Impact of Akaki Small-Scale Irrigation Scheme on Household Food Security

Abstract

The study aims to evaluate the impact of Akaki small scale irrigation scheme on Household food security of smallholder farmers. Out of 700 farming households with systematically stratified random sampling technique, this causal type of study analyzed 246 household surveys based primary data (personal interview questionnaire) with inferential statistics (Heck man two stages). It shows that food security is not as such observed in the study area. At 0.05 probability level; sex, land size (ls), educational level (ed), off farm income (offarmi), irrigation experience (exep) and distance from home to water source (dhomeland ) are significant correlates of food security with respect to the three food security indicators (food consumption expenditure score, copying strategy index and dietary diversity score). At 0.05 probability level; sex, off farm income (offarmi), irrigation experience (exep) and distance from home to water source (dhomeland) are statistically significant determinants of the joint indicators and they reliably predict participation in small scale irrigation scheme, citrus paribus. Collective action among governments, NGOs and farming households on flood control and market linkage (perfect information on price of their product) should be taken to let farming households harvest two times per year and prosper.