Hydro-economic evaluation of rainwater harvesting and management technologies: Farmers’ investment options and risks in semi-arid Laikipia district of Kenya
Date
2005Author
Ngigi, Stephen N
Savenije, Hubert H G
Rockstrom, Johan
Gachene, Charles K
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Smallholder farmers in Laikipia district of Kenya, like their counterparts in water scarce semi-arid environments, are facing the challenge of improving agricultural productivity and livelihoods. A number of viable options are available, but high hydrological risks and low economic capability are discouraging the poor and risk-averse farmers. Rainwater harvesting and management (RHM) is one of the promising options, whose impacts are unfortunately also affected by hydrological risks related to unreliable rainfall. The paper presents a hydro-economic analysis of RHM systems with the aim of analyzing some of the factors that affect their adoption by smallholder farmers. Hydro-economic analysis included hydrological reliability of RHM systems, agro-hydrological risks and economic analysis. Agro-hydrological risk focused on dry spell and drought analysis, which affect soil moisture availability and hence crop production. Hydrological reliability assessed the ability of a RHM system to harvest and store adequate runoff to meet supplemental irrigation requirement to bridge dry spells and mitigate the impacts of persistent droughts. Economic analysis addressed benefit-cost analysis and profitability of RHM in terms of increasing crop production and stabilizing yields. The study was conducted in Kalalu and Matanya, which are in two different agro-climatic zones and represent land-use changes in the recently settled areas of Laikipia district. The results provide a basis for farmers to make informed decisions on agricultural investments under hydrologic risks and uncertain production systems. RHM systems for supplemental irrigation were found to be an economically viable option for improving agricultural production and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in drought prone rural areas.
URI
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474706505000914http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/26637
Citation
Physics and chemistry of the earth, parts A/B/C. 2005, 30(11-16) 772-782Publisher
Department of soil science, University of Nairobi
Description
Journal article