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- Agriculture—including irrigation, livestock watering and cleaning, and aquaculture accounts for about 69 percent of the world's water withdrawals and is the largest water user.
- The importance of agricultural water withdrawal is highly dependent on both climate and the place agriculture holds in the economy; it ranges from 21 percent of the total water withdrawal in Europe to 82 percent in Africa.
- 27 countries dedicate more than 90 percent of their water withdrawal to agriculture, and 8 countries even more than 95 percent.
- 36 countries dedicate less than 10 percent of their water withdrawal to agriculture, and 24 countries less than 5 percent, most of them located in the non-Mediterranean countries of Europe, where both the climate is moderate and the place of agriculture in the economy is lower.
- The total annual irrigation water requirement accounts for 1,500 km3 globally. To meet this requirement, around 2,700 km3 is withdrawn from renewable, non-renewable and non-conventional sources of water (such as direct use of wastewater and agricultural drainage water) and, in very few cases — desalinated water.
- Depending on diet and lifestyle, about 2,000 to 5,000 litres of water is said to be used to produce a person's daily food and meet the daily drinking water and sanitation requirements.
Today's info graphic information is from FAO. 2016. AQUASTAT website.