Bread wheat production in small scale irrigation users agro-pastoral households in Ethiopia: Case of Afar and Oromia regional state

Abstract

Conceptually, benefits of irrigation are realized through improvements in agricultural productivity. At household level, agricultural production increases could be followed by improvements in food consumption patterns. The goal of this research is to examine relationship between irrigation, production and consumption patterns for rural smallholders with pre-scaling up of bread wheat (Ga'ambo variety). A survey was undertaken and data collected on demographics, landholdings, irrigation, returns, consumption behaviors, farmer perceptions, experiences, and other related variables. The results show that using irrigation to the production of bread wheat has positive impact in yield. Though overall production increases the agricultural income of households but amounts spend on food for each household did not increase as consequence because the produced wheat was changed as food source in the form of bread, Injera, Qolo and other forms. However better dietary diversity was found on the consumption pattern of the households with higher income since part of the generated yield was supplied as a seed to the surrounding agro-pastoral wheat producers. Integrated approaches are needed to secure a healthy diet when the food supply of the family is increasing from the cereal part. The average total land holding was found 2.9 ha while the average land cultivated in the bread wheat production at the season was 1.4 ha. Average years of experience of agro-pastoral households in using different improved verities were 2.5 years which had good contribution in production management. The seed amount used on average for the production was found 84.5 kg/ha which lies between the national recommendation which is 80 to 90 kg/ha for irrigated areas while the average seed cost was 13.1 birr (Ethiopian currency) per kg. The average yields collected from the small scale irrigation users were found 31.8 quintal (which is about 3,180 kg) yet at individual levels it was varied from 15 to 37.3 quintals the variation was because of management practice with keeping other heterogeneous factors constant.