Global Map of Irrigation Areas

Argentina

Area equipped for irrigation in 1997 was reported at 2 328 829 ha, but 778 596 ha were under rehabilitation so that only 1 550 233 ha were actually used [AR01]. According to the agricultural census the area actually irrigated was 1 065 000 ha in 1970, 1 246 748 ha in 1988, 1 437 275 ha in 1995 [AR02] and 1 355 601 ha in 2002 [AR03]. Sub-national statistics were available by province and district but referred to the area actually irrigated. Area equipped for irrigation by province was estimated by selecting the maximum of the areas actually used for irrigation in the years 1995 and 2002 [AR02], [AR03], [AR04] (table below). Total area equipped for irrigation estimated that way was summing up to 1 767 784 ha. Area equipped for irrigation by district was computed by scaling the area actually irrigated as reported for the year 2002 [AR03] to the sum of area actually irrigated by province as reported in the table below. Area equipped for irrigation by district is listed in this table.

To distribute irrigated area within the districts, irrigated area was assigned to irrigated areas digitized from irrigation maps [AR05] and to areas classified as cropland in the GLC2000 land cover map for South America [AR06] located within polygons digitized from province maps showing the irrigation districts [AR07]. If districts were located completely outside the digitized irrigation zones, area equipped for irrigation was assigned to all cells classified as cropland.

References

[AR01]: AQUASTAT questionnaire Argentina received in 1999 and available in the AQUASTAT library.
[AR02]: FAO. 2000. Irrigation in Latin America and the Caribbean in figures. FAO, Rome, Italy.
[AR03]: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC). 2006. Censo Nacional Agropecuario 2002. Online data base, available at http://www.indec.mecon.gov.ar/, 10/08/2006.
[AR04]: Morábito, J. 1997. Introducción al Riego. El Riego en el mundo, Argentina y Mendoza. Instituto Nacional de Ciencia y Técnica Hídricas (INCyTH) - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.
[AR05]: Instituto Nacional de Technologia Agropecuaria. 1986. Aptidud y uso actual de las tierras Argentinas. Secretaria de Agricultura, Granaderia y Pesca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
[AR06]: Eva, H.D., de Miranda, E.E., Di Bella, C.M., Gond, V., Huber, O., Sgrenzaroli, M., Jones, S., Coutinho, A., Dorado, A., Guimarães, M., Elvidge, C., Achard, F., Belward, A.S., Bartholomé, S., Baraldi, A., De Grandi, G., Vogt, P., Fritz, S. & Hartley, A. 2003. The land cover map for South America in the year 2000. GLC2000 database, European Commision Joint Research Centre, available at http://www-gem.jrc.it/glc2000, 10/08/2006.
[AR07]: Dirección Nacional de Recursos Hídricos. 1995. Areas irrigadas de la Argentina. Identificación y localización de las principales areas bajo riego. Subsecretaría de Recursos Hídricos, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Distribution of irrigated area in Argentina by Province: