Journal of Geography & Natural

Disasters Research Article

Does Small-Scale Irrigation have Impact on Food Security Outcomes? Evidence

from Southern Tigray, Ethiopia
Kebede Manjur, Gebrehiwot Woldegebrial, Moges Girmay*, Workie Sahlu
Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekdela Amba
University, Tuluawlia, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT
Introduction: The livelihood of rural households in Ethiopia depends on subsistence and rain-fed oriented
agriculture. However, erratic rain and prevalence of drought in the country make agricultural production a challenge.
To counter this problem, use of the available water resources for irrigation development is the most promising
option.
Objective: Therefore, this study examines the impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security in Emba
Alaje district of Southern Tigray zone, Tigray regional state.
Methodology: A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select sample households. The study was mainly
based on the primary data that were collected from 137 randomly selected rural households (67 irrigation users and
70 non-users) from 2 kebelle of the district. The data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and econometric
models. Descriptive statistics was used to characterize the sample of socio-economic and demographic status of
households and propensity score matching techniques model were used to analyze the impacts of small-scale
irrigation on specific food security outcomes.
Result: The Average treatment effect on treated (ATT) result shows that participation in irrigation has positive
impact on household’s income, food availability, food variety score, household diet diversity and calorie intake.
Conclusion: Therefore, the study concludes that small-scale irrigation development would have positive effect on
food security of beneficiary households.
Recommendation: Thus, governmental and non-governmental organizations should join hands to support the
development of small-scale irrigation schemes to reduce the food insecurity problem in the study area.
Keywords: Food security; Small-scale irrigation; Propensity score matching

INTRODUCTION producing industrial crops that are used as raw materials for
value adding industries and exportable crops. Currently, the
Ethiopia is among the most food insecure countries of the world Ethiopian government gives more emphasis to small-scale
where 44% of its population live below the national poverty line, irrigation as a means of achieving food self-sufficiency. To
and 46% of its population get below the minimum levels of address these issues, Agricultural Development Led
dietary energy consumption compared with other sub-Saharan Industrialization (ADLI) Strategy was designed in 1991 where
and developing countries World Food Programme (WFP). focus was given to the expansion of small-scale irrigation,
Irrigation enhances agricultural production and improves formation of cooperative societies and access to agricultural
foodsupply and income of rural population, opens employment technologies to answer the food demand and bring about the
opportunities for the poor, supports national economy by

Correspondence to: Moges Girmay, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
Mekdela Amba University, Tuluawlia, Ethiopia; E-mail: [email protected]
Received: 31-Oct-2022, Manuscript No. JGND-22-19893; Editor assigned: 02-Nov-2022, PreQC No. JGND-22-19893 (PQ); Reviewed:
16-Nov-2022, QC No. JGND-22-19893; Revised: 06-Feb-2023, Manuscript No. JGND-22-19893 (R); Published: 13-Feb-2023,
DOI: 10.35841/2167-0587.23.13.266
Citation: Manjur K, Woldegebrial G, Girmay M, Sahlu W (2023) Does Small-Scale Irrigation have Impact on Food Security Outcomes?
Evidence from Southern Tigray, Ethiopia. J Geogr Nat Disasters. 13:266.
Copyright: © 2023 Girmay M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Manjur K, et al.

