PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF NTENDE AND KILIBA SMALL-SCALE IRRIGATION SCHEMES, RWANDA

Abstract

This study intended to introduce the concept of comparative performance indicators with some irrigation efficiencies indicators such as water application efficiency and distribution uniformity as tool to evaluate the performance of two small scale irrigation projects namely Ntende and Rwagitima located in Ntende Rwagitima marshland in Rwanda. In order to evaluate the irrigation water use efficiency of farmers at field level three farmers were selected from each irrigation projects in relation to their location (from the head, middle and tail end) for required primary data collection while the comparative performance indicators relied on the availability of secondary data required to calculate th e all nine external indicator as developed by International Water Management Institute‟s. To analyze the collected data different appropriate formulas, International Water Management Institute‟s Comparative performance indicators calculation and Models like CROPWAT for seasonal crop water requirement and irrigation requirement and AQUACROP for assessing the potential land productivity in order to find out the performance gap were used. From the data analysis, the resultants of water irrig ation efficiencies showed that the application efficiencies of Kiliba are 64.77%, 60.62 and 60.59 respectively for field 1, field 2 and field 3 while the application efficiencies of Ntende are 62.47%, 60.16% and 60.39 % respectively for field 1, field 2 and field 3. The values of distribution efficiency all fields were found to be close to 100% while those of efficiency of the canal system to convey water showed that there is water loss over a given travel distance because of earthen canal. For comparative performance indicators, the resultants showed Ntende irrigation scheme performs better in terms of land productivity compared to Kiliba while the latter is more productive in terms of water productivity. The financial self-sufficiency of both schemes are still lower (imbalance between incomes & expenditures) and both schemes are poorly performing compared to their potentials land productivity..