Impact of Irrigated Agriculture on Household Food Seecurity: The Case of Dibdbo Irrigation Scheme, Tigray, Ethiopia

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2009-07

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Addis Ababauniversity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of irrigated agriculture on household food security in rural areas of Tigray, Ethiopia with special reference to Dibdbo1 irrigation scheme (dam) . The study has three major objectives. The primary objective was to examine the irrigation water management practices of the scheme. The second objective was to assess internal and external problems associated with irrigated agriculture and the third objective was to assess the impact of irrigated agriculture on household food security. The "before and after the project" approach was used for the study by taking 42 households as a sample. Results are based on household survey, key informant discussion, focus group discussion, direct observation and life-history. Data were collected for the period 1988-1990 E.C (before the project) and 1996-1998 E.C (after the project) and analysis was carried out with the help of various methods and techniques such as Lorenz curve, Gini-coefficient, Poverty ratio (or Head count), Poverty gap and Squared poverty gap. The result of head count ratio showed that before the project intervention, nearly 83% of the households were identified as poor. By contrast, only about 36% of the households were living below the poverty line after project intervention. Moreover, the overall poverty gap was 0.37 and 0.28, indicating that poor households needed an additional of 37 percent and 28 percent of the present income to attain minimum basket of basic needs before and after the project. The Gini coefficient derived from the Lorenz Curve is 0.27 and 0.23 for households before and a fter the project res pectively, which implies that the distribution of income is considered as relatively equal among the households before and after the project

Description

Keywords

on Household FoodSeecurity

Citation