socioeconomic development in the country [1]. The study area is N=Total number of household head (3281)
Tigray region, one of the most drought prone regions in the
e=Margin of errors at 8.5%.
country. Because of that the government of Tigray region is
implementing different agricultural development program in To determine the required sample size, the study was employed a
order to achieve food security in rural households. Among these formula developed by Yamane at 95% confidence level, 8.5%
programs, irrigation development is primarily taken by the margin of errors because of limit of financial and difficulty to
government. Since 2003, small-scale irrigation was used to manage large sample size.
promote irrigation in 0.5 million food insecure households. In
this program, government organizations, international and local Source of data and methods of data collection
NGOs, micro-finance institutions, private sectors and farmers
are involved at different levels with different tasks [2]. For this study, both quantitative and qualitative data type were
collected from primary and secondary sources at different levels
In Emba Alaje Woreda, studies on the impact of small-scale to fulfill the research questions and objectives of the study. Semi-
irrigation schemes on food security status are very limited and it structured interview was employed to collect primary data on
is not well known to what extent irrigation user households are the demographic, socioeconomic, and institutional
better off than those who depend on rainfall. A few studies had characteristics from representative sample of households that
been done in the area regarding on impact of irrigation on a was administered by eight enumerators [4]. The questionnaire
household food security. For instance, the study of and focuses was first prepared in English and later translated into the local
on the impact of irrigation scheme on a household food security language (Tigrigna), so that the respondents can easily
by taking only income as proxy measure of impact of irrigation. understand the questions. In addition to the structured survey
In other word, in the study area the impact of irrigation scheme schedule, seven key informant interviews those who have more
on a household food security by taking caloric intake, household knowledge about the area, which include elders, experts from
diet diversity, food variety score and household food insecurity agricultural office and development agents working in the
access scale as proxy measure of impact of irrigation does not kebelle were conducted by the researcher to obtain additional
well address. information on the determinants of use of small-scale irrigation
With this background, this study is designed to analyze the and its impact on household’s food security in the study area.
impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security in
Emba Alaje woreda and through that make recommendations to Impact analysis
improve the effectiveness of interventions [3]. For analyzing the impact of small-scale irrigation on food
security of farming households in the study area, Propensity
MATERIALS AND METHODS Score Matching (PSM) method was used. In this study, the
treated households were smallholder farm households
Sampling technique and sample size determination participating in small-scale irrigation program and the control
households selected for comparison purpose were farm
The study adopted both survey design and a multi stage households in the study area who do not use irrigation users on
sampling technique. Purposive sampling technique was used to their farms [5].
select the study area (Emba Alaje district) due its
implementation of small-scale irrigation scheme. Then, out of The difference between the average outcomes of the two groups
the total 21 kebelles found within the woreda, two kebeles (Ayba estimates that the effect of participation on small-scale
and Atsela) was purposively selected mainly based on the current irrigation. In order to adjust the estimated propensity scores
practice and potential for irrigation, and their accessibility in combination of the three main methods of matching was used
terms of road. Then, to select the representative respondents such as nearest neighbor, radius, and kernel matching.
from each two kebelles, lists of all farmers in the two kebelles
were obtained and stratified into two: Irrigation users and non- RESULTS
users. Finally, a total of 137 sample household (67 irrigation
users and 70 non users) are selected from the list by simple Impact analysis of small-scale irrigation on
random sampling procedure.
household food security
Choice of matching algorithm: Table 1 presents the estimated
results of tests of matching quality based on the three
performance criteria. Pseudo-R2 is high before matching and is
quite low after matching, this indicating that; after matching the
covariates has been balanced and there are no systematic
differences between the treated and control group. In addition,
the p-value is significant before matching indicating that, both
the treated and control groups are quite different from each
Where: other, while the p-value is non-significant after matching
indicating that both are quite similar to each other, and lower
n=Sample size for the study (137)

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Manjur K, et al.

mean bias support the hypothesis that both groups have the matching procedure is able to balance the characteristics of
same distribution in covariates after matching. irrigation user and non-user households of the matched
comparison groups. Therefore, the study was used the three
After looking into the results, it was found that nearest, kernel
matching algorithm to estimate the treatment effect such as
and radius matching algorithm was found to be the best
kernel, nearest neighbor and radius matching [6].
estimator for the data at hand. These results show that the
.
Table 1: Balances indicators before and after matching with nearest-neighbor, kernel and radius matching.

