Constraints and Access to Water for Small Irrigated Farming Agriculture in Damaturu Yobe State
Chapter One
Research Objectives
The research was guided by the following objectives:
- To establish the extent to which water availability influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State.
- To establish how technical factors influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State.
- To establish the extent to which institutional factors influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State.
- To establish how financial factors influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Irrigated agriculture has made a major contribution to food production and food security throughout the world: without irrigation much of the impressive growth in agricultural productivity over the last 50 years could not have been achieved. Nevertheless it is widely accepted that the overall performance of „irrigation and drainage‟ (also implying reclamation and water control) investments has too often fallen short of the expectations of planners, governments and financing institutions alike (Report No. 13676, A Review of World Bank Experience in Irrigation, Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank, Washington DC, 1994). Inadequate consideration of institutional constraints and poor planning for implementation and lack of commitment to the success of the project by governments and users. In the case of irrigation investments these problems are manifested in poor project management, both at implementation and thereafter, and poor operation and maintenance resulting from inadequate budget allocations or from rent seeking by users and officials.
These core problems usually give rise to, or are accompanied by, a host of other technical, social and economic problems, such as: Implementation delays and cost overruns; Premature degeneration of civil works and equipment; Unreliable water supplies, or over-irrigation, water logging and salinity; Social problems, including problems of organization, equity, land tenure and gender exclusion; Lower than expected output values, due to poor technical performance or reflecting over-optimistic price projections by planners.
According to Kumar (2006) sustainability concerns are being expressed that the input levels have to be continuously increased in order to maintain the yield at the all level. This poses a threat to the economic viability and sustainability of crop production. A sustainable farming system is a system in which natural resources are managed so that potential yield and the stock of natural resources do not decline over time. However each of the components of sustainable agriculture is complex and some quantifiable measures
are needed to check whether a farming system is sustainable or not. Due to the multidimensional nature of the concept of sustainability, the difficulties in determining specific threshold values for this dimension are not over emphasized.
The overall performance of many irrigation projects is disappointing. Evaluations document, a wide range of problems, including: cost and time overruns; poor management; the non-realization of full, planned benefits; adverse environmental and health impacts; and the exacerbation of inequities in the existing social and economic distribution of assets among farmers (FAO, 2014).
Water Availability
As at 2007, Yobe was classified as a chronically water scarce state with a freshwater endowment of only 552 cubic meters per capita compared to the conventional universal minimum of 1,000 cubic meters. This per capita availability is projected to fall to 235 cubic meters by 2025 as the population increases, and could even be less, if the resource base continues to deplete (MEMR, 2010). Kenya‟s Vision 2030 has listed eight challenges for the water sector one of which is “Increasing the amount of irrigated land”. The Agricultural Sector Development Strategy for 2009-2020 (ASD) has also listed “improvement of water management and irrigation development” as a strategic requirement for building a dynamic agricultural sector.
Water is becoming scarce simply because of a limited national endowment, the growing needs of rapidly increasing population, as well as serious water resources degradation. In addition to this scarcity, Kenya is highly vulnerable to rainfall variability: droughts are now endemic and floods occur quite frequently. This is despite the fact that Kenya‟s socio-economic development goals are highly dependent on availability of good quality and quantity water. Sustainable utilization, development and management of water resources fundamentally underpin the achievement of long-term socio-economic goals.
Agricultural production in Kenya is heavily dependent on rainfall. The main constraint to development, income generation and food security in the ASAL areas (which comprises 84% of the total land area in Kenya has inadequate water. Irrigation is especially pertinent in the face of recurrent droughts, floods and prolonged dry spells, which cause food insecurity and famines in the country and have to be mitigated. To promote all year round agriculture and enhance food security, maintenance, construction and rehabilitation of existing dams, pans, and drilling of more boreholes and development of irrigation schemes is of critical importance.
