In spite of the vast water resource potential, Oromia’s agriculture is almost entirely dependent on rain. The last four decades have showed that rain-fed agriculture alone is unreliable in achieving food self-sufficiency. According to the Economic Study of Oromia (1999), the region has about 1.7 million hectare of irrigable land, of which only 5% of the potential has been so far developed. Available data also show that from the 326,678 hectares, which can be irrigable at peasant holdings level, only about 15%, has been utilized by 145,502 farmers . These facts show that the region has to go long way to utilize the irrigation potential and ensure food security.
Two types of irrigation schemes are known to exist in Oromia: traditional and modern. Traditional irrigation schemes are estimated to cover 48,816 hectares while modern irrigation constitutes 43,184 hectares of land. Out of the area under modern irrigation, only 8462 hectares of small scale irrigation schemes were developed by the regional government over the past eight years for communal use at a total cost of 84.7million and benefiting 24,379 households .
The modern small-scale irrigation is aimed at increasing agricultural productivity through improvement of water use efficiency coupled with provision of adequate agronomical and other extension services. However, the evaluation of existing irrigation schemes by Oromia Irrigation Development Authority (OIDA) in 1992 revealed that, out of 97 schemes assessed 41 were found to be inefficient. Among these 41, only twelve schemes use 50 – 74% of their irrigation potential. Out of the total designed potential irrigable land, currently only 57% of it is being utilized by 58% of the initially planned beneficiaries.
The critical problems identified in the irrigation sub-sector are low level of beneficiary involvement at all levels of the development of the schemes, which resulted in under utilization, poor management and inadequate maintenance of the schemes. Moreover, weak integration of agronomic and other extension supports with irrigation schemes, incompleteness of construction works and problem connected with designing and construction are also among the constraints observed in irrigation sub-sector.
The rationale for constructing irrigation scheme is to improve overall production and productivity of agricultural sector and thereby enhance the income of beneficiaries leading to improvement of life. However, due to absence of data it was not possible to assess:
a)The contribution of modern small scale irrigation schemes to overall production.
b)Productivity of areas under modern small scale irrigation schemes in comparison with the productivity of both traditional and rain-fed agriculture.
Therefore, it is crucial to swiftly create a system which would enable to track and evaluate the status, performance and contribution of the irrigation schemes.
Taking into account the pivotal role irrigation agriculture plays in boosting production and productivity, in the face of deteriorating climatic situation and growing threat of food insecurity, it is quite important to consider the following steps as a direction to further develop and sustain the sector. Firstly, stringent measures should be taken to ensure that the schemes so far constructed are utilized with full capacity and persistent maintenance activities are undertaken to guarantee their sustainable use mainly through building the skill and capacity of beneficiaries. Secondly, any future irrigation development endeavours should primarily be based on full participation of the community at all stages of the planning process. Thirdly, irrigation development activities should not only be limited to river diversion methods but must also consider other options of water harvesting mechanisms, which can play a significant role as supplementary irrigation during early cessation of rains. Fourthly, a clear regional strategy which would guide the future development directions of the sector should be urgently formulated to take advantage of the enormous water resource potential the region is endowed with to tackle the problem of food insecurity.
