Mahamuuud Daahir Research

Jigjiga University
College of dry land agriculture

The role of small scale irrigation on poverty reduction
in the case of dolo ado woreda liban zone.
Department of rural development and agricultural
extension.
Research proposal
Name ID
1. Najib mahamed ali ……………………………………R/4761/10

2. Mahamud dahir amardid …………………………….R/2247/10
3. Nura abdi mahamed ………………………………….R/4280/10
4. Almaz ababe ………………………………………...R/0560/10
Advisor: Abdi Mohammed Hussen (PhD Candidate.)

December 2020
Jigjiga Ethiopia
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................9
1.1 Background of the Study.....................................................................................................................9
1.2 Statement of the Problem......................................................................................................................11
1.3. Objective of the Study..........................................................................................................................13
1.3.1. The General Objective...................................................................................................................13
1.3.2 Specific objectives..........................................................................................................................13
1.4. Research question.................................................................................................................................13
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study........................................................................................................13
1.6. Significance of the Study......................................................................................................................15
2. LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................................................16
2.1 Theoretical Literature Review...........................................................................................................16
2.1.1 Concept of Irrigation..................................................................................................................16
2.1.2 Irrigation development................................................................................................................16
2.1.3 Irrigation Development in Ethiopia............................................................................................17
2.1.4 Rational for Irrigation Development...........................................................................................18
2.1.5 Irrigation resources development of Ethiopia.............................................................................18
2.1.6 Small scale irrigation..................................................................................................................19
2.1.7. The role of irrigation in poverty alleviation and rural development...........................................20
2.2 Irrigation methods.............................................................................................................................22
2.2.1 Surface irrigation........................................................................................................................22
2.2.2 Basin irrigation...........................................................................................................................22
2.2.3 Furrow irrigation........................................................................................................................23
2.2.4 Flood irrigation...........................................................................................................................23
2.2.5 Border irrigation.........................................................................................................................23
2.2.6 Sprinkler irrigation.....................................................................................................................23
2.2.7 Drip irrigation.............................................................................................................................24
2.2.8 Irrigation Impact on House Hold Income...................................................................................24
2.3 EMPIRICAL LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................25
2.3.1 The Empirical Evidence on impact of Small Scale Irrigation.....................................................25
2.3.2 Empirical studied on Irrigation utilization and development......................................................26
2.4 Poverty..............................................................................................................................................26
2.4.1 Irrigation-poverty linkages.........................................................................................................27
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................29
3.1 Description of study area...................................................................................................................29
3.1.1 Demographics.............................................................................................................................29
3.1.2 Agriculture..................................................................................................................................29
3.2 Sampling procedure...........................................................................................................................30
3.3. Types and Sources of Data...............................................................................................................32
3.3.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Data...............................................................................................32
3.4 Method of Data collection.................................................................................................................32
3.5 Method of data analysis.....................................................................................................................32
3.6 The study design................................................................................................................................32
4. RESULT AND DISCUSION..................................................................................................................33
4.1. Demographic characteristics of respondents.....................................................................................33
4.1.1 Sex Distribution..........................................................................................................................33
4.1.2 Marital Status.............................................................................................................................33
4.1.3 Education Status.........................................................................................................................33
4.2. Family Size.......................................................................................................................................35
4.3. Land holding....................................................................................................................................36
4.4. Type of farming use for the respondents..........................................................................................37
4.5. Frequency of Production within a Year............................................................................................38
4.6. The Effects of Small-Scale Irrigation on the Gross Income at Household Level..............................38
4.6.1. Income of Sample Irrigating Households..................................................................................38
4.6.2. Income of Sample Non-Irrigating Households..........................................................................39
4.7. Main agricultural products of the area..............................................................................................40
4.8. Expansion farm land.........................................................................................................................40
4.9. Applications and usage of modern inputs.........................................................................................41
4.10. Cash flow and marketable surplus..................................................................................................41
4.11. Food security and Impact assessment.........................................................................................41
4.1.2. Contribution of small-scale irrigation on irrigation beneficiaries..............................................42
4.1.3. Majority of Agricultural Problems in the study area..................................................................43
5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.......................................................................................45
5.1 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................45
5.2. Recommendation..............................................................................................................................46
6. REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................47
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics...................................................................................... 25

Table 2 Family size...........................................................................................................................27
Table 3 Land size of the respondents................................................................................................27
Table 5 Production Frequency..........................................................................................................29
Table 6 Average Yearly Income of Sample Irrigating Households..................................................29
Table 7 Average Yearly Income of Sample Non-Irrigating Households......................................... 30
Table 8 Main agricultural products...................................................................................................31
Table 9 Types of agricultural inputs................................................................................................. 32
Table 10 Number of months of the respondents was self-sufficient................................................ 33
Table 11 contribution of small-scale irrigation in irrigation users................................................... 34
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: sampling procedure........................................................................................................... 22

Figure 2 Age of the respondents....................................................................................................... 26
Figure 3. Type of the farming...........................................................................................................28
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
All praises and thanks be to ALLAH, Most Merciful and Most Gracious, whose blessings enabled
us to perceive and pursue higher ideas of life. He blessed me with good health, intellectual
efficiency, talented teachers and sympathetic friends, whose proper guidance, consistent
encouragement and inspiration enabled me to start this research proposal.
we feel great pleasure and honor to express my heartiest gratitude and deep sense of obligation to
my advisor Abdi Mohammed Hussen (PhD Candidate) for her keen interest, encouraging
guidance, for her valuable advice, insight and guidance from the initiation to the completion of
these senior research project, her open-minded views, help and valuable suggestions for the
successful beginning of this senior research proposal.
Last but not the least, my heartfelt gratitude goes to our family, our parents and our friends who
are always with us in all my life for their encouragement and assistant at day and nights.
VI
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
ADLI: Agricultural Development Led Industrialization
BANRDE: Bureau of Agricultural and Natural Resource Development Experts

CSA: Central Statistics Agency
EDA: Extension development agency.

FAO: Food and Agricultural Organizations
GDP: Gross Domestic Product
HHH Household Head

LA: Local Administrative
MOARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
MOFED: Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
MOWR: Ministry of Water Resource

