Small Scale Irrigation and its Effect on Poverty Reduction: the Case of Shabelle River Basin Gode Woreda, Somali Region, Ethiopia

This study was conducted at Gode district of Somali Region, Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to identify Small-scale irrigation use and its effect on poverty reduction. The data was collected from a total of 180 farmers by using semi-structured questionnaire. To collect the required data several methods like interview schedule, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used. Various documents were reviewed to collect the secondary data. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics (chi-square and t-test), frequency, percentage and econometric model analysis were used to analyze quantitative data. As the binary logistic regression model result indicates, eight variables were found to be significant namely Farming experience and membership to cooperative had significant effect on the use of irrigation water use at less than 1% probability level. Age, family size, water availability, and off-farm income had significant effect on the use of irrigation water at 5% significant level. Livestock holding size and access to credit had significant effect on the use of irrigation water use at less than 10% probability level. Water availability from rivers had a significant effect on the use of irrigation water and the main sources of irrigation water in the study area are rivers. Small scale irrigation reduces poverty by enhancing production, household consumption, annual expenditure, and by increasing employment. It is recommended that the concerned bodies such as government, NGO and other stakeholders should emphasis on construction of new canals and maintenance of existing canals so as to improve the performance of small scale irrigation