Irrigation Agriculture in Ethiopia; Benefits and Challenges

Tilahun Amede and Team

NBDC Stakeholder Forum

5 October 2011

Premises in irrigation farming:

• Irrigation is beyond the physical infrastructure; about institutions, agricultural investments, markets and capacity to do it;

• Irrigation: not only control rainfall fluctuation but increase agricultural returns over time;

• Water should not only reach the fields; desired quantity and timing; used efficiently :

• With increasing age of schemes, farmers learn new skills, shift more to intensive, high value crops and livestock products;

• With increasing benefits, people own and invest on schemes and farms;

• Spill-over effects- With time, farmers share their skills and technologies with others, including non-irrigators; steering the whole production system.

Existing irrigation schemes in various river basins in Ethiopia

Awlachew etal., 2007

What worked well in Irrigation Investments?

To protect irrigation schemes; siltation/ boulders;

Coordinate cross-boundary

cooperation of diverse water user

groups;

Address NRM issues that cannot be

addressed by working with single

farmers or plots;

Co-management of common

property (e.g. irrigation water);

Exploit the interface between diverse

components (i.e. water, soil, livestock,

crops, pests)

1. Small Scale Irrigation became an incentive for improved Watershed management

2. SSI promoted agricultural intensification

• Yields and income

• Diversification

• Poverty and equity

• Resource base

Change in farming system Change in farming practice

Irrigation site Total

Dobena N.GalanSadi Hizaeti Afras

Col % Col % Col % Count Col %

Practice crop rotation 61.4 70.3 99.3 295 78.9

Mulching 43.9 5.1 75 20.1

Intercropping 62.7 68.4 158 42.2

Contour farming 29.7 8.8 58 15.5

Physical soil conservation

19.3 54.2 21.3 129 34.5

Biological soil conservation

5.8 3.7 14 3.7

Other change in farm 2.4 3.2 0.7 8 2.1

Total 22.2 41.4 36.4 374 100

Irrigation site

Changed housing material

Dobena N.GalanSadi Hizaeti Afras

Total

Col % Col %

Col %

Count Col %

Iron sheet 50.0 62.2 70.0 50 63.3 Other 50.0 37.8 30.0 29 36.7 Total 100 100 100 79 100

Changes in Livelihoods

More food available = 35%

Increased Income = 15%

More kids to school = 17%

Increased use of inputs = 85%

Houses with Iron sheets = 63%

Financial benefits from large scale irrigation schemes

Scheme Main crop Average investment cost (USD)

Total Income

Net income / ha

Amibara Cotton 1316 607,883 113

Finchaa Sugar cane 7728 1,411,309 195

Metehara Sugar Cane 1073 3798922 3744

Upper Awash

Fruits / vegetables

437 11464462 1905

Wonji Suga cane 4150 5,425,664 1325

(Fitsum Hagos etal., 2009)

3. SSI benefited women, particularly through home garden development

• Most of the food insecure woredas are cereal-dominated; very limited experience in home garden farming, except for the South;

• Positive impact on HH food security and family nutrition, particularly women

• Home garden development is a knowledge-intensive process; demands initial investment;

4. SSI strengthened local institutions; including WUA, water cooperatives

• Stronger linkages between different Bureaus (Water, Agriculture, Cooperative);

• Stronger institutional support to farmers; mentoring

• Improved flow of inputs (fertilizer, seed ) and knowledge

• Communities develop collective ownership; on landscapes, water management and broader societal issues;

• Promoting farmer innovation

Increased local capacity: e.g. community seed systems…

• Contracted producers / organized groups

• Organized community seed stores/seed banks (e.g. diffused light storage for potato);

• Smallholder seed traders • Attempt in value chain

approaches to connect producers with seed markets and users

Areas for improvement

1. Improved institutional support

• Very weak link between experts and development agents / communities in schemes;

• Limited skill to promote farmer innovations and technology adoption, including FTCs;

• Lack of cross-community learning;• Limited technological choices for farmers to

tryout and adopt;• Poor market incentives, beyond the road side;• Absence of hydrological planning; competition-

and conflicts

Creating local capacity

• Regional coordinators: Capacity in creating partnership, documentation and communication;

• Woreda experts and DAs: Capacity in facilitation, technology options, collective action, seed systems, experimentation, scaling-up;

• Local communities: In strengthening byelaws, FREGs, seed systems, IPM, varietal selection, targeting farm niches

2. Very slow intensification pathways

Upper Zigini

3.Sustaining irrigation investments

Irrigation development is a continuous process;

Communities should be friends of maintenance & management

4. Improved water mangt at field level• Irrigation frequency based on market

value than crop needs: (e.g. 2-3 weeks for maize but 1-2 weeks for Onion);

• Extensive residual water loss; in most schemes relay cropping are absent?

• Pest incidences affecting irrigation performance; IPM

• Multiple use of water (thinking beyond crops), for livestock, household use, fishing. (A farmer used the canal to transport manure to the farm);

• Huge loss of water (night storage? Diverting it to pasture?)

5. Strengthening Water User Associations

• Voluntary WUC are established instead of the mandatory WUA;

• Not all users are members of the WUC. (e.g. in Upper Quashini only 136 HH out of 510 HH are members of the WUC. )

• Such organizational arrangement could erode cohesion of the users, which is the essential ingredient for sustainability of irrigation schemes.

• BOWR and BOA must follow up with their federal counterparts for the enactment of the draft WUA proclamation prepared by the MOWR

• Neglected watersheds; prone to erosion, distraction of schemes and reducing farm returns;

• Limited skills beyond cereals / rotation needs improvement; (e.g. potato after tomato);

• Facilitating interaction of local institutions: BoA with WUAs / FTCs;

• RARIs limited role in the schemes; overstretched ; capacitate; local educated youth?

• DAs specialized in irrigation agronomy are rarely in place; experience mainly in rain-fed agriculture;

• Demonstration plans are few; reflective of high input systems; beyond the reach of the poor;

Challenges