PRODUCTIVITY OF IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE WHITE VOLTA SUB-BASIN - Sustainable Irrigation Development in the White Volta Sub-Basin - page 155

6.5 C ONCLUSION
A summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the irrigation technologies in
the sub-basin in terms of productivity is presented in Table 6.3. Both the
farm records and the regression analysis have shown that apart from water
being a pre-requisite for successful irrigation adequate fertilizer application is
the major factor to achieving high irrigation productivities. Farmers are
willing to apply fertilizer because of high returns to the investment, and this
is facilitated by a relatively strong and predictable market for tomatoes.
The impact that an irrigation technology has on the irrigation productivity
has got to do with the control over the water resources by the farmer and
the size of the farm irrigated by the technology. Technologies characterised
by relatively small farm sizes are better managed by the surveyed farmers
because they are able to provide adequate water and crop nutrients thus
resulting in higher productivity. The large irrigation scheme where farm plots
are relatively large has a low productivity (in terms of land, water and profit
margin).
The most productive irrigation technologies are the temporal and permanent
shallow wells, followed by the riverine alluvial dugout. Moreover, these highly
productive irrigation technologies also achieve good profit margins and
provide income opportunities to the wider society in terms of labour and also
have higher women participation. This confirms the claim by Chambers
(1988) that small farms can be more efficient than large farms, and the claim
of Obeng-Asiedu (2004) that small-scale technologies can be profitable,
financially sustainable and able to do better than large scale irrigation
schemes in the Volta basin.
The findings imply that in order to achieve high impact, irrigation
development in sub-Saharan Africa should consider the economic status of
the users and their ability to make the best out of the technology in terms of
productivity. Also, the technology should give control over the water to the
farmer. The resulting economic activities have a large positive spinoff in
terms of job opportunities, especially for the youth. Also, participation of
female farmers was significant in most technologies surveyed.
Finally apart from technologies that depend on reservoirs, all other
technologies are farmer driven and required no government support. This
ongoing type of endogenous irrigation development in the study area
provides a strong backing that the way forward in sub-Saharan Africa is for
governments to create policies that facilitate poor farmers becoming
irrigation entrepreneurs. Such policies should aim to enhance the reliability