| dc.description.abstract | Rainwater harvesting is increasingly seen as a strategy for enhancing agricultural productivity
and boosting farm income in many drought prone areas. While extensive efforts are going on in
constructing and providing smallholder farmers with water harvesting technologies, such as
rainwater harvesting ponds in many developing countries, there is conflicting evidence in the
literature about the impact of such technologies on farm households. This study uses propensity
score matching technique to assess the impact of rainwater harvesting ponds on farm household
income in Rwanda. It then assesses the factors that influence adoption of rainwater harvesting
ponds and the pathways through which the use adoption of such ponds influence farm income.
This study finds that households with rainwater harvesting ponds have significantly higher
income than their counterparts of comparable observable characteristics. The study also finds
evidence that increase in farm income occurs via increased input use, and that household size,
physical and financial asset endowments and participation in farmer organizations/group
condition the decision to adopt rainwater harvesting ponds. The study concludes that the major
factors driving the adoption of rainwater harvesting ponds are endowment with physical assets,
farm income, membership to a farmer organization, and household size. It also concludes that
use of rainwater harvesting ponds has a positive impact on household farm income. The study
concludes that adoption of rainwater harvesting technologies has positive benefits to farm
households.
The implication of these findings is that adoption of rainwater harvesting ponds presents a
pathway for reducing rural poverty. The findings further imply that policies that target increasing
farm incomes should promote participation of farmers in farmer organizations. The finding that
impact of rainwater harvesting ponds occurs through increased use of purchased inputs suggest
the need to develop the input (fertilizer, manure, improved seed and pesticide) markets in order
to reduce the transaction costs so as to make such inputs more easily accessible to farmers. In
addition the finding that physical and financial asset endowments affect the adoption of
rainwater harvesting ponds imply that there is need for policies and strategies that target the
inclusion of poor farmers in adoption of rainwater harvesting ponds. Finally, in order to promote
increased adoption of rainwater harvesting ponds and the inclusion of the poorer farmers,
research and development interventions should be aimed at finding ways of reducing the cost of
constructing the rainwater harvesting ponds and also of adopting the ponds. | en |
