Institutions, management practices and challenges of small-scale irrigation systems in Ethiopia: a case study of two modern smallholders irrigation systems in western Oromia, Ethiopia
Creators: name: Dejene, S.
name: Teshome, W.
name: Makombe, Godswill
name: Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
name: Prasad, Krishna
name: Dejene, S.
name: Teshome, W.
name: Makombe, Godswill
name: Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
name: Prasad, Krishna
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Agribusiness
subject: Consumer/Household Economics
subject: Farm Management
subject: Institutional and Behavioral Economics
subject: International Development
subject: Public Economics
subject: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies
subject: Irrigation management
subject: Irrigation systems
subject: Small scale systems
subject: Smallholders
subject: Farmers
subject: Water distribution
subject: Water scarcity
subject: Institutions
subject: Irrigated farming
subject: Households
subject: Income
subject: Ethiopia
subject: Western Oromia
subject: Gibe Lemu Irrigation System
subject: Gambela Terre Irrigation System

description: This paper examines the institutional arrangements that facilitate irrigation management and the present state of irrigation management and establishes where problems have occurred in the operation of Gibe-Lemu and Gambela-Terre Small-scale irrigation systems. The study employed the case study approach to tackle the research. Key informant and expert interview, desk review of different documents produced about the projects, group discussion, direct observation and structured interview schedule were used to collect data. The study proved the proposition that the government has uncritically supported the irrigation systems. Enabling legal system of land and water rights, strong woreda level state irrigation agency, support services (irrigation extension) and wellestablished water users associations through which purposes of irrigation are achieved were not adequately planned and put in place. These shortcomings undermined irrigation management, ultimately risked feasibility and sustainability of irrigated agriculture. Findings revealed poor record of accomplishment, in spite of the difference between the two systems, in managing water distribution in terms of the three most important performance indicators: adequacy, reliability and equity in water distribution. Water related conflicts are rampant but not settled yet. In addition, results indicated that irrigation had positively impacted irrigators’ livelihoods in terms of diversification and intensification of crop production, household income, housing and employment generation and this social effect of irrigation was significantly different between irrigation systems (due to difference in the institutional and socioeconomic context of the two irrigation systems) and locations within irrigation systems. Nonetheless, many irrigators did not maintain these positive changes for long. The constraints were scarcity and unreliability of water and management and socioeconomic problems. These, in turn, were mediated by lack of: a) clearly defined and well enforced institutions of land and water rights; b) technical problems in design and construction; c) inadequate institutional capacity of the local state irrigation agency to coordinate and support decentralized management of irrigation; d) policy related problems; e) inadequate organization of users for self management; and f) problematic social relation of power among water users. Finally, the paper draws a number of conclusions, using the theoretical notions like context, social requirement for use, social effects and social construction, about policy options and requirements in the readjustment of the surveyed irrigation systems and in the design of irrigation projects of these types.
description: In Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele; Loulseged, Makonnen; Yilma, Aster Denekew (Comps.). Impact of irrigation on poverty and environment in Ethiopia: draft proceedings of the symposium and exhibition, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 27-29 November 2007. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI).