Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Investing in irrigation from Edagabatat surface dam in Tigray : How does it work and for whom ?

Auteur : Bekele, Kidst Ketema

Université de soutenance : UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft

Grade : Master of Science (MS) 2017

Résumé
This paper explores the investment in irrigation from Edagabatat subsurface dam in Tigray, North Ethiopia, to better understand how it works and for whom. While Sand dams are considered to increase access to irrigation water that results in higher farm yield and increased farm income, there is limited information on the analysis of who effectively uses sand dams and the mechanisms as to how they are used. It is often assumed an undifferentiated community will benefit equally from public investments. Building on Ribots ideas of access mapping, I developed a framework of mapping investments from the sand dam and apply it to analysis differential access to production resources which causes difference in expected benefit. I found that investment modalities differ for users : groups who have their own pump (group 1), pump on credit (group 2), who have no pump (group 3), and those who only benefit from providing their labor to the construction works of the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) (group 4). The study shows Sand dam derived opportunities for intensive production are exploited by the wealthier members of farming households, and the differential access to production resources such as access to land, water, technology, labour, and capital as well as access to state agents and officials contribute to worsening investment distribution. Farmers uses different strategies to control and maintain access to these arenas. Group 1 households they use their material wealth to invest in irrigation. Group 2 households invest through mobilization of credit arrangements both from NGOs and Credit organization. Group 3 households seem to underinvest and do not engage in the credit arrangements despite promises of large yields. Group four households is mainly engaged in the sand dam through labour involvement and therefore not sustainable after the construction phase. For this case study, the credit system provides a total barrier to invest on the use of sand dam. However, it is not certain that removing these barriers will increase benefits from the sand dam because households think there is no enough water in sand dam storage.

Sujets  : irrigation ; dams ; aquifers ; Ethiopia

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