Abstract:
Ethiopia’s agriculture is dominated by small-scale rain-fed production whose performance is
subject to, among others, irregular rainfall pattern. Small-scale irrigation is believed in helping.
To address this problem thereby reducing rural poverty, food insecurity as well as improving the
overall contribution of agriculture to the national economy. The purpose of this study was to
assess the effect of small scale irrigation on household food security in Kachebira Woreda.
Evaluation of the performance of irrigation schemes helps to know the present status of the
scheme and to apply possible measures for improvement. Sembeta small scale irrigation scheme
was found in Kachabira District Southern Ethiopia and had a service of fifteen years. It is
constructed by World Vision Ethiopia. The beneficiaries of this irrigation scheme are 228
households from this 170 are male households and 58 are female households. The performance
of Sembeta Small Scale Irrigation Scheme had not been evaluated before this study. Therefore,
this study was conducted to evaluate the scheme by considering water delivery performance, on
field water management performance and organizational setups and their performance for
irrigation water management and maintenance. Primary data collected through field
measurements and household field survey, and secondary data from different sources were used.
Water delivery was evaluated by internal indicators. Both internal and external indicators were
used for evaluating on field water management performance. The internal indicators were
application efficiency, storage efficiency, distribution uniformity and deep percolation ratio. The
external indicators like agricultural out puts, physical and financial indicators were used. The
result of conveyance efficiency, application efficiency, storage efficiency, distribution efficiency
and deep percolation ratio, were 62.3%, 64.2%, 91.6%, 80.76% & 35.8% respectively. The
xiii
value of relative water supply and relative irrigation supply were 1.6 and 1.2 respectively. The
result of output per unit command area, output per unit irrigated area, output per unit water
supply and output per unit water consumed were 23.2Birr/Ha, 1.28Birr/Ha and .28, respectively.
Unfair distribution of water was due to water scarcity and illegal water users as the
beneficiaries responded. Generally, the scheme requires improvement measures.