MSF: Ministry of State Farm
SSAC: Sub-Saharan African Countries
UN: United Nations
UNDP: United Nations Development Programme
VII
ABSTRACT
One of the major factors behind the weak performance of Ethiopian agriculture is lack of
adequate rainfall, combined with variability in the onset and duration of rainfall. Irrigation
development is one approach to address this problem, and it has been given significant attention
in economic development programs in the country. This study examined the impact of selected
small-scale irrigation schemes on crops grown, total income, and the likelihood of poverty at
household level for a particular region. This study was conducted in Dolo Ado Woreda, Liban
Zone. The main aims of this study was to investigate the impacts of irrigation in improving
household income; the contributions of irrigation in increasing agricultural output and the
contributions of irrigation for the production of marketed surplus production in the Dolo Ado
Woreda. The data requires for accomplishment this research report were obtained from both
primary and secondary data. The collection of primary data was involved the use of interview
schedule where as that of secondary data was involved the use of review of related documents.
The Data gathered from respective source was analyzed using descriptive method and was
VIII
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
As world population grew from 1.6 billion to more than 6 billion during the last century and is
expected to reach more than 7 billion by 2020 (Tamrat, 2020), irrigation become a corner stone
of global food security, under developed countries like Africa have more than a fair share of
population increase as their population growth rates are order 3 percent to 3.5 percent per year.
Most of the people in the sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to enough food to meet their
needs for health and production life. Being one of the sub-Saharan countries (SSAC), agriculture
is the primary sources of economic growth and main sector of employment for the majority of
Ethiopian population. For sustainable productivity of agriculture, and irrigation play a vital role
to ensure food security as the rain is on and off. This on and off rain fall leads put irrigation in
agriculture in high priority consideration in development strategy and prevention of future
famines both at national and regional level.
To understand the role of irrigation in income growth and poverty alleviation, it is useful to
review the fundamental sources of economic growth. According to Maddison 2020, there are
three major sources of economic growth. The first is an increase in the amounts of inputs used in
production. Additional inputs can move a country out on its aggregate production function to a
higher isoquant and higher levels of output. The three major inputs in the development process
are population growth (which affects labor availability and labor), natural resource availability
(which affects the cost of environmental factors such as land with its associated soils, water, and
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Forest), and capital accumulation (which affects the availability of man-made inputs).These
sources of growth cause movement along a given multifactor production function. The second
source of growth is a change the way in which a country uses its factors of production,
increasing the amount of output produced by these inputs. These outputs increase can result from
better organization of production or from shifts in the production function. For example, a new
technology can shift the total production curve upward so more output is produced per unit of
input. Increases in scale or specialization, increases in efficiency, or technological change are
examples. In many cases, market conditions (relative prices) can change, in turn stimulating
changes in these factors.
The third source is increased human capital as embodied in people (e.g., improved education and
health) and improvements in social institutions. Human capital can make labor more productive,
contributing to technological progress and increase efficiency (especially when technologies and
markets are rapidly changing.
Agriculture contributes substantially to the many low-income countries. It is often the leading
sector of the economy as source of income, employment and foreign exchange. Agriculture
employs more than 70 percent and contributes 30 to 60 percent of the gross domestic product
(GDP). More than half of the less developed countries population gets their food from own-
production. Agriculture output also is used as an input for industries so it can stimulate the
growth of industrialization. Improving agricultural productivity thus has contributes to income
growth (UNDP 2020).
The current government has undertaken various activities to expand irrigation in the country.
The country's Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI) strategy considers
irrigation development as a key input for sustainable development. Thus, irrigation development,
particularly small-scale irrigation is planned to be accelerated (MOFED 2019).
Ethiopia is believed to have the potential of 5.1 million hectares of land that can be developed
for irrigation through pump, gravity, pressure, underground water, water harvesting and other
mechanisms (MOFED 2020).
Irrigation has served as one key driver behind growth in agricultural productivity, increasing
household income and alleviation of rural poverty, which highlights the various ways that
irrigation could have an impact on poverty.
2
According to Lipton et al. (2020) cited by Haile (2020), there are four interrelated mechanisms by
which irrigated agriculture can reduce poverty, through: (I) it increases production and income, and
reduction of food prices, that helps very poor households meet the basic needs and associated with
improvements in household overall economic welfare, (ii) it protects against risks of crop loss due
to erratic, unreliable or insufficient rainwater supplies, (iii) it promotes greater use of yield
enhancing farm inputs and (iv) it creates of additional employment, which together enables people
to move out of the poverty cycle. In the same way, Zhou et al. (2020) mentioned that irrigation
contributes to agricultural production in two ways: increasing crop yields, and enabling farmers to
increase cropping intensity and switch to high-value crops. Therefore, irrigation can be an
indispensable technological intervention to increase household income.
Poverty alleviation has been largely a result of economic growth (Roemer and Gadgetry 2019).
Because Ethiopia is an agrarian country, agriculture is the leading sector as source of income,
employment and foreign exchange and national economic growth is determined by the
performance of agriculture. Irrigation plays the key role in the performance of agriculture, which
increases income growth. Income growth is essential for economic growth (Hussain and Bitumen
2001). Developing countries that ensure sustainable economic growth can be able to reduce their
poverty levels, building up their democratic and political stability. They also improve the quality of
natural environment and even reduce their incidence of crime and violence (Lazy and Soto 2002).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
A greater part of the Ethiopian population lives in rural areas and engages in form of agricultural
activates. Despite the fact that the majority of the country’s livelihood depends on agriculture, it
still has been found at subsistence level with a traditions practices for a long year with no attempt
to bring improvement. But, we can say that farmers are efficient with existing traditional
technologies on hand. This is the result of majority of farmers of the country is using rain fed
agricultural system with their fragmented plots of land.
One of the major identified means of enhancing productivity in small holding farming is through
promotion of small-scale irrigation development. Therefore, irrigation was the primary vehicles‟ to
get out the deep rooted problem of unpredictable rainfall patterns
Population growth causes agricultural activities expands into marginal land, which leads to forest,
land and water degradation. This environmental degradation can reduce agricultural productivity,
which in turn worsens food insecurity and poverty. In order to respond to growing food demand,
food production should increase. The three methods to increase food production are: increasing
agricultural yield, increasing the area of arable land, and increasing cropping intensity (number of
crops per year). Irrigation has the potential to increase both yields and cropping intensity in
Ethiopia (Awulachew ET al.2019).
Objective of the Study
1.3.1. The General Objective
The main objective of this research is to investigate the role small-scale irrigation
development on poverty reduction in Dolo Ado Woreda.
1.3.2 Specific objectives
 To examine the effects of small-scale irrigation on the gross income at household

level in the study area.
 To analyze the contribution of irrigation in increasing agricultural output in the

study area.
 To determine the difference in prevalence of poverty between irrigating

households and non-irrigating households in the study area.
1.4. Research question

 What are the effects of irrigation in improving households‟ income?
 What are the contributions of irrigation in increasing agriculture output?
 What are the difference in prevalence of poverty between irrigating households and
non-irrigating households?
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study was limited to small-scale located in Dolo Ado Woreda of Somali Regional State,
Ethiopia. This research was only restricted to focus on the role of small-scale irrigation
development and its role in Dolo Ado Woreda.
Every activity has its own constraints so this senior research has faced many challenges and
constraints during the time of data collection in the studied area for instances, lack of commitment
of respondents to provide sufficient information about the role of small-scale irrigation on farmers
because of lack of awareness of the local residents about the importance of research data
collection.
The study only covered 66HH who were engaging in Small-scale Irrigation in 2012 E.C this due to
shortage of cost and budget to cover more households.
1.6. Significance of the Study
In countries like Ethiopia, where drought is a frequent phenomenon, developing irrigation can
play a significant role in achieving one of the nation’s‟ top priorities, i.e., food security. In line
with this view, this study will have an important contribution in indicating the impact of irrigation
on poverty and inequality.
In line with this view, the study of this research will have an important contribution in indicating
the impact of irrigation on poverty reduction. In addition to this, this study can evaluate whether
the existing irrigation schemes in the study area are serving the planned poverty alleviation goal
or not. Moreover, the paper will provide information to both federal and regional level policy
makers that could help decision making processes in developing irrigation projects. More
importantly, this study may enable those who are interested in this matter to briefly see the role
that irrigation plays for poor households in the study woreda.
The study is expected to provide information to the concerned bodies on time and enable them to
take more feasible investment decisions.
The intended research will furnish reliable and valid findings about different socioeconomic factors
to the relevant stakeholders. To this effect the research proposal will have the following
significance.
 It informs policy designers and implementers about the factors that determine the
Sustainability of irrigation development.
 The finding will serves as input in designing future irrigation development programs. It can
be used as spring boards the other researchers who desire to assess the impact of small scale
irrigation on socio-economic development.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Literature Review
2.1.1 Concept of Irrigation
Irrigation is widely defined as the practice of applying water to the soil to supplement the natural
rainfall and provide moisture for plant growth (Up off, 2020).
According to Duperies and De Leaner (2020), irrigated cultivation is agricultural production using
irrigation water in addition to rainfall. Irrigated crops benefit from man-made watering with the
help of water pipes, canals, reservoirs and pumps. The source of irrigation water is surface water or
groundwater. Surface water is obtained in ponds, lakes, rivers and seas whereas groundwater is
obtained underground in liquid or vapor state. (Michelins, 2020) also argued that the primary goal
of irrigation, from farmer's perspective, is to deliver the volume and quality water required by
plants, throughout a season, to optimize plant growth and crop production.
The primary goal of irrigation from farmer’s perspective is to deliver the volume and quality
water required by plants throughout a season, to optimize plant growth and crop production
(Michelins, 2020). Framers attempting to maximize net revenue subject to resource constraints
will select irrigation inputs to achieve a desired level of irrigation success.
Irrigation is the supply of water to agricultural crops by artificial means, designed to permit
farming in arid regions and to offset the effect of drought in semi-arid regions. Even in areas where
total seasonal rainfall is adequate on average, it may be poorly distributed during the year and
variable from year to year. Where traditional rain-fed farming is a high-risk enterprise, irrigation
can help to ensure stable agricultural production (FAO, 2020).
2.1.2 Irrigation development