Matching Ps R2 chi2 p>chi2 Mean Bias Med Bias Balance test Matched sample

Before matching 0.318 60.34 0 47.5 15.2 4 137

Nearest-neighbor 0.015 1.88 0.995 7.5 5.6 9 119

matching

Kernel matching 0.016 2.15 0.989 6.8 7.1 9 119

Radius matching 0.015 2.05 0.991 5.9 5.7 9 119

Stratification 0.116 1.54 0.01 19.4 16 5 126

matching

The quality of matching can also be assessed by visual inspection

using graphs. To do so, we plotted graphs of estimated
propensity scores for treatment households and control
households both before and after matching for each of three
matching methods. Figure 1 portrays the distribution of the
household with respect to the estimated propensity scores.
In case of treatment households, most of them were found Figure 2: Propensity score distribution after matching.
in the middle part and partly in the right side of the
distribution. On the other hand, most of the control All of the above tests suggest that the matching algorithm we
households are partly found in the center and partly in the left have chosen is relatively the best with the data we have at hand.
side of the distribution. This indicated that both the treated and Thus, we can proceed to estimate ATT for the households.
control groups are quite different from each other in before
matching with different characteristics. But Figure 2 shows that Estimated average treatment effect
both groups have the same distribution in covariates and more
similar after matching [7]. Kilocalorie per person per day: On average, participation in
small-scale irrigated farming had impact on calorie intake of the
participant households in small-scale irrigated farming by
1,734.56, 1,409.02 and 1,538.36 in nearest-neighbor, radius and
kernel matching estimators respectively. This difference was
statistically significant at 1% significance level nearest-neighbor
and radius matching methods only but in kernel matching
methods these differences in kilocalorie between treated and
Figure 1: Propensity score distribution before matching. control groups are not statistically significant. This result is
consistent with the finding of, the estimated average treatment
effect on the treated (ATT), which is about 529 kcal is the pure
effect of small-scale irrigation, and this effect is statistically
significant at 5% probability level.
Table 2: Kilocalorie per person per day.

Matching method Treated. control ATT Std. Err. T

Nearest-neighbor 67 20 1734.56 676.57 3.87***

matching

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Manjur K, et al.

Radius matching 64 52 1409.02 437.01 3.02***

Kernel matching 67 63 1538.36 562.912 1.4

Food availability: Table 3 presents the PSM results on food produce more than once a year to supplement the rain fed
availability. The estimation of ATT of food availability using agriculture. The study conducted by Abonesh in eastern showa
nearest-neighbor, radius and kernel matching method was using heckman two stage analyses revealed that those
2.448, 2.261 and 2.82 matching estimators respectively. The households with access to irrigation are at better position in
difference was statistically significant at 1% for nearest-neighbor, securing enough food than their counterparts.
radius and kernel matching. In the case of users, they can
Table 3: Food availability.

Matching method Treated. Control ATT Std. Err. T

Nearest-neighbor 67 20 2.448 0.458 5.342***

matching

Radius matching 64 52 2.261 0.281 8.05***

Kernel matching 67 63 2.82 0.428 5.33***

Food variety score: Table 4 presents the PSM results on food estimators respectively. The difference was statistically significant
variety score. Participation in small-scale irrigation has positive at 1% for nearest-neighbor, radius and kernel matching. In other
and significant effect on food variety score. The estimation of words, the participation in small-scale irrigation has increased
ATT of food variety score using nearest-neighbor, radius and probability of households to consume different food items that
kernel matching method was 5.284, 5.079 and 4.811 matching are accessible across food groups.
Table 4: Food variety score.

Matching method Treated. Control ATT Std. Err. T

Nearest-neighbor 67 20 5.284 0.592 8.918***

matching

Radius matching 64 52 5.079 0.475 10.682***

Kernel matching 67 63 4.811 0.459 10.482***

Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and kernel matching estimators respectively. Which means
household scores high food insecurity access scale the household
Table 5 presents the PSM estimates on the impacts of small-scale becomes more food insecurity access experienced, however, the
irrigation on household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS). household with low HFIAS less food insecurity access
Result shows that the HFIAS of irrigation user has reduced by experienced.
-6.104, -5.992 and -5.937 in the case of nearest-neighbor, radius

Table 5: Household food insecurity access scale.

