Nigussie Haregeweyn

Performance Assessment and Adoption Status of Family Drip Irrigation System in Tigray State, Northern Ethiopia

Large irrigation systems are generally incompatible among most of the African smallholder farming systems (De Lange, 1998) for the reason that support services for farmers, such as extension and credit are ineffective also often alter the established patterns of land tenure and land settlement, and have the effect of disrupting or undermining the established economic institutions. Moreover, improvements of surface irrigation may not be enough and due to the limited volumes of water harvested and stored as compared to crop water requirements. As a result, drip irrigation is being considered as one of the alternatives in the planning of irrigation in Tigray Regional State. Drip irrigation is often promoted as a technology that can conserve water, increase crop production, and improve crop quality. To this end, efforts to improve irrigation efficiency through new technologies have been undertaken in many areas of the Tigray Regional State. As a result, collaboration was initiated to improve irrigation efficiency between water-sector development organizations in Tigray, Ethiopia, and India, by the Norwegian Development Fund (DF) through the Triangular Project (Kirsten et al., 2008). As part of this effort, a family drip irrigation technology has been transferred from Gujarat in India to Tigray in Ethiopia, and it has spread throughout the region. There is now even a factory in Tigray that is producing the family drip irrigation (FDI) kits required for the drip irrigation. Consequently, both governmental and non-governmental organizations have been providing technical and financial support to the family FDI beneficiaries in recent years. In this regard, selected individual household heads received one motor or pressurized treadle pump, one water tanker made of tin material having a capacity of 400 litters and a set of family drip kits to develop a 500 m2 area. In addition, agricultural inputs such as vegetable seeds, fruit seedlings and fertilizer are also provided. All inputs are supplied on credit basis, which is to be paid back over a period of five years. The crops being grown were selected based on market demand.

Development of Next-Generation Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Framework to Combat Desertification

In addition, Ethiopian students will be supported to conduct PhD research in Japan, which allows this SATREPS project to develop capacity of research institutions in Ethiopia. The project aims to propose a next-generation SLM framework that integrates effective technologies for reducing soil erosion and improving land productivity, and socioeconomic empowerment of women and youth. Project Site Upper Blue Nile basin,namely Guder, Abagerima, and Debatie