The Contribution of Small Scale Irrigation Water Use to Households Food Security in Gorogutu District of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Small scale irrigation expansion has got vital role in assisting the development of sustainable agriculture in Ethiopia. And more number of small scale irrigation schemes were developed in the country including Gorogutu district of Oromia Region, considering the reality that irrigation is the obvious response to low agricultural productivity. The purpose of this study is therefore to assess the contribution of small-scale irrigation to household’s food security in Gorogutu district. Primary data were collected from 180 sample households selected from two PAs in the district, through random sampling technique based on probability proportional to size. The two PAs were selected considering the existence of small scale irrigation schemes, schemes years of operation and irrigation capacity. Binary Logit model was employed to examine the contribution of irrigation to household’s food security. The result of Binary Logit model indicates that use of irrigation water, family size in AE, off/non-farm income, total farm income, and livestock holding were found significantly influencing households food security. The marginal effect of the study showed that small-scale irrigation scheme utilization increases the probability of farm households to be food secure by 48%. The result is witnessed that irrigation has a great contribution to household’s food security and sustainable food security intervention must not exclude the improvement of production and productivity of agricultural sector through expansion of small-scale irrigation water use.