Matching method Treated. control ATT Std. Err. T

Nearest-neighbor 68 20 -6.104 0.774 -7.888***

matching

Radius matching 64 52 -5.992 0.583 -10.274***

Kernel matching 67 63 -5.937 0.877 -13.361***

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Manjur K, et al.

Household diet diversity Nearest-neighbor, radius and kernel matching estimators

respectively (Table 6). Again, this difference in HDD between
The results show that irrigation user households had a higher households with irrigation and non- irrigation households is
dietary diversity of 2.209, 2.094 and 1.844 than non-users in significant at 1% for all matching algorithms.
Table 6: Dietary diversity.
Matching method Treated. control ATT Std. Err. T

Nearest-neighbor 67 20 2.209 0.592 3.72***

matching

Radius matching 64 52 2.094 0.323 6.484***

Kernel matching 67 63 1.844 0.294 6.268***

DISCUSSION CONCLUSION
According to the results, there was no significant difference in Small-scale irrigation is an important driving tool in
the mean age of the household heads between irrigation-user development efforts as a means of bringing household food
and non-irrigation user household. This indicates that, similar security, reduce dependence on food aid and for economic
distribution of age between irrigation users and non-users. The t- growth. So, that this study was initiated to analyze the impact of
test revealed that means difference between the two groups with small-scale irrigation on farm households’ food security in Emba
regarding land holding sized is statistically significant at 1 Alaje district of southern zone, Tigray regional state with two
percent significance level. sample kebelles.
The t-test result showed that the mean comparison of the two Descriptive results indicated that irrigation user and non-user
groups with regard to livestock holding is statistically significant households showed a statistically significant mean difference in
at 1 percent significance level. The chi-square test result terms of family size, cultivated land size, livestock holding, access
(χ2=12.28) indicated that there is statistically significant to credit use, distance from irrigation water sources and
relationship between the use of irrigation and access to credit at frequency of extension contact. In addition, mean difference of
1 percent significance level. the outcome variables, household diet diversity, food variety
score, household food insecurity access scale, household daily
There was statistically significant difference at 1 percent between
caloric intake and total household income, were statically
irrigation users and non-users in terms of the distribution of
significant between irrigation user and non-user households.
households who received training on irrigation practice.
The result of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) indicated that
One of the critical explanations for this is that the farm income
access to irrigation has a significant and positive impact on
is highly affected when the smallholder farmers are participated
household income, calorie intake, food availability, household
in small-scale irrigated farming. Because, participation in small-
food insecurity access scale and household diet diversity in the
scale irrigated farming increases the opportunity to produce two
study area. This implies that access and use of irrigation plays a
times a year on the same farm and crop diversification, which
crucial role in improving livelihood of the rural household.
increase annual income.
However, mere access to irrigation will not bring the expected
The results indicate that access to irrigation technologies change in the life of people unless the provision of adequate
significantly increased kilo calorie intake of user households and equipment’s and materials, supply of improved input
enhances food security status as compared to non-irrigation technologies, and most importantly the skills for proper
users. handling and management of small-scale irrigation schemes well
addressed. This effect of irrigation water utilization has direct
This may be because non-users are producing once a year and if
bearing on household food security. Therefore, increasing
they run out of food before the next harvesting season, they may
efficiency of the existing small scale irrigation schemes and
not have other alternative food source.
designing and implementing the new schemes leads to
Again, this difference in HFIAS between households with sustainable production that could change the life of the rural
irrigation and non- irrigation households is significant at 1% for poor.
all matching algorithms. This thus shows that irrigation users
are in a better position in consuming diversified food. This ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
diversified consumption resulted into the diversification of
production and the increased income from diversified high The authors express their sincere thanks to Mekelle University,
productivity of irrigated farm. specifically NORAD Project, for the financial support in
conducting the field survey. They are also grateful to the sample
households’ and staff of Ayba and Atsela kebelles for kindly
providing the necessary information used in the study and their

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Manjur K, et al.

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