Irrigation is generally defined as the application of water to the land for the purpose of supplying
moisture essential to plant growth. It is an age-old art. Irrigation was practiced for thousands of
years in the Nile Valley. Egypt claims to have the world's oldest dam built about 5000 years ago
to supply drinking water and for irrigation. At that time basin irrigation was introduced and still
plays a significant role in Egyptian agriculture. According to Edie et al. (2020) irrigation has been
practiced in Egypt, China, India and other parts of Asia for a long period of time. India and Far
East have grown rice using irrigation nearly for 5000 years. The Nile valley in Egypt, the plain of
Euphrates and Tigris in Iraq were under irrigation for 4000 years.
Irrigation is the foundation of civilization in numerous regions. Egyptians have depended on
7
Nile’s flooding for irrigation continuously for a long period of time on a large scale. The land
between Euphrates and Tigris, Mesopotamia, was the bread basket for the Sumerian Empire.
Civilization developed from centrally controlled irrigation system (Schilfgaard, 1994). Research
findings also witnessed that irrigation in China was begun about 4000 years ago. Shanan (1987)
stated that there were reservoirs in Sri Lanka more than 2000 years old. As far back as 2300 BC,
the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi provided that 'If anyone opens his irrigation canals to let in
water, but is careless and the water floods the fields of his neighbor, he shall measure out grain to
the latter in proportion to the yield of the neighboring field.' Other indicator for irrigation
development is found in the stony-gravel limestone desert of the Negev area in Israel. Remnants of
these ancient irrigation systems date back from the Israelite period (about 1000 BC) and from the
Nabattean- Roman- Byzantine era (300 BC to 600 AD). In the absence of permanent water
sources, the ancient farmers developed 'runoff' farm systems that used sporadic flash floods for
irrigating.
2.1.3 Irrigation Development in Ethiopia

It is difficult to know exactly how much irrigated land exists in Ethiopia; however recent estimates
put the total area of land at 160000–198000 hectares. This estimate includes traditional, communal,
private, and public schemes. Many schemes are concentrated (approximately 48%) in the Awash
Valley, where 92% of all large schemes were built prior to 1990 (ACTS, 2020).
The introduction and development of modern irrigation relatively is a recent phenomenon in
Ethiopia, where as traditional irrigation has been in existence for long periods. Private
concessionaires who operated farms for commercial cotton, sugar cane and horticultural crops
started the first formal large and medium irrigation schemes in the Awash Valley (MoA, 2020).
Ethiopia has a long history of traditional irrigation systems. Simple river diversion still is the
dominant irrigation system in Ethiopia. According to Gebremedhin and Peden (2020), the
country’s irrigation potential ranges from 1.0 to 3.5 million hectares but the recent studies
indicate that the irrigation potential of the country is higher. According to Tilahun and Paulos
(2020) as cited by Awulachew et al. (2020), estimates of the irrigation potential of Ethiopia may
be as large as 4.3 million hectares. Traditional irrigation schemes cover more than 138,000
hectares whereas modern small-scale irrigation covers about 48,000 hectares. The total current
irrigation covers only about 6% of the estimated potential land area.
8
2.1.4 Rational for Irrigation Development
Irrigation development has attention and support of policy makers and international donors. A
World Bank country study on Indonesian strategy for sustainable poverty reductions put
irrigation as the most powerful single tools for reaching poor farmers, as the only way in which
the earning power of very small plot of land, over a large area of country can be dramatically
increased. Irrigation provides for small farmers as an opportunity to increase cropping intensity
and double or triple the effective size of holding (World Bank; country study, 1990).
The role of irrigation is meeting world food needs. In this connection, production thinking which
sees production as a sufficient and in itself, contrasts with livelihood thinking which sees
Production as a means of enhancing the wellbeing and livelihoods especially for the poorer
people. With livelihood thinking irrigation is assessed in terms of the adequate and secures
livelihoods that putting anti-poverty effect. An adequate and secure livelihood can be defined
here as a level of asset and stockers and flows of food and cash which provides physical and
social wellbeing for household and protection against improvements. This applies to all members
of household and especially to women, who are most deprived (chamber, 2020).
2.1.5 Irrigation resources development of Ethiopia
Ethiopia has substantial potential for irrigated agriculture. The traditional irrigation is very old in
the country. The traditional small-scale scheme consists in general, simple river diversion
structures that are rudimentary and subjected to frequent damage by flood. Modern irrigation is
the most recent phenomenon in the country and it was started at the beginning of 1960s by
private investor in the middle of awash valley where big sugarcanes, fruits and cotton firms are
found. With 2018 rural land proclamation, the large irrigated farms were placed under the
responsibility of the ministry of state farms (MSF).
Almost all small-scale irrigation schemes built after 2018 were organized in to producer’s
cooperatives (World Bank, 2018).
Ethiopia has an estimated potential irrigable land of 3.5 million hectares of land, out of which up
to 4000 hectares can be developed for small-scale irrigation scheme. Estimated actual irrigated
land area is only about 3% of the potential whatever the development is 74% of the irrigated land
are served by the medium and large scheme were located in awash valley.
9
Annual potential of water resources is about 110 billion meter cube of which about 2.6 billion
meter cube is from underground water which may be used for irrigation Too currently, there are 3
types of irrigation development schemes in Ethiopia. These are:
I. Small-scale scheme: -The size extending up to 200 hectares and involves about 35,900
beneficiary farmers in the area. It is used for production of food crop and vegetables
II. Medium-scale scheme: -it exists with the size of 41,917 hectares and 2,920 hectares under
construction in 1990.The size of the scheme ranges between 200 hectares and 300 hectare
extends beyond one peasant association, requiring a greater degree of government developments
provided through the water resource authority. At first it intended as self-help low cost
development, it latter modified to include commercial production such as coffee, sugarcanes and
cotton.
III. Large scale-scheme:-Are centrally managed state farms for commercial productions and
covering 3000 hectares or more to be designed by water resource development authority and
constructed under its supervision.
2.1.6 Small scale irrigation

Small scale irrigation schemes: Small-scale irrigation systems are defined by the Food and
Agriculture Organization as being controlled by single farmers or farmers‟ groups and are
usually less than 200 hectares. Many development organizations believe small-scale irrigation
methods are an effective way to increase food production.
According to FAO (2019), smallholder irrigation development has shown throughout the
developing world that it can be used as a key drought mitigation measure and as a vehicle for
the long-term agricultural and macroeconomic development of a country.
Small scale irrigation is „Irrigation, usually on small plots, in which farmers have the major
controlling influence and using a level of technology which the farmers can effectively operate
and maintain‟. Small irrigation schemes serve mainly to supplement rainfall and provide a
greater degree of security to peasant farmers (McCormick et al, 2019).
Irrigation has the potential to increase agriculture production and improve the livelihoods of
small scale farmers. Irrigation is linked to poverty reduction through its effect on crop production
and increased farm income. Adequate water supply to crops increases the production available
for household consumption and or sale.
10
Irrigation can enable farmers to have a second and sometimes a third crop planting, increasing
income for the farmer. In addition to increasing overall production, irrigation increases the
reliability and consistency of production (Smith 2019). Irrigation enables the farmer to control
the available water throughout the growing season, which boosts production and reduces
exposure to water shortfalls or seasonal droughts.
2.1.7. The role of irrigation in poverty alleviation and rural development

