Abstract
Agriculture remains the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy. However, in the country, traditional rain fed smallholder farmers dominates the agricultural sector. Thus, Ethiopia has a huge potential of water resources. Nevertheless, there is a vast gap between the irrigated area (only about 10% of the total cultivated land) and irrigation potential in the country. In Ethiopia, still about 97% of food crops are produced by traditional rain-fed agriculture. Thus, the agricultural production activity is highly depends on seasonally rain-fed farming practice. Moreover, the adoption of irrigation and its impact on household livelihood which can be used as the major policy issue have not been well reviewed earlier. Therefore, the objective of this review is to identify the factors affecting the adoption of irrigation, and its impact on household livelihoods. The review indicated that age of household head, sex of household head, total livestock unit, land size, education level, family size, market distance from the farmer’s residence, access to a water source and off farm job participation are significant determinants of adoption of irrigation. Institutional factors like credit service, participation in community leadership, access to agricultural input and extension service are also significant determinant factors. Since the adoption of irrigation practice has significant impact in improving household livelihoods, actions should be taken by the farmer’s, extension agents, stakeholders and generally by the Ethiopian government to make a huge improvement on the irrigation farming in the country.
Highlights
Agriculture is a vital part of household livelihood and the economy of developing countries
The objective of this review is to identify the factors determines the adoption of irrigation and to assess the impact of irrigation on the farm household livelihood in Ethiopia
According to [21] study conducted on small scale irrigation impact on farmer’s livelihood; the case of mekdela woreda, Ethiopia, the result of the binary logit model show that off-farm job participation was negatively associated with the probability of irrigation participation
Summary
Agriculture is a vital part of household livelihood and the economy of developing countries. The irrigation farming strategy plays a great role to endure this challenge and to enhance agricultural production and productivity This leads to stabilizing household income, and improving the nutritional and health status of the community and overall reducing poverty [25]. The transformation of the rain fed farming system into the irrigation farming system is essential to minimize the risk of insufficient and uneven distribution of rainfall In this manner, the irrigation farming system can enable accelerated and sustainable development in agriculture sector. In terms of climate change management, poverty reduction, wealth creation and economic growth, adoption of irrigation development and sustainable water management programs could provide plenty of opportunities It reduces the environmental impact of agricultural expansion to marginal land under rapid population growth [12].
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