Participatory Small Irrigation Development Programme I, IFAD Impact Assessment Surveys 2016 (Ethiopia)

Abstract

In the face of recurrent climatic shocks across many countries that negatively affect farmers income, undermine the impact of investments, IFAD has been promoting the resilience of vulnerable smallholders through investments that enhance farmers capacity to mitigate, recover and adapt to shocks and chronic stresses.

The Participatory Small-Scale Irrigation Development Programme (PASIDP) was implemented to improve the food security, family nutrition, and income of poor rural households living in drought-prone and food-deficit areas in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia through a sustainable farmer-owned and -managed system of small-scale irrigated agriculture.

Amongst others, some of the PASIDP approaches to achieving the goal were to: innovatively build on indigenous knowledge; promote beneficiary participation in the selection, construction, operation, maintenance and management of irrigation schemes; and secure communal ownership through grassroots organizations such as water users' association.

At the start, food-deficit woredas (districts) under the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) that are high density, drought prone and food insecure were selected to participate in the project. Then, following a participatory approach, the woreda and kebele (sub-districts) officials along with community leaders, selected the type of small-scale irrigation scheme most appropriate for the area based on the local conditions and implementation capacity of the targeted beneficiaries. Implemented from March 2008 to September 2015, the PASIDP project constructed a total of 121 irrigation schemes and benefitted about 62,000 households.

For more information, please, click on the following link: https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/-/publication/impact-assessment-p…