Abstract:
Ethiopian economy is highly dependent on agriculture which is dominated by traditional rain-fed
small-scale farmers. The government of Ethiopia is working on irrigation development giving special
emphasis to irrigation activities on irrigation at different scales. However, studies on intensive
utilization of water potential in and impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security has
not been systematically assessed in Gindeberet district. This study was conducted to identify factors
that determine household’s participation in irrigation and evaluate the impact of participation in
small-scale irrigation on household food security in the district. Both primary and secondary data
were collected and used in the study. Data was collected from 208 household heads, 95 irrigation
users and 113 non-users. Three kebeles was stratified into two strata and random sampling
techniques were employed to select the sample respondents. Descriptive statistics, inferential
statistics and binary probit regression were used for analyzing quantitative data.. The study findings
indicate that access to extension services, education level, cultivated land, distance to market, public
road, total livestock holding and size of household heads were the determinants of household’s
participation in small-scale irrigation. Food consumption Score cut-off, the results showed that
irrigation users with acceptable food consumption were 77% while 17% irrigation users had medium
consumption and 6% of the irrigator households were poor food consumption score. Out of the total
non-users with acceptable food consumption were 42% while 35% of the households had medium
consumption score and 23% were poor food consumption score. According to the Food
Consumption Score, households were poor consumption was regarded as food insecure, while
households with medium consumption were categorized as moderately food insecure and the
households with acceptable food consumption were categorized as food secterure. The impact
analysis of participation in small-scale irrigation on household income by propensity score matching
using of kernel matching algorithm revealed that there was a significant difference on the income of
households between participants and non- participants due to participation in small-scale irrigated
farming. The average treatment effect on the treated was 6019 ETB and it was significant at 5%
significance level. The study concludes that small-scale irrigation was one of the possible solutions
to secure household food needs in the study area but it did not remove the food insecurity problem
and recommends that investments in small-scale irrigation continue for poverty reduction.
