INVESTIGATION OF SMALL SCALE IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES AND IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: THE CASE OF TELTELE IRRIGATION SCHEME, NORTH SHEWA ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

This study identifies the irrigation management challenges and proposes improvement opportunities of small scale irrigation scheme. In this study both primary and secondary data were collected. The primary data were collected through household interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, field observation and measurement. The secondary data were collected from bureau of water resource bureau of regional metrological agency, different publications and research. Irrigation management challenges were identified through irrigation water application efficiency, conveyance efficiency, and storage efficiency and distribution uniformity. The questioner survey includes challenges of water distribution system, institutional arrangement of water allocation and challenges of irrigation water management. Discharge measurement in the canal, determination of moisture content before and after irrigation were done to determine depth of water applied The results of this study revealed that the major challenges of irrigation management are insufficient technical skill of WUAs, financial constraint, frequent canal destruction due to different reason such as low construction material of canal, livestock disturbance, people use canal as a road when going to market, low coordination of water allocation. In the scheme there is no irrigation water fee, so it implies the low canal maintenance because of lack of money. The result obtained in this study also shows that conveyance efficiency of main, secondary and tertiary canals were 64.06%, 46.48% and 34.38% respectively. The average water application efficiency of three farm plots from head, middle and tail were 50.83%, 52.76% and 54.56% respectively. The average distribution efficiency of the soil in the study scheme of three crops such as carrot, onion and potato is 98.5%. The crop water requirement of major crops in the scheme was estimated according to type of soil and climatic condition of the area. Training was prepared and delivered for farmers to give awareness on irrigation water management and crop water requirement.