Abstract:
Ethiopian economy is highly dominated by traditional small-scale farming Agriculture. The
government has working on irrigation development as the potential available was not utilized
intensively. There was no adequate study on the impact of using small-scale irrigation vegetable
farming on household income. So, the main objective of this study was to analyze determinants of
households’ participation in small-scale irrigation vegetable farming and its impact on
household’s income in Dedo District of Jimma zone by using a cross-sectional survey data.
Multistage sampling was used to select 250 sample respondents. The primary data were
collected using interview schedule, focus group discussion and key informant interview. Various
documents were reviewed to collect the secondary data. Descriptive statistics and econometric
model like binary logistic regression and Propensity Score Matching were used to analyze data.
It was found out that more than 80% of respondents were using traditional way of water
diversion and more than 50 percent of respondents were producing only once a time in a year by
using irrigation. Potato was the major vegetable crop cultivated by irrigation followed by
cabbage and tomato. The mean cultivated land holding was 0.08hac per household and from the
available potential, it was estimated that half of it was currently not irrigated. With this regard
the status of participation in small-scale irrigation farming was found to be very low in the study
area. The study result also indicated; education, family size, credit use and contact with
development agent influence participation in small-scale irrigation positively, whereas land size,
market distance, farm distance from water and off/non-farm activities have negative influence.
The result of propensity score matching also indicated that participation in irrigated vegetable
farming had a significant and positive influence on household’s income. It was concluded that
irrigated vegetable farming has positive and significant impact on household annual income.
Therefore, small-scale irrigation vegetable farming practice is needs to be encouraged and the
status of participation in small-scale irrigation must be improved. To do this government and
other development actors like NGOs should work more jointly at all level.
