and nutrient
availability, degraded soils, and poor water and nutrient management. It is still unclear whether rainfed
double cropping systems can sustain in the long term without irrigation. (Qin et al., 2015). [5] The
sustainable use of irrigation water is a priority for agriculture in arid areas. So, under scarcity conditions
and climate change considerable effort has been devoted over time to introduce policies among to
increase water efficiency based on the assertion that more can be achieved with less water through better
management. [7] In Water source regions, irrigation scheduling is more important than under conditions
of abundant water since any excess in water use is a potential cause of deficit for other users or uses.
(Chatzoulakis and Bertaki, 2015). [8]
Irrigation water use is nearly 80% of total demand, but irrigation system efficiency is nearly 30-40%;
nearly 70% of total cultivable land is under rainfed agriculture with mono-cropping and low productivity;
Substantial quantity of water losses during conveyance of drinking water supply and leakage of sewage
system leads to the contamination of groundwater and needs social awareness on future water capacity.
[9] In India, the proportion of cultivated land under rainfed agriculture is 127m/ha, which approximately
70% of the total cultivated land. However, the complexity of problems associated with rainfed agriculture
is more than the irrigated agriculture. It demands for an in-depth analysis if the rainwater management
problem in rainfed agriculture and development of a cost-effective technology for sustainable agricultural
production. Due to the vagaries of monsoon, there is poor yield in the rainfed ecosystem and it shows a
high degree of instability. (Panda and Kharagpur, 2018). [10] Given the fact that irrigated agriculture is
claimed to be less sensitive to changes in climate than rainfed agriculture. It should be an eye-opening
fact to see that within irrigated agriculture, marginal increases in temperature and precipitation have
significantly different impacts all over the world. (Vanschoenwinkel et al., 2016). [11] Nowadays, farmers
consider water management options across a spectrum that ranges from purely rainfed farms to purely
irrigated farms. This might explain differences in their climate responsiveness. For instance, during
periods of droughts or in water scarce regions, agriculture often relies on irrigation for its water
requirements. (Finger et al., 2011). [12] Irrigated farms are less sensitive to climate change since
irrigation has a moderating effect. (Kurukulasuriya et al., 2006). [13] It reduces dependency on and
uncertainly of rainfall patterns and decreases interannual variability of production. (Tubiello, 2005). In
Europe and China, on average irrigated agriculture appear to be less sensitive than rainfed agriculture.
(Van Passel et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2009). [14] Yet, in Mexico the marginal effect of temperature (MEt)
and marginal effect of precipitation (MEp) are more optimistic for rainfed agriculture than for irrigated
agriculture. (Mendelsohn et al., 2009; Vanschoenwinkel and Van Passel, 2018). [15]
The presence of crop residues on the soil surface and cover crops increased the soil roughness and
dissipates the energy load of raindrops before they hit the soil surface. Currently only 18% of cultivated
land on the planet is irrigated and from have 40% of agricultural production is obtained. Increasing the
irrigated area does not seem possible, as it is impossible that water resources will increase. However,
unconventional waters many contribute to the water potentially available for irrigation; Rainfall ensures
the natural renewal of water resources, however strong differences of water availability may exist at local
scales to regions with abundant water resources there are others where due to insufficient rainfall, the
drought period extends for months. However, when referring to irrigation it should be considered a fact
that part of the water supplied to the field crops returns in the environment. In fact, any excess water that
is supplied with irrigation cannot be considered lost in an absolute sense because its final destination is in
the aquifer, where water continues the hydrological cycle. (Mastrorilli and Zucaro, 2016). [16]
Expanding irrigation only currently underperforming rainfed croplands is crucial to meet future global
food demand without further agricultural expansion and associated encroachment of natural ecosystems.
Despite irrigation being one of the land management practices with the largest environmental and
hydroclimatic impacts, the role of irrigation to adapt agriculture to climate change and achieve global
sustainability goals has just started to be quantified. (Rosa, 2022). [17] In fact, irrigated areas account for
18% of global croplands but contribute to about 40% of global food production. (Chartzoulakis and
Bertaki 2015; Food Agriculture Organization, 2019). [18] At the same time, 40% of global irrigation
practices are unsustainable because they deplete environmental flows and/or groundwater stocks. (Wada
and Bierkens, 2014; Rosa et al., 2018). [19] While from the farmer’s perspective, irrigation is sustainable
when it provides uninterrupted access to water resources at a price not exceeding the marginal revenue
they generate (clearly without accounting for environmental externalities), from the standpoint of water
resources. Irrigation is sustainable if it does not deplete freshwater stocks or environmental flow. (Borsato
et al., 2020). [20]
CITATION:

Jaramillo, S., Graterol, E., & Pulver, E. (2020). Sustainable Transformation of Rainfed to Irrigated Agriculture Through
Water Harvesting and Smart Crop Management Practices. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.437086

Aakash, Thakur, N. S., Singh, M. K., Bhayal, L., Meena, K., Choudhary, S. K., Kumawat, N., Singh, R. K., Singh, U. P.,
Singh, S. K., Sanodiya, P., Kumar, A., & Singh, A. K. (2022). Sustainability in Rainfed Maize (Zea mays L.) Production
Using Choice of Corn Variety and Nitrogen Scheduling. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(5).
https://doi.org/10.3390/su14053116

Phogat, V., Šimůnek, J., Petrie, P., Pitt, T., & Filipović, V. (2023). Sustainability of a Rainfed Wheat Production System
in Relation to Water and Nitrogen Dynamics in the Soil. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.0993.v1

Baig, M., Shahid, S., & Straquadine G. (2013). Making Rainfed agriculture sustainable through Environmental-
friendly technologies in Pakistan: A Review. International Soil and Water Conservation Research.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2095-6339(15)30038-1

Qin, W., Wang, D., Guo, X., Yang, T., & Oenema, O. (2015). Productivity and sustainability of rainfed wheat-soybean
system in the North China Plain: Results from a long-term experiment and crop modelling. Scientific Reports, 5.
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep17514

Chartzoulakis, K., & Bertaki, M. (2015). Sustainable Water Management in Agriculture under Climate Change.
Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia, 4, 88–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aaspro.2015.03.011

Panda, S. N., & Kharagpur, I. (2018). Rainwater Conservation and Reuse for Increasing Agricultural Sustainability of
Rain-Fed Upland Ecosystem in Eastern India. Rainwater Conservation and Reuse for Increasing Agricultural
Sustainability of Rain-Fed Upland Ecosystem in Eastern India | Semantic Scholar

Vanschoenwinkel, J., & van Passel, S. (2018). Climate response of rainfed versus irrigated farms: the bias of farm
heterogeneity in irrigation. Climatic Change, 147(1–2), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2141-2

Mastrorilli, M., & Zucaro, R. (2016). Towards sustainable use of water in rainfed and irrigated cropping systems:
Review of some technical and policy issues. In AIMS Agriculture and Food (Vol. 1, Issue 3, pp. 294–314). AIMS Press.
https://doi.org/10.3934/agrfood.2016.3.294

Rosa, L. (2022). Adapting agriculture to climate change via sustainable irrigation: Biophysical potentials and
feedbacks. In Environmental Research Letters (Vol. 17, Issue 6). Institute of Physics. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-
9326/ac7408

Borsato, E., Rosa, L., Marinello, F., Tarolli, P., & D’Odorico, P. (2020). Weak and Strong Sustainability of Irrigation: A
Framework for Irrigation Practices Under Limited Water Availability. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00017