Since 1960, growth in average cereal yields has largely kept pace with the increase in world
population. It is widely assumed that it will continue to do so until the population begins to
stabilize. Most of the increase in grain production has been the result of yield increases rather
than expansion in cropped area. Projections by FAO, the IFPRI and the World Bank assume that
the further increases in cereal production will come from continuous increases in yield.
However, trends in yield data collected by FAO indicate that the average world cereal yield
would have to reach at least 4 tones/ha for a world population of 8000 million people from its
present level of about 3 tones/ha (Evans, 2019).
The contribution from irrigated agriculture to achieving this goal was critical as irrigation
provides a powerful management tool against the vagaries of rainfall. Irrigation also makes it
economically attractive to grow high-yielding crops and to apply the adequate plant nutrition and
pest control required in order to obtain the full potential of these modern varieties.
According to the IFPRI, while food production will increase much faster in developing countries
than in developed countries, it will not keep pace with demand, and food imports will need to
increase.
Agricultural development based on water conservation and irrigation is often considered a
promising avenue for poverty alleviation in rural areas. For example, the availability of water for
a small domestic garden plot, usually managed by women, can make a significant difference to
household nutrition and thus contribute to improved livelihoods. Water harvesting may make
this possible (FAO, 2019). However, this effect is small scale and irrigated agriculture with its
higher crop yields is expected to have greater impact on the incidence of poverty and
malnutrition. This effect is expected regardless of whether the irrigation project is small or large
scale.
However, recent studies have shown that poverty alleviation as a result of irrigation development
11
Requires that the project be geared towards the needs of the poor (van Koppenet al., 2019). This
includes access to training in the technical aspects of irrigation but also in community
organization and marketing. One of the recurrent problems is the lack of access to credit, capital
or land. Even micro credits have no grace period; repayments typically have to start after a few
weeks. This makes them of little use for the purchase of cheap technology, such as treadle pumps
and micro drip systems. It has been argued that these technologies are profitable within a short
period and do not require a subsidized price for poor people or specific poverty alleviation
measures (FAO, 2018).
Expanding irrigated areas, increasing the control of water and applying high-yield technology in
irrigated agriculture have given rise to large increases in farm income, especially in Asia.
However, this increase has been disproportionately in the hands of the larger peasant farmers. They
are not the poorest of the poor, but their increased expenditure pattern has driven increased
employment of those who are the poorest of the poor.
The latter have little or no land and they benefit little even from agricultural production programs
directed most closely to them. However, they benefit from lower food prices, increased wages and
growth in demand for rural non-farm goods and services (FAO, 2018d; Mellor, 2001; Briscoe,
2001).
Cost recovery from poor farmers for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of irrigation systems
is controversial. Subsidizing these services and providing irrigation water far below cost is
financially unsustainable. Stepped tariffs in which the basic need is provided free to poor people
May work in the case of drinking-water but is difficult to implement for irrigation water.
Monitoring the efficiency of water use in agriculture for many small farmers each using a small
amount of water is expensive, but providing irrigation water below cost contributes to wasting of
Water (FAO, 2018).
In developing countries, agriculture generally produces many non-tradable goods, such as food
crops of lower quality and goods with unusually high transaction costs. This aspect gives
agriculture a prominent role in poverty reduction. It also buffers the national economy from
shocks to international markets in agricultural commodities. For the rural poor in low-income
countries, increased employment opportunities allow them to escape from poverty and hunger.
Because they generally have few skills, the poor are more likely to find employment in the
production of goods and services that cannot be marketed on the international market. Examples
12
Of this type of employment include maintenance of irrigation and drainage structures, watershed
management, and a forestation, and where there is a sizeable storage reservoir; employment
could be found in fisheries, ecotourism and navigation. Thus, increased employment and, hence,
poverty reduction depend on increased domestic demand for these non-tradable, non-farm goods
and services. Agriculture is the principle source of such demand and so it is only with rising
farm incomes that poverty can be reduced and food security increased (FAO, 2019).
2.2 Irrigation methods

Irrigation methods are the systems how to obtain water for irrigation purposes from its sources.
According to Dupriez and De Leaner (2019), irrigation methods depend on several factors such
as topography, water resources, the plants cultivated, the land tenure systems, the growing
seasons and the rain and water regimes.
2.2.1 Surface irrigation

There are only two general methods of applying irrigation water. The first is surface irrigation.
Surface, irrigation means above the ground, and is the method generally adopted in all countries.
There is a great variety of methods of surface irrigation, most of which do not merit serious
consideration, because they either fail to recognize the natural laws underlying irrigation, or their
cost of installation is unaffordable in the current context.
The second is sub-surface irrigation, the application of irrigation water from below. Sub-surface
irrigation has the advantage that water so applied is not subject to such direct evaporation from
the surface as of necessity accompanies surface irrigation.
According to Widtose (2019), surface irrigation methods are furrow irrigation, flood irrigation
basin irrigation and boarder irrigation. The choice and adoption of these irrigation methods are
depending on the nature of the soil, the contour of the land, the head of the water stream, the
quantity of water available and the nature of the crop.
2.2.2 Basin irrigation

A basin is a piece of land, small or large, surrounded by earth bunds in which water is ponded.
The water can be impounded within it to irrigate trees, vegetables or crops grown in patches. The
field is divided in to compartments or checks wholly surrounded by levees. The water is
contained at the upper end and completely fills the compartments until it over flows at the lowest
13
2.2.3 Furrow irrigation
In this method, the water is guided in the furrow or channels that pass through the whole field,
but the water covers only part of the soil surface, so it results in less evaporation. The furrows
are separated with ridges. At each ridge, water is conveyed into furrows that can be perceived as
narrow basins or borders. Furrowing is applied on steep slopes.
2.2.4 Flood irrigation

In flood irrigation, all of the soil is covered by the water applied. It is the least controlled of all
surface irrigation techniques. Water is conveyed in a ditch at the upper part of plot and allowed
to spread over the land in a manner directed by the natural landscape. Flooding is best applied
when the slope is limited.
2.2.5 Border irrigation

The border method of irrigation is an open-field method. Here the land is divided in to elongated
plots confined between low earth banks and configured to slope uniformly from the point of
supply. The land surface should slope gently in the direction of flow and it is generally leveled
laterally, along all cross sections perpendicular to that direction. Water is guided over the land by
field ditches.
2.2.6 Sprinkler irrigation

According to Dupriez and De Leener (2019), Sprinkler irrigation imitates rainfall. It is also
called overhead irrigation. The water is broken up in to fine droplets and falls on the ground or
the vegetation. It is the application and distribution of water over the field in the form of a spray,
or a jet which breaks in to drops or droplets, created by expelling water under pressure from an
orifice.
In contrast to surface irrigation, sprinkler systems are designed to deliver water to the field
without depending on the soil surface for water conveyance or distribution. To prevent
ponding’s and surface runoff, sprinklers are designed and arranged to apply water at a rate that
does not exceed the soils infiltration. Water application efficiency under sprinkling irrigation is
strongly affected by wind, especially during daytime when the air is warm and dry, and if the
droplets are small and the application rate is low.
14
2.2.7 Drip irrigation
The principle of drip irrigation is to wet dry ground with small amounts of water just where the
plants can absorb it. Drip irrigation is practiced in dry, arid regions where water is scarce and
must be used sparingly. Water is delivered to the points via a set of plastic lateral tubes laid
along the ground or buried at a depth of 15-30 cm and supplied from a field main. These tubes
are left in place throughout the irrigation season. Drip irrigation can save water by reducing the
portion of the soil surface that is wetted thus, decreasing the amount of direct evaporation.
2.2.8 Irrigation Impact on House Hold Income

In general maximum yield under irrigation require loss inputs of additional water and marginal
increase in output are often low. In addition irrigation crops tends to respond to increase inputs
of fertilizer especially nitrogen, even at relatively low level of soil moisture, there may be mark
increase in yield when fertilizer are applied largely because the availability of moisture
facilitates the uptake of nutrient. Thus, there are often benefits in irrigation in association with
fertilizer application particularly, where soil available to be dry (Garwood, 2019).
House hold income is complex. It can be generated from farm and off farm activities. Cost
benefit analysis can be computed taking in accordance to all costs and benefits.
Cost benefit analysis and annual household requirement was then cultivated on rain fall and
irrigation agriculture. To see the impact of irrigation on household income lack of income buy
the farmers, no crop rotation long time taking, lack of sufficient funds for service and repair,
poor organization of the world and direct cost of crop production were considered, investment as
government expenditure, other infamies from farm activities were ignore to minimize the
complex nature of household behavior (Onoo, 2019).
15
2.3 EMPIRICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
2.3.1 The Empirical Evidence on impact of Small Scale Irrigation

