The Right of Use and Economics of Irrigation Water in Uganda: A Comparative Analysis of Small-Scale Irrigation Schemes in Eastern, Northern and Western Uganda

Abstract

This study was conducted on the right of use and economics of irrigation water for small-scale irrigation schemes in Eastern, Northern and Western parts of Uganda to examine the extent to which irrigation is accessible to farmers and the economic returns from irrigation water. The specific objectives were to examine the profitability of using irrigation water in Uganda, to assess the sustainability of small-scale irrigation schemes in Uganda, to identify the factors influencing productivity of irrigation water in Uganda, to identify the factors influencing farmers‟ willingness to pay for Irrigation water and to determine the implications of water user rights and costs on adoption of irrigation in Uganda. This study used a cross sectional research design in which data from respondents were collected at a single point at a time whereby both purposive and cross-sectional data collection approaches were adopted. A systematic random sampling procedure was used to select the desired sample size from the study area. Purposive and simple random sampling was employed for key informant personnel who are stakeholders Data were analyzed using both SPSS and STATA software. The results indicated that the net returns per year from two sites namely Bukatabira and Andibo SSISs are 121,306,920 and 34,730,684 shillings for tomato and watermelon respectively at ukatabira SSIS while at ndibo SSIS the net returns are 50,416,800 and 200,802,000 shillings for tomato and water melon respectively. This means tomato is more profitable in Bukatabira SSIS than watermelon while watermelon is more profitable at Andibo SSIS than tomato. Sprinkler and drip irrigation were found to be more water-saving, cost effective and efficient compared to other methods of irrigation for example surface or furrow irrigation systems. The values of BCR clearly indicate that tomato crop is most suitable at Bukatabira SSIS while watermelon is most suitable at Andibo SSIS with the current production systems. The analysis also revealed that investment in five crops grown at Bumusse SSIS is not economically viable. Out of the eleven explanatory variables, four such as education level, off farm income, credit access and rainfall reliability were statistically and significant at 1% level to influence the farmers‟ willingness to pay for irrigation water in study area. The results also indicated that the water user rights and costs have positive implications on adoption of irrigation water in Uganda and significantly contributed to different factors such as price of water for irrigation, extension services, access to agricultural information, off farm production, cooperative membership, training opportunities, personal savings, contribution for operation and maintenance and high agricultural productivity