In developing and transforming nations the
‘groundwater-irrigation boom’ occurred at various
economic levels (Garduno & Foster, 2010) – from
subsistence farming to large-scale staple-crop
production and commercial cash-crop cultivation. It
has brought major socioeconomic benefits to rural
communities and in many countries has helped to
alleviate agrarian poverty through increasing food
security – by ensuring water availability at critical
times for crop growth and mitigating devastating
effects of drought on crop yields (Shah, 2009).
In South Asia the groundwater boom has also
largely been pro-poor, with marginal farmers of
holdings smaller than 2 ha increasing their
groundwater-irrigated area by three times more
proportionally than farmers with more than 10 ha
of land. And an 8-country study of limited smallholder
irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa, revealed
that small farmers are attracted to groundwater
irrigation because it facilitates the cultivation of
vegetable cash crops for urban markets