Chamber, (2019) based on some empirical studies confirms that reliable and adequate irrigation
increases employments landless laborers as well as small and marginal farmers have more work
on more days of the year. A study conducted 10 individuals villages in different agro climatic
regions slows that increasing irrigation by 40% was equally effective in reducing poverty as
providing a pair of bullock, increasing educational level and increasing wage rates (Singh, et al,
2019). Kumar, (2019)
A study by Hussein, et al, (2019), confirms that access to reliable irrigation water can enable
farmers to adopt new technology and intensifies cultivation leading to increased productivity
over all high production and greater returns from farming. This in turns opens up new
employment opportunity, both of farm and off farm and can improved food security and the
quality of life in rural areas.
In Ethiopia a study conducted by Woldeab,(2020) identified that in Tigrey irrigated agriculture

has benefited some house hold by provide an opportunity to increase agricultural production
through double cropping and by taking advantage of modern technologies and high crops that
called intensive farming.
Kennedy madima, (2018), has evaluated the importance of irrigation from different perspective.
In the evaluation of case studies carried in Zimbabwe, mudima reported that the small holder
irrigation schemes were reliable sources of household income. Moreover, the study have also got
a positive impact o wage employment and in that respect highly irrigated villages had higher
wage income as a result of more days of employment and their higher wage rates.
An empirical study conducted by chabayan Zara (2019) in Zimbabwe showed that organic
conditions, rainfall and availability of water tend to determine the extent to which crop is grown
as cash crop. It was observed that there was little variation on between user and irrigation non-
user households in types of cash crop grown. However, irrigation has allowed the irrigation user
households to have two crops per year and to diversity the range of cash crops produced into
high value horticultural crops.
16
Furthermore, the study showed that irrigation user households had a higher percentage of
externally sourced food.
Irrigation user households tended to maximize income their irrigated plots. In contrast, irrigation
non-user households aimed to minimize food because of low incomes from their crops. For both
irrigation user and irrigation non-user households, crop income was dominant.
In the study designed to estimate the economic contribution of the small irrigation to crop
production in Nigeria, onyen, (2019)found that technical change introduced by small – scale
(pump)irrigation schemes is factor based or neutral . And that technical efficiency is higher on
irrigated farms, underutilized land, capital and other farm inputs for which the estimated
regression coefficients were statistically significant. Irrigated farms similarly underutilized
capital and other farm inputs, and over utilized labor and irrigation services. Irrigated farms
employed larger quantities of all variables inputs than non-irrigated farms. In addition output per
unit was much higher on irrigated farms than non-irrigated farms.
.
2.3.2 Empirical studied on Irrigation utilization and development
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to soil for the purpose of crop production.
Irrigation water is supplied to supplement the water available from rainfall and the
contribution to soil moisture from the ground water. In many areas of the world the amount
and timing of rainfall are not adequate to meet the moisture requirements of crops and
irrigation is essential to raise crops necessary to meet the needs of food and fiber
Irrigation is an age-old art, as old as civilization. The increasing need for crop production for
the growing population is causing the rapid expansion of irrigation statistics. Water, being a
limited resource, its efficient use is basic to survival of the ever increasing population of the
world. Our aim to day is to increase agricultural productivity per unit area of cropped land,
per unit time. Scientific management of irrigations water provides the best insurance
against weather induced fluctuations in total food production. This
Is the only way in which we can make our agriculture competitive and profitable
2.4 Poverty
Poverty definitions and measurement have important implications for targeting and policy. The
concept of poverty goes back to the approaches to poverty: acceptance (resignation), charity,
precarious rescue and theft depending on which side of the fence the observer stood.
17
Since the era of mercantilism, the fight against poverty has been marked and consequently, it
was with the advent of the mercantile economy and the urbanization and monetization of society
that the poor had been defined in terms of lacking what the rich had, David (2017) cited by
Abraham(2018).
According to McClelland (2017), “Poverty is where people have unreasonably low living
standards compared with others; cannot afford to buy necessities, such as a refrigerator for
example; and experience real deprivation and hardship in everyday life”. Empirical evidence
shows that poverty rates vary when different concepts and measures are used. There are two
types of poverty, absolute and relative poverty: absolute poverty is defined as the minimum
amounts of essential goods and services a household needed to survive. It is estimated based on
the income needed to purchase these subsistence amounts. Relative poverty is the households‟
standard of living falls seriously below what is believed normal for the society in which they live
(Ravallion 2017).
2.4.1 Irrigation-poverty linkages

There is much literatures argues that irrigation is a major driving factor of the increase in rural
household income through agricultural growth. These studies strongly argue that irrigation
expansion the main policy intervention to alleviate rural poverty.
According to Lipton et al. (2018) as cited by Haile (2019) the four main inter-related
mechanisms to reduce poverty are:
1. Irrigation increase agricultural production and income, for households with access. These
outcomes are observed despite the price decrease that can occur as supply increases (other
factors held constant). The rice decrease can allow poorer households to more easily meet their
basic needs. Household level economic welfare is improved for the poor.
2. Irrigation protects from the risk of crop loss due to erratic, unreliable or insufficient rainwater
supplies.
3. Irrigation enhances the use yield-enhancing farm inputs. The uses of such farm inputs improve
the agricultural production and income.
4. Irrigation creates additional employment. Household and/or laborers are engaged in the
irrigation farming that helps to increase the labor productivity during the dry periods, farm off-
season.
18
Water is a valuable input for agriculture. Irrigation water appears to provide many pathways for
poverty alleviation. The access to consistent irrigation water can enable farmers to adopt
irrigation technologies. Irrigation facilitates the intensity of cultivation that leads to an increase
in agricultural productivity and greater returns from farming. The expansion of irrigation opens
up new employment opportunities in the household that increase the efficiency of labor and land.
This improves farm income, livelihood, and the quality of life in rural areas (Hussain and Hanja
2019).
19
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Description of study area
Dollo Ado is one of the woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Liben Zone, Dolo
Ado is located in the angle formed by the confluence of the Ganale Dorya with the Dawa River,
and bordered to the northwest by Filtu, on the northeast by Afder Zone, on the southeast by
Somalia, and on the south by Kenya. Towns in Dolo Ado include Bekol May, Dolo and Softu.
3.1.1 Demographics
Based on the 2020 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this
woreda has a total population of 111,511, of whom 60,778 are men and 5
0,733 women. While 37,404 or 33.54% are urban

inhabitants, a further 33,869 or 30.37% are pastoralists. 95.69% of the population said they were
Muslim.
A recent study categorized the woreda population as follows: 50% of the people are identified as
agro-pastoralists, 30% as transhumant pastoralists, 15% as urban and 5% as sedentary farmers.
This woreda is primarily inhabited by the Degodia and Hawadle of the Hawiye, and the Garre of
the Rohan weyn Somali clans.
The 2018 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 138,412, of whom 73,678
were men and 64,734 were women; 39,301 or 28.39% of its population were urban dwellers. The
largest ethnic group reported in Dolo Ado was the Somali 133,987 (96.8%).
3.1.2 Agriculture
A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2020 interviewed 8,437 farmers in this woreda,
who held an average of 0.56 hectares of land. Of the 4,708 hectares of private land surveyed,
27.82% was under cultivation, 7.86% was pasture, 56.78% fallow, 1.06% woodland, and 3.31%
was devoted to other uses; the area in woodland is missing. For the land surveyed in this woreda,
20
24.04% is planted in cereals like maize and sorghum, 1.98% in pulses, 0.53% in root crops, and
0.85% vegetables. Permanent crops included 146.06 hectares planted in fruit trees. 41.2% of the
farmers both raise crops and livestock, while 3.35% only grow crops and 55.45% only raise
livestock. Land tenure in this woreda was distributed amongst 85.89% owning their land, 3.1%
renting, and the remaining 11% holding their land under other forms of tenure.
3.2 Sampling procedure

