Small-scale irrigation scheme governance - poverty nexus: evidence from Ethiopia

Adela, F.A.; Aurbacher, Joachim; Abebe, Gumataw Kifle

doi:10.1007/s12571-019-00953-8

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(117 reference statements)

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“…Although small-scale irrigation schemes have been promoted in sub-Saharan Africa to ensure food security, less than 5% (640,000 ha) of the agricultural land in Ethiopia is irrigated, which includes 128,000 ha from rainwater harvesting, 383,000 ha from small-scale irrigation, and 129,000 ha from medium and large-scale irrigation [140,141]. Studies on irrigation schemes have shown that much of the perceived water scarcity level is rather attributed to poor water management practices, weak local institutions, unfavorable governance regimes, and financial issues than to the physical scarcity of water [137,142,143] Table 4. Summary of major findings of water harvesting and small-scale irrigation studies in Ethiopia.…”

Section: Water Harvesting and Small-scale Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia and Opportunities by Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture

et al. 2021

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Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, and the agricultural sector is dominated by smallholder farming systems. The farming systems are facing constraints such as small land size, lack of resources, and increasing degradation of soil quality that hamper sustainable crop production and food security. The effects of climate change (e.g., frequent occurrence of extreme weather events) exacerbate these problems. Applying appropriate technologies like climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can help to resolve the constraints of smallholder farming systems. This paper provides a comprehensive overview regarding opportunities and challenges of traditional and newly developed CSA practices in Ethiopia, such as integrated soil fertility management, water harvesting, and agroforestry. These practices are commonly related to drought resilience, stability of crop yields, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas mitigation, and higher household income. However, the adoption of the practices by smallholder farmers is often limited, mainly due to shortage of cropland, land tenure issues, lack of adequate knowledge about CSA, slow return on investments, and insufficient policy and implementation schemes. It is suggested that additional measures be developed and made available to help CSA practices become more prevalent in smallholder farming systems. The measures should include the utilization of degraded and marginal lands, improvement of the soil organic matter management, provision of capacity-building opportunities and financial support, as well as the development of specific policies for smallholder farming.

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Section: Water Harvesting and Small-scale Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia and Opportunities by Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture

et al. 2021

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“…However, little attempt has been made to understand the performance of large and small-scale irrigation user farmers as compared to the nonuser farmers in Ethiopia. Previous studies focused on the difference between irrigation user and non-user farmers in income [11][12][13], quality of life [11,12,14] and the impact of having access to irrigation on poverty [15,16] and food security [17] without considering the differences in the technical efficiency (TE) of smallholder farmers. The results of these studies have shown that irrigation user farmers produce more, earn a better income, have a relatively better life, and are relatively rich and food-secure than the non-user smallholder farmers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Zewdie

Moretti

Tenessa

et al. 2021

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In the past decade, to improve crop production and productivity, Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious irrigation farming expansion program and has introduced new large- and small-scale irrigation initiatives. However, in Ethiopia, poverty remains a challenge, and crop productivity per unit area of land is very low. Literature on the technical efficiency (TE) of large-scale and small-scale irrigation user farmers as compared to the non-user farmers in Ethiopia is also limited. Investigating smallholder farmers’ technical efficiency (TE) level and its principal determinants is very important to increase crop production and productivity and to improve smallholder farmers’ livelihood and food security. Using 1026 household-level cross-section data, this study adopts a technology flexible stochastic frontier approach to examine agricultural TE of large-scale irrigation users, small-scale irrigation users and non-user farmers in Ethiopia. The results indicate that, due to poor extension services and old-style agronomic practices, the mean TE of farmers is very low (44.33%), implying that there is a wider room for increasing crop production in the study areas through increasing the TE of smallholder farmers without additional investment in novel agricultural technologies. Results also show that large-scale irrigation user farmers (21.05%) are less technically efficient than small-scale irrigation user farmers (60.29%). However, improving irrigation infrastructure shifts the frontier up and has a positive impact on smallholder farmers’ output.

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“…The endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) accounts for observed and unobserved bias by estimating a simultaneous equation model (Lokshin & Sajaia, 2004). The ETRM is nested in ESRM and is widely applied in the analysis of the welfare impact of policies and technology adoption (Adebayo, Bolarin, Oyewale, & Kehinde, 2018; Adego, Simane, & Woldie, 2019; Adela & Aurbacher, 2018; Heckman, Tobias, & Vytlacil, 2003; Mekonnen, 2017). Other relevant studies have applied ESRM to analyse the effect of land‐use changes on water quality (Abildtrup, Garcia, & Kere, 2015), the effect of a large dam on agricultural production (Chen, Hsu, & Wang, 2018), the effect of climate exposure on afforestation (Oyekale & Oyekale, 2019), and the effect of forced displacement on income (Do Yun & Waldorf, 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large‐scale land investments, household displacement, and the effect on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas of Ethiopia

et al. 2020

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Agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia have been targeted by large‐scale land investments, particularly for the establishment of sugar plantations, since the 1970s. This has led to the displacement of local communities. We investigate the impact of this displacement due to large‐scale land investment on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia. We conducted a survey of 866 households in two agro‐pastoral sites in Ethiopia in 2019, where extensive large‐scale land investment was implemented. We use an endogenous (switching) treatment model to assess the effect of the displacement of households on land degradation. The result shows that 75% of the surveyed households experienced moderate–severe land degradation. Forestlands and grasslands are ranked as the most degraded areas. About 43.7% of the households face a reduction in herd size and 55.8% lost land due to large‐scale land investment, while 86% of the households show a substantial decline in crops and livestock productivity due to land degradation. The results also reveal that the displacement of households leads to a significant increase in land degradation. Household exposure to drought and conflict, the number of livestock, overgrazing, and sharecropping are other drivers of land degradation. Market access, extension services, household income, and mobility, on the other hand, limit the occurrence of land degradation. We conclude that the shifts in property rights from common land used by pastoralists to private land in large‐scale plantations aggravate land degradation in semiarid drylands.

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Small-scale irrigation scheme governance - poverty nexus: evidence from Ethiopia

Cited by 21 publications

References 56 publications

Challenges of Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia and Opportunities by Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture

Challenges of Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia and Opportunities by Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture

Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Large‐scale land investments, household displacement, and the effect on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas of Ethiopia

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