IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/eeaeje/343213.html

Impacts of Small-Scale Irrigation Technology on the Nutritional Wellbeing of Children in the Amhara National Region of Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Belete, Belainew
  • Melak, Surafel

Abstract

It is agreed that adopting irrigation technology improves production, productivity, income, and access to food for farm households. However, evidence on nutritional outcomes of small-scale irrigation technologies is quite scant. The existing studies focus on the productivity and poverty effect of irrigation. Thus, this study examines the impact of adoption of small-scale irrigation technologies on child nutritional wellbeing of farm households where nutritional wellbeing is measured through anthropometric indicators. Data were collected from 130 sample households drawn from Dangila and Bahir Dar Zuria wereda’s 3 . The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method was employed to identify comparable technology adopting and non-adopting sample households. The study found malnutrition to be severe in the study area. Both chronic and acute malnutrition problems were found to be wider for girls, for children aged below 2 years of age, and for non-adopters of the technology. Results of the average treatment effect on treated participants suggest that adoption of small-scale irrigation technologies has a positive impact on improving the adopters’ short-term nutritional status but its impact on children being chronically malnourished and underweight is insignificant. This study concludes that children of small-scale irrigation technology adopting households have significantly lower acute malnutrition status than those of non-adopting households even after controlling for the potential heterogeneity. Targeting diffusion of small-scale irrigation technology with early nutrition-specific intervention for long-term nutritional improvement is vital to secure child nutritional wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Belete, Belainew & Melak, Surafel, 2018. "Impacts of Small-Scale Irrigation Technology on the Nutritional Wellbeing of Children in the Amhara National Region of Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 27(01), April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eeaeje:343213
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.343213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/343213/files/Impacts%20of%20small-scale%20irrigation%20technology.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.343213?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:iwt:worppr:h029639 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Solomon, S. & Ketema, M., . "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, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 7(01), pages 1-9.
    3. repec:wbk:wbpubs:13949 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Domenech, Laia & Ringler, Claudia, 2013. "The impact of irrigation on nutrition, health, and gender: A review paper with insights for Africa south of the Sahara," IFPRI discussion papers 1259, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. repec:iwt:rerpts:h042373 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Namara, Regassa E. & Awuni, J.A. & Barry, Boubacar & Giordano, Mark & Hope, Lesley & Owusu, Eric S. & Forkuor, Gerald, 2011. "Smallholder shallow groundwater irrigation development in the upper east region of Ghana," IWMI Research Reports 137588, International Water Management Institute.
    7. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    8. Hagos, Fitsum & Makombe, Godswill & Namara, Regassa & Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele, 2008. "Importance of irrigated agriculture to the Ethiopian economy: capturing the direct net benefits of irrigation," IWMI Conference Proceedings 246409, International Water Management Institute.
    9. repec:wbk:wbpubs:6896 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Foltz, Jeremy D. & Gars, Jared & Özdoğan, Mutlu & Simane, Belay & Zaitchik, Ben, 2013. "Weather and Welfare in Ethiopia," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150298, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. repec:iwt:rerpts:h044687 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nixon Murathi Kiratu & Eefje Aarnoudse & Martin Petrick, 2025. "Analyzing the impact of irrigation on dietary diversity: a comparison between farmer-led and public irrigation in Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 17(2), pages 493-514, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabiana Natali & Giacomo Branca, 2020. "On positive externalities from irrigated agriculture and their policy implications: An overview," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 22(2), pages 1-25.
    2. Nixon Murathi Kiratu & Eefje Aarnoudse & Martin Petrick, 2025. "Analyzing the impact of irrigation on dietary diversity: a comparison between farmer-led and public irrigation in Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 17(2), pages 493-514, April.
    3. Lebeta, Temesgen Hirko, 2017. "Participation In And Impact Of Small-Scale Irrigation Practice On Household Income: The Case Of Abay Chomen District Of Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia," Research Theses 276456, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    4. Domènech, Laia, 2015. "Is reliable water access the solution to undernutrition? A review of the potential of irrigation to solve nutrition and gender gaps in Africa South of the Sahara," IFPRI discussion papers 1428, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Seow Eng Ong & Davin Wang & Calvin Chua, 2023. "Disruptive Innovation and Real Estate Agency: The Disruptee Strikes Back," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 287-317, August.
    6. Biljana Jovanovic, 2020. "Export and firms' performance in North Macedonia: self selection or learning by doing?," Working Papers 2020-01, National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia.
    7. Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez, 2013. "Efectos de los ingresos no reportados en el nivel y tendencia de la pobreza laboral en México," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2013-04, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    8. Ichev, Riste & Valentinčič, Aljoša, 2025. "The effect of impact investing on performance of private firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    9. Paolo Naticchioni & Silvia Loriga, 2011. "Short and Long Term Evaluations of Public Employment Services in Italy," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 57(3), pages 201-229.
    10. Graziella Bertocchi & Marianna Brunetti & Anzelika Zaiceva, 2023. "The Financial Decisions of Immigrant and Native Households: Evidence from Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(1), pages 117-174, March.
    11. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    12. Morgane Innocent & Agnès François-Lecompte & Nolwenn Roudaut, 2020. "Comparison of human versus technological support to reduce domestic electricity consumption in France," Post-Print hal-02450849, HAL.
    13. Jörg Prokop & Dandan Wang, 2022. "Is there a gender gap in equity-based crowdfunding?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1219-1244, October.
    14. Dettmann, E. & Becker, C. & Schmeißer, C., 2011. "Distance functions for matching in small samples," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1942-1960, May.
    15. Bucheli, José R. & Bohara, Alok K. & Villa, Kira, 2016. "The Impact of a Rural Road Development Project on Multidimensional Poverty in Nepal," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235214, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Febi Jensen & Hans Lööf & Andreas Stephan, 2020. "New ventures in Cleantech: Opportunities, capabilities and innovation outcomes," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 902-917, March.
    17. Irani Arráiz & Marcela Melendez & Rodolfo Stucchi, 2012. "Partial Credit Guarantees and Firm Performance: Evidence from the Colombian National Guarantee Fund," OVE Working Papers 0212, Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE).
    18. Jan Fałkowski & Maciej Jakubowski & Paweł Strawiński, 2014. "Returns from income strategies in rural Poland," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 22(1), pages 139-178, January.
    19. Arata, Linda & Sckokai, P., 2013. "Impact of Agri-environmental Schemes on Farm Performances in five EU Member States," 2013 Second Congress, June 6-7, 2013, Parma, Italy 149771, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    20. Bemile, Esther & Anders, Sven M., 2014. "Linking Diet-Health Behaviour and Obesity using Propensity Score Matching," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182832, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:eeaeje:343213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeaa2ea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.