page_title: Agriculture in Bolivia
section_title: Linkages with water resources
hierarchical_section_title: Agriculture in Bolivia / Irrigation development / Linkages with water resources
caption_attribution_description: Bolivia map from CIA World Factbook (since 2 June 2004), converted from original GIF format
context_page_description: The role of agriculture in the Bolivian economy in the late 1980s expanded as the collapse of the tin industry forced the country to diversify its productive and export base. Agricultural production as a share of GDP was approximately 23 percent in 1987, compared with 30 percent in 1960 and a low of just under 17 percent in 1979. The recession of the 1980s, along with unfavorable weather conditions, particularly droughts and floods, hampered output. Agriculture employed about 46 percent of the country's labor force in 1987. Most production, with the exception of coca, focused on the domestic market and self-sufficiency in food. Agricultural exports accounted for only about 15 percent of total exports in the late 1980s, depending on weather conditions and commodity prices for agricultural goods, hydrocarbons, and minerals.
context_section_description: Irrigation accounts for 94% of water withdrawals or about 2,000 million cubic meters annually. Bolivia can be divided into three areas, which correspond to the eastern area (a tropical and subtropical region), the western area (the arid, semi arid and sub-humid dry region), and the Titicaca basin.
  The hydrographic system consists of three large basins: the Amazon Basin which measures approximately 724,000 km2 and covers 66% of Bolivia's territory; the closed (endorheic) basin, which measures 145,081 km2 or 13% of the territory; and the Rio Plata Basin, which covers 229,500 km2 or 21% of the nation's territory.
  The Amazon basin has a high flow of water and it is prone to floods. The quantity and quality of hydrological information is very poor.
caption: Map of Bolivia from the CIA World Factbook.
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