A multistage sampling technique was used for this study; where in the first step was selected
purposively to address small scale irrigation scheme this is done by considering proximity being
potential in Small-scale Irrigation. Then at the second step, a total of two Kebeles namely: jigle
and dogale were selected by using simple random sampling.
The sample size of respondent was taken by using rule of thumb

Rule of thumb Sample size determination formula
N≥50+8*(m) Rule of thumb
N = total population
Where: m = number of kebele
m=2
N≥50+8*(2) =80 where, N≥80
Proportional Jigle total households = 350 Dogale total HHH =450
Total = 800
350*80/800 =35 of kebele Jigle
450*80/800 =45 of Dogale kebele
21
Liban Zone
Purposive
Dolo Ado Woreda Purposive
Jigle kebele Dogale kebele Simple random

350HH(35 respondents) 450HH (45repondents) sampling
Proportional ppn. Proportional ppn.

Jigle kebele( 35 HHH) PPS of kebele
Dogale kebele( 45)HHH)
80 respondents
Figure 1: sampling procedure
22
3.3. Types and Sources of Data
3.3.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Data

In the research both Quantitative and Qualitative Data was used to collect. Quantitate data was
described numerical terms where as qualitative data was described attributes of respondents or
behaviorial characteristics. Also the required data of this study was collected both primary and
secondary sources
3.4 Method of Data collection

Similarly qualitative data was gathered informally through FGD, key informant discussions and
observation of the study area, the patterns and types of activities of people in the study area and
the behavior, etc. The primary data was obtained through interview schedule making with the
sample beneficiaries and none beneficiaries of the scheme. The secondary data was gathered by
careful revised of related documents, unpublished data sources from Bureau of agricultural and
natural resource development at Woreda level and from bureau of irrigation development at zonal
and woreda as well as kebele level. Both sources were gathered from different concerned bodies,
like local Administrative (LA), Extension and development agency (EDA), and population of the
districts.
3.5 Method of data analysis

The data gathered from respective source was organized and classified according to their
similarities. The collected data was coded and entered and analyzed using SPSS version (20.0).
The analysis of the data was involved descriptive types, statistical techniques such as percentage;
frequency that was used. The data was also expressed in clear, precise and meaningful way. The
study focused on the role of small scale irrigation development in poverty alleviation.
3.6 The study design

The study was concerned with describing role of small scale irrigation development in poverty
reduction in Dolo Ado; the conceptual structure of the study was descriptive. A cross-sectional
study was made to investigate the role of small- scale irrigation development in poverty reduction
by collecting data from randomly selected respondents.
23
4. RESULT AND DISCUSION
4.1. Demographic characteristics of respondents
4.1.1 Sex Distribution
In the study area, the head of the household generally is responsible for the co-ordination of the
household activities. As such it is pertinent to examine attributes such as sex of the head as one
component of irrigation participation decisions. Out of the 66 sampled households, about 92.5%
were male-headed in the irrigating households and 7.5% female-headed and 92.3% were male-
headed in the non irrigating households and 7.7% female-headed (Table 1).
4.1.2 Marital Status

The survey result on the marital status of the respondents show that out of the total 66 households
under consideration in two groups, 83.3% are coupled, divorced 6.1% and 10.6% widowed.
Looking at individually in the irrigating households, 33 households head reported as they were
married, 4 households reported as divorced and the remaining 3 is widowed. In the case of non
irrigating households, 22 households were married, 3 households reported as divorced and 1 of
them reported as widowed (Table 2)
4.1.3 Education Status

Economic growth is driven by change in people’s capabilities or their human capital, as affected
particularly by their education. Educated people can more easily contribute to the generation of
new technologies and more readily utilize those technologies. It is one of the main factors affecting
adoption of irrigation technologies to improve agricultural productivity. The education level of
household heads is higher for irrigating households than non-irrigating households (Table 1).
Similarly, education status of households has been assessed and the result reveals that in irrigating
households 55.5% of the households were under illiterate, 40% can read and write and the rest 5%
have attended primary school. In the case of non irrigating households groups 84.6% of the
households were illiterate, while the rest 15% of them can read and write and none of them were
followed primary education.
24
Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents
Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics
Dogale Total (N=80)

Jigale (N=35) (N=45)
Sex Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percentage
Male 25 71.40 25 55.6 50 62.5
Female 10 28.6 20 44.4 30 37.5
Total 35 100 45 100 80 100
Marital Status
Married 20 57.1 29 64.45 49 61.25
Divorced 10 28,6 10 22.22 20 25
Widowed 5 14.3 6 13.33 11 13.75
Total 35 100 45 100 80 100
Education level
Illiterate 18 51.4 29 64.4 47 58.75
Read and write 12 34.3 16 35.6 28 35
Primary 5 14.3 - - 5 6.25
Total 35 100 45 100 80 100
Age
21-30 6 17.1 - - 6 7.5
31-40 12 34.3 32 71.1 44 55
30 37.5
>41 17 48.6 13 28.9
Total 35 100 45 100 80 100

Source: - Own field survey, 2019/2020
25
4.1.4. Age of the responds
80
70
60
50
40 Percent
30 Frequency
20
10
0
21-30 31-40 above 41
Figure 2 Age of the respondents

Age is one of the factors that determine decision making of a person. Advanced aged household
heads are more reluctant to accept new technology and agricultural production styles than younger
household heads. The above figure shows majority of respondent (69.7%) are above the 41 age old
then followed by (22.7%) are between the ages 31-40 and the remaining (7.6%) are between the
ages of 21-30.
4.2. Family Size

According to the survey result, Out of the 66 sampled households, in the non- irrigating case, about
11.5% of the respondents‟ house
ahold contain (1-3 members), 50% of them contain (4-6 members) and the rest 38.5% contain
(above 7 members) and in the irrigating case, about 10% of the respondents‟ household contain (1-
3 members), 40% of them contain (4-6 members) and the rest 50% contain (above 7 members).
26
Table 2 Family size
irrigating households Non- irrigating households
Family size
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
1-3 23 65.7 28 62.2
4-6 9 25.7 10 22.2
>7 3 8.6 7 15.6

Total 100 100
35 45
4.3. Land holding

Land is the major productive asset in agrarian countries like Ethiopia. Cultivated land appears to
be the most important scarce factor of production. In the study area, own land, rented and shared
lands were used for cultivation. There is no significant difference between irrigating and non-
irrigating households in average land holding size (Table 5). Thus, the overall land holding per
household among the study group is similar. However, there is a significant difference in their
cultivated land size. Irrigating households have larger cultivated land area than non-irrigating
households. Irrigation may generate income and allow accumulation of other productive assets by
irrigating households, which facilitate cultivation of additional land through share in and rent in
(Table 3) from non-irrigating households. As tried to show the survey result below in table, in
irrigating group 5% of respondents cultivate below one hectare land, 72.5% cultivate between one
to two hectare land and the others 22.5% cultivate above two hectare of land. In the non irrigating
case 73.1% the respondents were cultivating below one hectare, 23.1% cultivate between one and
two hectare and 3.8% cultivate above two hectare of land.
Table 3 Land size of the respondents
irrigating households Non- irrigating households

