In West Africa cowpea is mainly cultivated as a rainfed crop from April to November depending on the location.
Some plots have irrigation systems which allow farmers to cultivate the land twice per year with a rainfed crop - often maize or sorghum - and an irrigated crop (often wheat) in the dry season.
Pearl millet is a rainfed crop, and irrigation is rarely used.
Drought is a recurring problem of tea plantations cultivated under rainfed conditions.
Both rainfed and irrigated rice cultivation is practiced in Colombia.
Rice is cultivated in all types of ecosystems (irrigated, rainfed lowland, flood-prone, upland and mangrove) because of the large diversity of landscapes.
Of the 260 Mha of net cropland areas cultivated during 2014, 90.6% (236 Mha) was rainfed and just 9.4% (24 Mha) was irrigated.
Smallholders cultivate maize, sorghum, wheat, chickpeas on rainfed marginal land as well as on high potential agricultural land, mainly for self-consumption (by humans and animals), but as cash crops too.
Moreover, rainfed crops such as wheat, which cover significant parts of PRB, are cultivated during winter.
In rainfed semiarid areas of northwestern China, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L). is usually cultivated in flat fields with spaced rows.
