A study was conducted in the Ambo district of western Ethiopia in 2006 to understand the poverty reduction impacts of smallscale irrigation development, using the Indris irrigation system as a case study. The study was based on a survey of representative farm households with and without access to irrigation. The total sample size for the study was 222 (107 households with access to irrigation and 115 without). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the Foster, Greer and Thobeck poverty indices, and Heckman's selectivity model. Results indicate that the incidence, depth, and severity of poverty are significantly lower among those farm households with access to irrigation. In addition to irrigation, other variables such as farm size, livestock holding size, land productivity, and family size significantly influence the level of household consumption expenditure. However, the proportion of poor people in the overall sample, notwithstanding access to irrigation, is alarmingly high, indicating the deep-rooted and critical situation of poverty in rural Ethiopia.

Soil degradation in the highlands of Ethiopia is a serious problem that threatens the sustainability of agriculture. Although efforts have been made to develop and promote several soil conservation technologies, their adoption has not been widespread. This study, based on responses from a sample of 101 households which operate on 204 plots in Western Ethiopia, interviewed in 2003 cropping year, employed a Tobit model to identify the main factors influencing farmers' decision to adopt and intensify the use of improved and indigenous soil and water conservation (SWC) measures. The results suggest that area of cultivated land, land/ labour ratio, age and education level of household head and distance of the plot from home and slope of the plot provided statistically adequate predictive power on the use and intensity of SWC measures. These results are discussed and their implications for conservation programs are presented in the conclusion.

Ethiopia's irrigation potential is estimated at 3.7 million hectare, of which only about 190,000 ha (4.3% of the potential) is actually irrigated. There is little information on the extent to which the so far developed irrigation schemes have been effective in meeting their stated objectives of attaining food self-sufficiency and eradicating poverty. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify the impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security based on data obtained from 200 farmers in Ada Liben district of Ethiopia in 2006. The resulting data was analyzed using Heckman's Two-step Estimation procedure. Studies elsewhere revealed that access to reliable irrigation water can enable farmers to adopt new technologies and intensify cultivation, leading to increased productivity, overall higher production, and greater returns from farming. Our study findings confirm some of these claims. In the study area about 70% of the irrigation users are food secure while only 20% of the non-users are found to be food secure. Access to small scale irrigation enabled the sample households to grow crops more than once a year; to insure increased and stable production, income and consumption; and improve their food security status. The study concludes that small-scale irrigation significantly contributed to household food security.

No abstract

Based on data generated from 180 randomly selected households with children age under five years old in Aysaita district of Afar region of Ethiopia, this study explored prevalence of malnutrition and scrutinized household characteristics, maternal characteristics, specifics of the child and economic variables associated with child malnutrition. The height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ), weight-for-height Z-scores (WHZ) and weight-for-age Z-scores (WAZ) were used to measure the extent of stunting, wasting and underweight, respectively. The results revealed that prevalence of long term nutritional imbalance and malnutrition status indicator (i.e. stunting) was 67.8%. The short term measure (wasting) was found to be 12.8% and underweight was found to be 46.1%. Moreover, children in households which are headed by women, and characterized by more dependency ratio, less access to assets, health services and institutions are more likely to be undernourished.