Land size (hec)
No land - - - -
Below 1 Hectare 9 25.7 20 44.45
1-2 Hectare 11 31.4 10 22.22
Above 2 hectare 42.9 33.33
15 15
4.4. Type of farming use for the respondents
Irrigation has served as one key driver behind growth in agricultural productivity, increasing
household income and alleviation of rural poverty, which highlights the various ways that
irrigation could have an impact on poverty. Agricultural production in Ethiopia is primarily rain
fed, so it depends on erratic and often insufficient rainfall. As a result, there are frequent failures of
agricultural production. Irrigation has the potential to stabilize agricultural production and mitigate
the negative impacts of variable or insufficient rainfall. As below the table shows us 26 out of 66
of non- irrigating households are depend on natural rainfall while the 40 out of 66 of the irrigating
households are dependent in irrigation as we can understand table below the irrigating households
produce more crop than non- irrigating households as well as that the income of the irrigating are
higher than those non irrigating so that access of irrigation as hypothesized has positive impact of
the agricultural production and rural farm income.
Figure 3. Type of the farming
Frequency
26, 40%
Irrigating HH
Non-irrigating HH
40, 60%
28
4.5. Frequency of Production within a Year
As the table shows that all irrigating users were producing two times and more per year. Also all of
Non- irrigating users were producing once per year. In general irrigation beneficiaries were
producing more than once per year and they could produces much amount of products to consume
their family members as well as supplying products to markets as compared with non users.
Table 4 Production Frequency

Irrigating households Non- irrigating households
Frequency of production
Once - - 45 100
Twice 19 54.3 - -
Thrice 16 45.7 - -
Total 100 45 100
35
4.6. The Effects of Small-Scale Irrigation on the Gross Income at Household Level
4.6.1. Income of Sample Irrigating Households

As shown in Table 8 below, the average income of irrigation households is Birr 37695, which is
the sum of average income from cash crops, food grain, livestock sale and income from other
sources.
Table 5 Average Yearly Income of Sample Irrigating Households
Income sources irrigating Households Mean

jigle Kebele dogle Kebele
Cash crops 14350 16500 15425
Food grain 12150 10980 11565
Livestock 8600 8150 8375
Others‟ 2680 1980 2330
29
When we look at the comparison of the share of different sources, cash crop production alone
accounts for about 15420 of the total household income. This shows how cash cropping are
important to the irrigation communities. Food grain production is the other major source of income
for irrigating group, which accounts for about 11565 of the average income of all households.
4.6.2. Income of Sample Non-Irrigating Households

The average total income at non-irrigation households is Birr 7707.5, which is the sum of average
income from food grain, livestock production and other off-farm sources.
Table 6 Average Yearly Income of Sample Non-Irrigating Households
Income sources Non-irrigating Households Mean

Dogale Kebele Jigle Kebele
Food grain 2790 3885 2837.5
Livestock 2176 5755 3465.5
Others‟ 1455 1354 1404.5
The major share of the total household income in this case comes from food grain production as
shown in the Table 7 above. The share of each is 2837.5, 3465.5 and 1404.5 of the total household
income from food grain, livestock and others respectively. This shows that non-irrigation
households are highly vulnerable to drought and rain shortfall situation as more incomes come
from rainfall dependent production. According to the survey result, the second major source of
income for non-irrigation households‟ comes from off-farm activities. These include wage labors,
sale of firewood, guarding, etc. On the other hand, the contribution of food grain production to
non-irrigator household income is the least of the four major sources. This happened perhaps
because of farmers have sold many of their livestock to withstand the frequent drought and food
shortage situation in the area and gives their more attention.
30
4.7. Main agricultural products of the area
The non-user of irrigation farmers of the study area produces only once in a year, that means they
were not self-sufficient from the products. The main products of Non-user were cereals such as
sorghum and maize. But irrigation user farmers were shows dramatically change of producing
cereals as well as vegetables, onions, bananas, tomatoes, papers etc.
Table 7 Main agricultural products

Crop types Irrigating households Non-irrigating
Households
Maize 40 100% 26 100%
Sorghum 36 90% 24 92.3%
Onion 28 70% - -
Banana 22 55% 5 19.23%
Vegetables 32 80% - -
As above table indicates us the irrigation users produced irrigation based crops as well as rain fed
crops due to this output of irrigation users increased. Most of them are food self-sufficient
throughout the year. Usually they produce those products for market. Most of the time both the
user as well as non-users were consuming all of the cereal products for household consumption as
compared with the vegetation crops to supply to markets but the irrigation users supply cereal
products in addition to vegetation crops to markets when the product is remained excess in the
home. So the income, of irrigation user is greater than that of non-irrigated. So the use of irrigation
puts positive effect on living situation of the people.
4.8. Expansion farm land

Irrigation enhances agricultural production. This is because; such interventions can increase
number of harvesting times within a year; and enable the use of unused farmlands. Irrigation
facilitates agricultural production intensification. This means that irrigation scheme helped to
increase agricultural productivity of a given land. Irrigation brings more uncultivated land in to
cultivation can provide fallow period for farmlands thereby an increased productivity.
31
4.9. Applications and usage of modern inputs
The surveyed households were asked about the applications and usage of any type of modern
agricultural inputs and utilized inputs varieties were improved seeds, fertilizers and others. Out of
the respondents in irrigating case all of them were used fertilizer and improved seed.
In case non irrigating 11.5% were used fertilizer, 3.8% were using improved seed where the rest
84.7% were using compost and unimproved seed.
Table 8 Types of agricultural inputs
Types of agri. inputs Irrigating households Non-irrigating Households
use by the HH
Fertilizer 11 31.4 10 22.22
improved seed 8 22.9 16 35.56
Fertilizer & improved 16 45.7 - -
Seed
unimproved seed and - - 42.22
Compost 19
4.10. Cash flow and marketable surplus

In the study area the three major source of cash income from the two groups were income from
sale crops, livestock and livestock products and income off-farm activities. For the irrigating
group, the average income from the three activities were birr 665.1, birr 260.32, and birr 522.56
respectively. For the non-irrigating case, the annual average cash income from the three source
were birr 212.35 from sale of crop, birr 323.32 from sale of livestock and livestock products and
birr 480.6 from participating in off- activities. For the irrigators, out of the income from sale of
crops, 66.7% of it was contributed from sale of irrigated crops such as onion, maize, tomato,
potato, and pepper and the rest 33.3% was contributed from sale of rain fed crops. This shows that
irrigation intervention has created a chance for the availability of improved marketable in the
irrigating group.
4.11. Food security and Impact assessment

A poverty indicators at house hold level, were raised to the respondents .To start with, both groups
were asked about the incidence interval of famine or drought in the village and majority of the
respondents in the both group reported the occurrence of it occasionally.
32
For the question raised about basic reflection of the famine in the locality, majority of the
respondents related it with the death of animals and temporary migration. In both groups, majority
of the respondents identified the shortage of rain fall as the main cause of famine. And this leads to
the wait the hands of others but with the intervention irrigation development, it could be resolved.
In addition, question were raised about the number of months each households self-sufficient to
food its family members from agricultural products and their interpretation is as the following with
table
Table 9 Number of months of the respondents was self sufficient
Duration of Irrigating households Non-irrigating
Self-sufficient Households
Months Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
>3 - - -
3 to 6 - - 20 44.44
7 to 9 15 42.9 25 55.56
10 to 12 20 57.1 -
The result shows 42.3% of the rain fed group were self-sufficient in the range of 3 to 6 months and
the rest of 57.7% reported as they were self-sufficient in the range of 7 to 9 months. The situation
was different from the irrigators group. If we look them 85% reported as they were self-sufficient
from 10 to 12 months and 15% were self-sufficient from 7 to 9 months in the beneficiary groups.
4.1.2. Contribution of small-scale irrigation on irrigation beneficiaries

Irrigation increase agricultural production and income, for households with access. These
outcomes are observed despite the price decrease that can occur as supply increases (other factors
held constant). As expected, irrigation use has significantly contributed towards achieving
household’s aim of increased production and income this result is similar to other reports (Getaneh,
2011). The Price decrease can allow poorer households to more easily meet their basic needs.
Household level economic welfare is improved for the poor. Irrigation protects from the risk of
crop loss due to erratic, unreliable or insufficient rainwater supplies. Irrigation enhances the use
yield-enhancing farm inputs. The uses of such farm inputs improve the agricultural production and
income. Irrigation creates additional employment. Household and/or laborers are engaged in the
33
Irrigation farming that helps to increase the labor productivity during the dry periods, farm off-
season. Access to irrigation increases the opportunity for crop intensity and diversification, which
increase cropping income and changing the feeding habits.
Table 10 contribution of small-scale irrigation in irrigation users
The positive impact of irrigation in household Irrigating households

