rainland

rainland (plural rainlands)

1. An area, especially in Africa, in which water for growing crops is supplied by rain (as contrasted with irrigated land and with floodland).
   • 1937, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, page 697:

     […] about 213,000 acres were irrigated, the rest being rainland and floodland.

   • 1981, D. J. Aidley, Animal Migration, page 213:

     Similar numbers of grasshoppers […] invade sorghum crops in the rainlands of Africa north of the equator, […]

   • 1987, Mohamed Abdel Rahim Mohamed Salih, Agrarian Change in the Central Rainlands, Sudan, page 3:

     I have, however, argued that planned agrarian change in the rainlands has not taken into account the complexity of the ecosystem, the traditional agricultural and pastoral production systems and the likely impacts that it might have on society, economy and ecology. […] Ecologically the rainlands have been subjected to a drastic degradation […]

   • 2003, M. W. Daly, Imperial Sudan: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium 1934-1956, page 185:

     The amount of irrigated land planted in cotton increased slightly during the war, while rainland acreage declined because of the need to grow more food. The irrigated area under cotton rose from about 231,000 feddans in 1939 to 241,000 in 1945, while the rainland area decreased from 137,000 to only 20,000 feddans. Combined with foodland acreage, the total area under cotton actually declined […]