Status, Determinants and Prospects of Adoption of Motorized Water Pump Irrigation at Ejersa Lafo District, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region Ethiopia

Abstract

Given Ethiopia’s agricultural system, which is predominantly rain-fed and always prone to erratic rainfall, irrigation is one of the alternatives to ensure food security in the country. Thus, subsistence smallholder farmers should adopt modern small-scale irrigation technologies to increase agricultural production and productivity. The objective of this study to assess status, determinant and prospects of motorized irrigation technology. By using a descriptive research design, this study utilized both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the determinants of the adoption of motorized pump irrigation technology in the Ejersa-Lafo district. Quantitative data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 147 farmers who adopted the motorized pump irrigation technology and, reside in the three purposefully selected kebeles of the district. Qualitative data were collected from six FGDs with farmers and 12 KIIs conducted with DAs, kebele chairpersons, and the district’s irrigation experts. The study found that, among the several benefits that the farmers gained from adopting water pump irrigation technology, constructing residential houses (47.9%) and buying residential land in town (13.9%) were the main ones. In addition, it increased the effective use of land (93.88%), and improved income (83.67%). On the other hand, the study found that the inability to operate the water pumps appropriately (76.19%), lack of skills to repair them (93%), inaccessibility of spare parts (89.8%), shortage of technicians that maintain them (97.28%), and unaffordability of maintenance services (97.28) are among the several challenges that hindered the farmers from adopting water pump irrigation technology to its fullest extent. In addition, lack of startup capital, several plant diseases, production failure, market fluctuations, and the unaffordable price of fuel are among the factors mentioned by the respondents. As a result, 46.94% of the respondents felt that they do not want to continue the practice. Besides the challenges, however, the study also revealed that there are opportunities to expand the utilization of water pump irrigation technology, such as labor force availability (68.71%), favorable agro-ecology of the area (71.5%), and the availability of rivers (78.91%). Therefore, it would be better to exploit the opportunities and address the challenges that are affecting the utilization of water pump irrigation technology in the study area to scale up its adoption rate on the one hand and increase production and productivity on the other. Among the measures, providing technical support on irrigation practices, including crop and non-crop disease control management, and giving farmers training on water pump irrigation technology would be much needed.