Frequency Percent
Diversification of Crop 15 36.7%
Change in Feeding Habits 12 26.7%
Increased Household Income 11 23.3%
Reduced Food Price 8 13.3%
protecting against risks of crop 23 50%
loss due to erratic
creation of additional employment 19 36.6%
4.1.3. Majority of Agricultural Problems in the study area

1. Low quality and quantity of improved seed: Reasonably good or improved variety of seed is
primarily essential for successful crop production. However, supply of improved seeds is generally
restricted for a number of reasons in the surveyed areas. Some of these reasons are inputs being
tied up with credits but no credit availability for most farmers to implement diversified and other
income generating activities. This is a main problem that hinders farmers to participate in
improved technology. Due to lack of credit services, most farmers are using local seeds that they
saved for coming year and by buying from the market
2. Use of backward technology: New agricultural technologies and innovations in farm practices
are preconditions for sustained improvements in the levels of output and productivity. Two major
sources of technological innovation can increase farm yields. The first is the introduction of
mechanized agriculture to replace human labor and animal forces. The introduction of labor saving
machinery can have a dramatic effect on the volume of output per worker. The second one is
biological seeds, water control irrigation, and chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, etc.)
innovations. These improve the quality of existing land by raising yields per hectare. But the data
34
Gathered from the surveyed households reveals the most farmers have no new agricultural
technologies diffusion to enhance their outputs level and to improve their living standards.
3. Fluctuation of the weather conditions: absent of rain fall and temperature affect the land
productivity.
4. Low access to credit facilities: The respondents of house hold reported that in the area there is
no credit facility in mostly. The reason for this as respondents said is that farmers are not effective
because of high interest rate and huge collateral relation to their income.
5. Inadequate supply of improved farm inputs: The agricultural and rural development offices
have limited capacity in providing these inputs in affordable price.
6. Lack of supportive policies and economic opportunities: the full benefits of small scale
agricultural productivity cannot be realized unless government support systems are created that
provide the necessary incentives, economic opportunities, and access to need credits and inputs to
enable small cultivators to expand their output and raise their productivity.
7. Lack effective training from extension services
35
5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Conclusion
Access to irrigation increases the opportunity for crop intensity and diversification, which increase
cropping income. Irrigation is becoming a practice to increase total annual income for many
households in the study area. In addition to their normal rain fed cultivation, irrigating households
cultivate cash crops using small-scale irrigation. The main irrigated crops were onion, tomato,
banana, maize, sorghum and barely. Irrigated crops were selected due to good production potential,
economic returns and ease of cultivation, respectively. Maize and sorghum were the major income
source crops for non-irrigating households, while the onion, banana, sorghum, and maize were for
irrigating households. The main income sources of rural household in the study area were
cropping, livestock and off-farm activities. Irrigating households have significantly larger mean
annual income than non-irrigating households. The poverty prevalence in non-irrigating
households is by far greater than in irrigating households. This suggests that irrigation has an
important influence on rural poverty alleviation. Small-scale irrigation increases mean annual
household income, irrigating households have lower probability of being poor than non-irrigating
households. It is important to note that other factors (such as production input use) also had large
effects on household income, and this study did not explore in detail the complementarities
between irrigation access and other input use. The result of survey in the two groups have shown
that the irrigators have been able to intensify their land holdings through double cropping and thus
, They get higher level of agricultural income or yield through the intervention of the irrigation
scheme. In addition, the interventions have resulted in better marketed surplus production for the
beneficiaries at household levels.
Similarly, the qualitative survey made to look at house hold level of food security situation of the
target; beneficiary group shows encouraging improvements in the availability and consumption
pattern of the food items. In general, it could be conclude that the beneficiary of the scheme were
better in food security and household yield and income than their counter parts and just such
improvements were the result of opportunity created by the availability of irrigation facility which
gave rise to double cropping.
36
5.2. Recommendation
Education and training facilitates the effective communication between farmers and agricultural
information providers like extension workers. Although the specific approach to be recommended
requires further study, attention should be given to strengthen education and training for
sustainable poverty alleviation.
Access and proper utilization agricultural inputs like: fertilizers, improved seed are important for
sustainable agricultural productivity and improvement so the government, cooperative
organizations and private organizations should give attention on the supply of these inputs on time
and in adequate amount.
Lack of credit is one of the problems in study area so microfinance & other conscientious
institutions should have to give attention for providing credit.
Participation in irrigation helps the households to generate additional income and diversification of
household food consumption. Therefore, increasing efficiency of the existing small scale irrigation
schemes and designing and implementing the new schemes leads to sustainable production that
could change the life of the rural poor.
To make irrigation investment more achievable, special attention should be given to strengthen the
capacity of the existing extension system by assigning additional extension agents as well as
equipping them with necessary technology. In addition, knowledge and skill in selecting
agronomic practice, pest and disease management and post-harvest management should be
enhanced.
37
6. REFERENCES
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Opportunities of Small-Scale Irrigation and Water Harvesting in Ethiopian agricultural
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Awulachew SB, Yilma AD, Loulseged M, Loiskandl W. 2007. Water Resources and Irrigation
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Tropical Handbook. Publisher: CTA and TERRES ET VTE, Netherlands; ISBN: 2-87105-011-2.
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Development in Mixed Crop-Livestock [Internet].[cited2011 March 13].
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39

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Jigjiga University

College of dry land agriculture

1. Najib mahamed ali ……………………………………R/4761/10

Advisor: Abdi Mohammed Hussen (PhD Candidate.)

Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics...................................................................................... 25

Figure 1: sampling procedure........................................................................................................... 22

ADLI: Agricultural Development Led Industrialization

BANRDE: Bureau of Agricultural and Natural Resource Development Experts

EDA: Extension development agency.

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

HHH Household Head

MOWR: Ministry of Water Resource

UNDP: United Nations Development Programme

1.1 Background of the Study

1.3.2 Specific objectives

 To examine the effects of small-scale irrigation on the gross income at household

 To analyze the contribution of irrigation in increasing agricultural output in the

 To determine the difference in prevalence of poverty between irrigating

1.4. Research question

1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study

2.1.2 Irrigation development

2.1.3 Irrigation Development in Ethiopia

2.1.5 Irrigation resources development of Ethiopia

2.1.6 Small scale irrigation

2.1.7. The role of irrigation in poverty alleviation and rural development

2.2 Irrigation methods

2.2.1 Surface irrigation

2.2.2 Basin irrigation

2.2.4 Flood irrigation

2.2.5 Border irrigation

2.2.6 Sprinkler irrigation

2.2.8 Irrigation Impact on House Hold Income

2.3.1 The Empirical Evidence on impact of Small Scale Irrigation

In Ethiopia a study conducted by Woldeab,(2020) identified that in Tigrey irrigated agriculture

2.4.1 Irrigation-poverty linkages

0,733 women. While 37,404 or 33.54% are urban

3.2 Sampling procedure

The sample size of respondent was taken by using rule of thumb

450*80/800 =45 of Dogale kebele

Dolo Ado Woreda Purposive

Jigle kebele Dogale kebele Simple random

Proportional ppn. Proportional ppn.

Figure 1: sampling procedure

3.3.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Data

3.4 Method of Data collection

3.5 Method of data analysis

3.6 The study design

4.1.2 Marital Status

4.1.3 Education Status

Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics

Dogale Total (N=80)

Total 35 100 45 100 80 100

Figure 2 Age of the respondents

4.2. Family Size

>7 3 8.6 7 15.6

4.3. Land holding

Table 3 Land size of the respondents

irrigating households Non- irrigating households

Figure 3. Type of the farming

Source: - Own field survey, 2019/2020

Table 4 Production Frequency

4.6.1. Income of Sample Irrigating Households

Income sources irrigating Households Mean