Abstract: | Since the severe drought in the Sahel in the mid-seventies, the expansion of irrigated agriculture has occupied an important place in the strategies of development and drought control adopted by the countries of the area. In 1979-1980, a survey was conducted to report on the situation of irrigated agriculture in the Sahel and to prepare an irrigation development programme. A second survey was initiated by the Club du Sahel and the Comité permanent inter-États de lutte contre la sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS) in 1986. This survey resulted in a series of national reports and a Synthesis Report (J. Aviron Violet et al., 1991). The present article summarizes the findings of that Report. The most worrying finding of the survey was the slow pace at which new agency-directed irrigation projects are increasing. Ref. |