IS LARGE-SCALE PUBLIC IRRIGATION THE WAYFORWARD FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA? - Sustainable Irrigation Development in the White Volta Sub-Basin - page 79

are not found. In many instances, the initial design work was faulty or
incomplete, requiring mid-term corrections and rebuilding of schemes,
leading to drastic cost inflation (Moris and Thom, 1990). A review of World
Bank irrigation investments estimated that development cost averages
US$18,300 per hectare when indirect costs for social infrastructure, including
roads, houses, electric grids, and public service facilities, are included (Jones,
1995).
Management problems have contributed to the failure of many large-scale
schemes. For example, the Office du Niger irrigation scheme in Mali which
started operations in 1934 performed very poorly and produced low returns.
This parastatal corporation was financially independent due to revenues from
farmers' fees, but utilized only 20 percent of fee revenue on purchases of farm
inputs, with the remainder being put back into central operations. By 1983,
there was one staff member for every 1.5 farmers (Brown and Nooter, 1992).
This pattern of excessive centralization of management has often been
repeated in African irrigation schemes. The inability of ministry and agency
headquarters to respond in a timely and efficient manner to field-level
problems leads to poor performance and returns. Excessive centralization
took control from the hands of farmers and perimeter directors without
providing a viable substitute (Rosegrant and Perez, 1997).
The following are the challenges affecting large scale irrigation schemes in
sub-Saharan Africa as reported in the literature:
 Inherently difficult agroclimatic and agronomic conditions, some of
which have not been anticipated during design and implementation
stages (Moris and Thom, 1990);
 Lack of appropriate crop varieties and low use of complementary
inputs, particularly fertilizer (Reardon et al., 1993);
 Labour scarcity, which leads to high labour costs and labour
bottlenecks at peak seasons;
 Insecure land tenure and water rights, which reduces incentives to
invest in and maintain irrigation facilities and land quality
(Rosegrant and Perez, 1997);
 Problems in coordination of technical and socioeconomic aspects of
irrigation and irrigated farming, combined with lack of experience of
African farmers and irrigation managers with these management
problems, including scheduling and timing of water releases,
arrangements for common services such as field preparation or
transport, provision of inputs, and crop marketing (Moris and Thom,
1990);