Understanding smallholder irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: results of a sample survey from nine countries

Tushaar Shah, Shilp Verma and Paul Pavelic

Water International, 2013, vol. 38, issue 6, 809-826

Abstract: Smallholder irrigation is emerging as a development priority in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a survey of 1554 smallholders from nine countries, this paper compares rainfed farming with gravity-flow, manual-lift and motor-pump irrigation. Motor-pump-irrigation farmers reported the highest net value added per acre and per family worker, with gravity-flow and manual-irrigation farmers earning marginally more than rainfed-only farmers. In addition to making affordable pumps more readily available, improving the availability of working capital, enhancing security of tenure and ensuring the availability of affordable fuel are all likely to accelerate smallholder irrigation development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02508060.2013.843843 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rwinxx:v:38:y:2013:i:6:p:809-826

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rwin20

DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2013.843843

Access Statistics for this article

Water International is currently edited by James Nickum, Philippus Wester, Remy Kinna, Xueliang Cai, Yoram Eckstein, Naho Mirumachi and Cecilia Tortajada

More articles in Water International from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().