Impact of Small Scale Irrigation on Household Food Security in Gindeberet District, West Showa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

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.