The opportunities for growth through irrigation, drainage and water storage are immense in Kenya. The country has an irrigation potential of 539,000 ha (based on surface water availability) and a drainage/flood protection potential of 600,000 ha, of which only 110,000 ha (20%) of irrigation and 30,000 ha (5%) of drainage have been developed. However, the rate of irrigation development in the country has been slow, with expansion of new irrigated/drained area attaining about 5,000 ha per year, which is equivalent to a growth rate of less than 0.5%. The arid and semi arid lands (ASALs) alone have 9.2 million hectares of land which have the potential for crop production if irrigated. This irrigable area is equivalent to the total farmland in high and medium potential areas in the country (National irrigation and drainage policy, 2009). Since the limiting factor is water, the national irrigation potential can be substantially increased through water harvesting and storage, the exploitation of ground water resources and improvement in water use efficiency.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter explains the methodology used in the study. It is sub divided into seven sections namely; research design, target population, sampling or the respondent of the study, the research instruments, methods of data collection, procedure and methods of data analysis and ethical issues.
Research Design
The study used survey design to establish the Constraints And Access To Water For Small Irrigated Farming Agriculture In Damaturu Yobe State. The first step in the study explained those questions that were answered which enabled data collected to be relevant to the study (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003). This type of study sought to obtain information that explains an existing phenomenon from people‟s perception, attitude, values and behaviors. From these answers of respondents the researcher was able to obtain frequency of a particular attribute from which percentage perception of that attribute was calculated. The problem under study must have had social, economic or even political impact on population. It was a quick and cheap method, especially if the researcher has time constants. The method was chosen as it could adequately give information on attributes like altitude, values and behavior which are qualitative in nature
Population Of The Study
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to examine the Constraints And Access To Water For Small Irrigated Farming Agriculture In Damaturu Yobe State. The target population was all farmers both small and large scale currently undertaking this type of farming in Damaturu Yobe State.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
In this chapter the key issues related to data presentation, analysis and interpretation have been discussed. This chapter is presented in three different sections. All the sections present study responses regarding Constraints And Access To Water For Small Irrigated Farming Agriculture In Damaturu Yobe State. First, the demographic characteristics of the participants have been described. Secondly, the findings on the four key objective areas of the study have been presented and interpreted. The responses were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The data has been presented in tables.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on the Constraints And Access To Water For Small Irrigated Farming Agriculture In Damaturu Yobe State. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
Summary of the Study
In this study, our focus was on the Constraints And Access To Water For Small Irrigated Farming Agriculture In Damaturu Yobe State.. The study is was specifically focused on examining the the extent to which water availability influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State, how technical factors influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State, establish the extent to which institutional factors influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State and establishing how financial factors influence sustainability of irrigation projects in Damaturu Yobe State.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 103 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are small scale famers, in Damaturu Yobe State.
Conclusions
With respect to the analysis and the findings of this study, the following conclusions emerged;
Based on the objectives and findings of the study the following conclusions were made. Based on the first objective, continuous supply of adequate water is paramount to high sustainability of irrigation projects. This can be achieved through construction of dams to collect the commodity during rain period to be used in dry spell. Based on the second objective the technology used for supply of water to the projects should be cost effective. It should be available on demand. There should also qualified technical staff to repair and maintain the water systems. Spare parts should also be availed to facilitate a quick fix incase of any breakage. Tis will greatly influence sustainability of the projects.
The study has also concluded that sustainability of irrigation projects can be achieved through establishment of community structure for water resource management.
Subscription for water use by those involved in the projects will ease the financial constant, hence avail funds for expenses of the water system through purchase of relevant spares parts for the system. Once put in place the above state factors will enable high degree of the projects sustainability to enhance the intervention run at increased economic gain to the community.
Recommendation
Based on the findings the researcher recommends that;
- Environmental and climate change to be considered in the design for water supplies to ensure water sustainability in the long run..
- CBO to be assisted in getting outlet of affordable spare parts, this can be done by networking these outlets by relevant leaders.
- Capacity building of management committees through training on management, operation and maintenance of projects.
- Management committee to be assisted by bodies such as National government in setting tariffs for water consumption fees to be used for repairs and maintenance of water systems. This will make CBO‟s self-reliant.
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