Negash, Legesse (Professor)Mehari, Kahsu2020-12-042023-11-092020-12-042023-11-092019-09-09http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/23841Irrigation has become among the key agricultural practices. The present study examines on the role of small-scale irrigation by specifically investigating the factors that determine the adoption of small-scale irrigation, the impact on income as well as challenges in small-scale irrigation sector in Enderta Wereda, Tigray Regional State of Ethiopia. Data were collected by applying household surveys, questionnaires as well as field observation methods. A sample of 93 irrigation user and non-irrigation user households was randomly selected through lottery sampling methods from 5 villages of the study Wereda. The data were analyzed by Probit regression to identify the factors that determine the adoption of small-scale irrigation and Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to estimate the impact of using small-scale irrigation on income as a livelihood indicator. The findings of the present study revealed that there were significance differences between groups of irrigation users compared to non-irrigation users Use of small-scale irrigation was significantly (P< 0.05) influenced by land size, access to credit, household education and total household income. The present study found that age, of the household head, educational level, marital status, as well as access to credit of the household head were positively correlated, while land and family sizes were found to be negatively correlated with the adoption of small-scale irrigation. Households who used irrigation earned about 64,226 Birr higher per year with standard deviation ± 49,250 than those who failed to use irrigation. Most farmers (94%) intend to continue using small-scale irrigation, but, they face several challenges. The most important challenges include is the price of farm inputs (21.6%),water management and lack of technology for water use (13.5%), access to credit (8.1%) as well as access to markets(5.4%)enAgricultural PracticesBirrIrrigation SchemeIrrigation UserProbit RegressionPropensity Score MatchingWater ManagementThesis