Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
factors and maintaining equilibrium of success factors to ensure productivity
and sustainability (Awulachew et al., 2005).
The inability of large-scale public irrigation schemes to strengthen and
maintain the enabling factors for productivity and sustainability may be the
reason why farmers individually or in small-groups have resolved to develop
small-scale irrigation systems which allows them to effectively control
resources such as land and water and also to cultivate manageable farm
plots. It is not surprising that despite the unused irrigable lands in both
schemes, farmers within the region who could benefit from these unused
irrigable lands in the large-scale irrigation schemes have decided to develop
their own small-scale irrigation technologies which have been spreading
rapidly during the past two decades.
4.6 C
ONCLUSIONS
Irrigation will continue to remain an important ingredient in solving the
numerous challenges affecting food production and socio-economic
improvement of sub-Saharan Africa. Large-scale irrigation schemes cannot be
left out of the palette of technologies that can be employed in promoting
irrigation development in sub-Saharan Africa. Having analysed two large-
scale irrigation schemes in the White Volta sub-basin, it is evident that the
productivity and sustainability leave much to be desired.
Since governments have invested so much into such schemes, it is important
that they perform beneficially rather than allowing them to be a financial
drain on the weak economies they are located in; 80% of their annual budget
is still funded by government. Less than half of the developed lands are
cultivated, with the management unable to collect about 40% of water levies
from farmers annually. The irrigation efficiency is very low (about 30%)
showing inefficient use of water.
The problems of the schemes (a) originate from unresolved social impacts of
the irrigation development leading to long-standing land-tenure issues; (b)
ineffective institutions; (c) lack of credit and reliable market for farmers; and
(d) lapses in irrigation system design.
Small-scale non-government led irrigation development which gives farmers
control over resources and decisions do not suffer from these problems. This
explains why such innovations have rapidly spread in Northern Ghana during
the last two decades. This is the subject of the next chapters.
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