The South African Water Research Commission has supported research into rainwater harvesting. Studies in arid, semiarid, and humid regions have confirmed that techniques such as mulching, pitting, ridging, and modified run-on plots are effective for small-scale crop production. Hydrofracturing has regularly been used to improve the performance of water boreholes. From 1990 to 1992, 170 boreholes had been hydrofractured.
