Abstract:
If successful, irrigation in Ethiopia could represent a cornerstone of the agricultural
development of the country, contributing up to ETB 140 billion to the economy and
potentially moving up to six million households into food security. However, even if the study
area has irrigation potential, many of the households those have access to irrigation scheme
did not utilizes at their full potential and still depend on rain-fed. This study focuses on
analysing the determinants of small irrigation utilization among farming households. Total
samples of 150 farming households were selected through multi-stage random sampling from
two kebeles of Liban Jawi district. Sources of data were both the primary and secondary
sources. The primary data were collected through Interview schedule, FGD, KIIs and
personal observation methods. Quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics and
binary regression model. Small farm size, irrigation water shortage, lack of working force,
high labour cost, Low access to credit, lack of draft power (oxen), Low access to extension
service, low access to market and high input cost were the challenges for SSI utilization at
the study area. Enable government policy, access to irrigation water, good weather
condition, market access for irrigation output and farm land potential of the area was
identified as the opportunities of SSI utilization at the study area. The result from binary
regression model revealed that the age of household head, education level of household head,
access to non/off-farm income source, number of livestock owned, number of oxen owned,
and distance from irrigation water source were statistically significant and influence
households SSI utilization decision. Finally, it is recommended that the GOs and other
responsible bodies should ensure the establishment of more main canals or improve farmers’
accessibility to irrigation water source to increase irrigation utilizatio
