Impact of irrigation on welfare and vulnerability to poverty in South African farming households

Abstract

Many empirical studies have documented the role of farm management practices such as irrigation in reducing poverty and improving household well-being. Few studies, however, have looked at the impact of irrigation farming on poverty vulnerability and the welfare of rural farming household. This study examined the factors that influence farmers’ participation in irrigation farming, as well as how it affects farmers' food consumption expenditure per capita (proxy for welfare), poverty gap index, poverty severity and poverty vulnerability. The study's data was collected from farming households in the northern and coastal parts of the Eastern province of South Africa. The endogenous switching regression (ESR) model was employed in the study to account for selection bias that could be caused by both observed and unobserved household factors. The empirical result shows that gender, household size, educational attainment, crop diversification, and market outlet among others influenced farmers' decision to practice irrigation farming. Farmers engaging in irrigation farming boosted their food consumption per capita by 44%, while non-participants would have increased their consumption expenditure per capita by 23% if they had participated. Moreover, participating farmers reduced their poverty gap index by 20% and poverty severity by 22%, whereas non-participating farmers could have reduced their poverty gap index and poverty severity by 5% and 17%, respectively had they engaged in irrigation farming. Participation in irrigation farming also reduced poverty vulnerability by 25%, while non-participants may have reduced poverty vulnerability by 3%. The findings suggest that enhancing farmers' access to irrigation is crucial to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to eradicate poverty in all its manifestations everywhere.