Impact of Irrigation Technologies on Rural Households’ Poverty Status: the Case of Fogera District, North-Western Ethiopia

S. SolomonM. Ketema


No 1/2015, March
pp. 59-67

Solomon, S., Ketema, M. (2015) "Impact of Irrigation Technologies on Rural Households’ Poverty Status: the Case of Fogera District, North-Western Ethiopia“, AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 59 – 67. ISSN 1804-1930

Abstract

This study tries to analyze whether irrigation technologies have reduced the incidence, depth, and severity of poverty in Fogera district of the Amhara National Regional State of Ethiopia. It also assesses the possible impact brought about by irrigation technologies on households’ per capita consumption expenditure. Foster- Greer-Thorbeck (FGT) index and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) were used for analyzing the data collected from 180 farm households through formal survey techniques. The result indicated that annual per capita consumption expenditure of irrigation technology users is better than that of non-users. Among the different irrigation technology user groups, per capita consumption expenditure of diversion irrigation users is higher followed by that of motor pump users and treadle pump users in that order. Results from FGT index showed that users of different irrigation technologies are in a better position in terms of incidence, depth, and severity of poverty as compared to the non-users group. The PSM result also indicated that irrigation has increased per capita consumption expenditure of user households by 21 percent. It is, therefore, necessary to develop small-scale irrigation technologies and to encourage farm households to use the technologies in order to reduce poverty.

Keywords

Ethiopia, poverty, irrigation technologies, propensity score matching.

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