Water usage in agriculture

[anise]

A significant amount of water is used for agriculture in Central Asia, Africa, and South East Asia, with 88, 84, and 81 percent of total water usage respectively, while North America’s agriculture consumes almost half as much water (39%) as the other three areas mentioned earlier. Also, Europeans consume the least amount of water for agricultural purposes.

1. Is the sentence above grammatically correct?
2. Which of the following sentences is correct or which one sound better? "Agriculture in North America consumes almost half as much water (39%) as that in those areas mentioned earlier." or "North America’s agriculture consumes almost half as much water (39%) as the other three areas mentioned earlier."?

 

[probus]

1. On the assumption that you mean the first of your two sentences, yes, it is grammatically correct.

2. There isn't much to choose between your two alternatives, but the second sounds a little more natural to my ear.

Note that I have changed your thread title. Thread titles ahould include some or all of the words asked about.

 

[emsr2d2]

Which of the following sentences is correct? or If they're both correct, which one sounds better?

1. "Agriculture in North America consumes almost half as much water (39%) as that in those areas mentioned earlier." or
2. "North America’s agriculture consumes almost half as much water (39%) as the other three areas mentioned earlier."

It makes it difficult for us to choose between two options when you change more than one part of it. I would go with a combination of the two. I'd open with "Agriculture in North America" (or "North American agriculture") and end with "as the [other] three areas mentioned earlier".