Factors Affecting Farm-level Efficiency in Irrigation Schemes: a Case of Turkana South Sub-county

Abstract

Irrigation is one of the long-term strategies towards enhancing productivity in agriculture. It offers an opportunity towards the achievement of the food security and poverty reduction. However, the potential of these irrigation schemes has remained unexploited. Kenya has a potential of 1.3 million hectares for irrigation. However, currently, only 114,600 hectares of irrigation have been achieved. Turkana South Sub-County has 714 hectares of irrigation against a potential for expansion of 8040 hectares. Irrigation schemes productivity in Turkana South Sub-county has been very low that is, maize yield levels being eight to ten bags per acre against a potential of 20-25 bags. Food insecurity is very high with farm and non-farm households depending on relief food despite the existence of these irrigation schemes. The causes of low productivity and the current levels of farmers’ efficiency in the irrigation schemes have not been studied. The research therefore, aimed at evaluating the technical, allocative and economic efficiency at farm level. It also aimed at characterizing irrigation scheme farm production and to identify the factors that explain the variation in farm level efficiency. To achieve these objectives, stochastic frontier model and descriptive statistics were used. Data was collected from a sample of 183 farmers drawn from two irrigation schemes namely Katilu and Koputiro irrigation schemes in Katilu and Kainuk Divisions respectively using multistage sampling technique. The findings of the research indicate that the average efficiency levels of the irrigation scheme farmers, that is, technical efficiency (TE), allocative efficiency (AE) and economic efficiency (EE) were 45.30, 67.23 and 30.46 percent respectively. The socio-economic and technical factors that significantly explained the variation in technical and allocative efficiency levels were Age, gender, level of education, access to credit, farm size, income, status of irrigation scheme infrastructure and number of extension visits.

The study recommended improvement of irrigation scheme infrastructure through rehabilitation, enacting of policies to improve rural financing to ease credit accessibility by the farmers, supporting table banking groups, improvement and support of extension service delivery, adult education, farmer trainings and consideration of the youth in allocation of land in the irrigation schemes.