IMPACT OF SMALL-SCALE IRRIGATION ON HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY: THE CASE OF WALMARA DISTRICT, FINFINNEE SURROUNDING OROMIA SPECIAL ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Small-scale irrigation is among the feasible way in which agricultural production and productivity can be boosted to meet the ever-growing food demand of least developed countries like Ethiopia. But, unlike the irrigation potential, the utilization level and its impact on food security were not empirically analyzed in specific areas of the country. This study was conducted to identify factors affecting household participation in small-scale irrigation, factors affecting household food security and assessing the impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security in Walmara district, Finfinnee surrounding Oromia special zone. Both primary and secondary data were used. Primary data were collected from 220 irrigation users and non-users. Descriptive, inferential and econometric data analysis were executed. The logistic regression applied to estimate factors affecting participation in small scale irrigation revealed that age, livestock holding, sex, family size, land owned, occurrence of crop pests and diseases, distance from irrigation site and access to credit services were the variables that significantly affected. Similarly, the logistic regression applied to estimate factors affecting household food security revealed that sex of the head, family size, dependency ratio, livestock holding, land holding, access to extension contact, access to irrigation services and access to credit services were the variables that significantly affected. To analyze the impact of small-scale irrigation on households’ food security, PSM method was applied. Radius matching with band width of 0.1 was the matching algorithm used. The quality of covariate balancing was checked using pseudo R2, mean bias and t-test. Finally, ATT was estimated and the result revealed that family members of irrigation user households on average consumed more calories of 529 kcal than irrigation non-users, and this result is statistically significant. Sensitivity analysis was done and the estimated ATT was insensitive to unobserved bias up to 200%. Therefore, policy interventions giving priority to the variables mentioned above to increase participation in small-scale irrigation and also improve household food security status are recommended