The effect of small-scale irrigation on household food security of Kindo Didaye District, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

This study aimed to assess the effect of small-scale irrigation on household food security in the Kindo Didaye district. Community-based comparative cross-sectional survey was conducted at Kindo Didaye district, Wolaita zone from September 1st to 30, 2020. Data were collected by using structured questionnaires from 160 irrigation users and 163 non-users. Binary logistic regression analyses were tted to identify factors associated with household food security. The prevalence of household food security was (87.5% Vs 66.8%, p = < 0.001) for irrigation users and irrigation nonusers, respectively. Family labor, TLU, cultivated land size, training, access to irrigation, and participation in Off-farm activities were positively associated with household food security. While the age of household head and dependency ratio negatively affected household food security.


Background
Food insecurity is the most critical public health problem in developing countries. Around the world, 690 million, or 8.9 % of the world population were unable to meet their dietary energy requirements (1). Meanwhile, there were 15.4 million people are suffering from severe food-insecure in Ethiopia (1).
Irrigation is the supply of water to crops by arti cial means, designed to permit farming in arid regions and to offset the effect of drought in semi-arid regions and even in areas where total seasonal rainfall is adequate on average; it may be poorly distributed during the year and varies from year to year (2).
Irrigation is the ministering of land through the arti cial application of water to ensure double cropping as well as a steady supply of water in areas where rainfall is unreliable (3). Despite, the availability of a su cient amount of surface water and groundwater the agricultural production in Ethiopia depends mainly on precipitation (4).
There are a lot of challenges impeding the success of irrigation development are; lack of access to inputs and nancing, inadequate farming skills, lack of resources for maintenance of irrigation structures, and resistance to the adoption of new technologies/crops by traditional cereal farmers, combined with Ethiopian farmers extreme risk aversion (5,6).
Small-scale irrigation practices are a comprehensive solution to complex problems for farmers concerning soil, crops, livestock, water, nutrients, and the market (7). Henceforth, expanding small-scale irrigation schemes is one of the main intervention areas for boosting agricultural production in rural areas of the country. Even though some efforts have been underway to develop small-scale irrigation schemes; yet, Ethiopia has developed only 5% of the irrigable land (8). Furthermore, it is noted that the existing irrigation farms are operating at sub-optimal levels and many of the small-scale irrigation projects have been operating below the required economic e ciency (9,10). Several studies have documented povertyrelated bene ts and costs of irrigation. Most of them indicated irrigation can increase production and productivity (11). Inversely, low access to new agricultural technologies, traditional methods of cultivation, and low institutional support are identi ed as factors that keep smallholder production at subsistence level in the country (12).
Consequently, this has made the country's agricultural-based economy extremely fragile and vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability that often leads to partial or failure of the entire harvest and subsequent food shortages and famines. The government of Ethiopia has been recently introduced and begun the implementation of policies to minimize risk through full or supplementary irrigation (13). Although the establishment of the small-scale irrigation system in the Kindo Didaye district aimed to improve the social and economic well-being of the population. But there are challenges in analyzing social or Hydrometeorological data.
Accordingly, the assessment of the role of small-scale irrigation is critical. Data are scarce on the impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security in the study area. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effect of small-scale irrigation on household food security and determinants of household food security in the Kindo Didaye District.

Descriptions of the Study Area
The Kindo Didaye District is found in Wolaita Zone, Southern Nation Nationalities, and Peoples Regional State. It is located 450 km far from Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. There are three agroclimatic zones in the study area which are kolla (58%), Woyina Dega (37%), and Dega (5%) (Extracted from DEM, SRTM by Author, 2020) (). The annual range of temperature varies from 12.4 o C to 31.3°C. The area is characterized by a unimodal rainfall pattern. The study District has a total area of 347 sq. Km. As per CSA data of the 2007 census, the district has an estimated total population of 131582. Of these, 56,581 are male and 75,001 are female (14). The total number of households in the study area is 37,152.
The district comprises 16 Kebele administrations. Only 2% of the population lived in urban areas. Sampling size and sampling Procedure The sample size of households for the study was identi ed by using the simpli ed formula provided by (15), statistically estimated at 95% con dence level, the degree of variability = 0.05.

Whereas;
Where n is the sample size, N is the population size (total household size), and e is the level of precision.
A two-stage stage sampling procedure was followed to select the respondent household for the study. In the rst stage, three kebeles were selected randomly from those kebeles which have small-scale irrigation access. In the second stage, in the three selected sample Kebeles, households were rati ed into two strata, 160 irrigation users and 163 non-users, from which sampled households were randomly selected.
The calculated sample size was proportionally allocated for each Kebeles.

Data Types and Sources
Both primary and secondary data sources were used. The data were collected by administering pre-tested structured questionnaires. The questionnaires were designed and pre-tested before starting the actual data collection. The data collection tool includes socio-demographic, socio-economic characteristics, institutional aspect, food security status, in both groups of the households, the household characteristics (age, educational level, and farming experience), and total land size.

Data Collection Techniques
A structured questionnaire was developed from the literature to include all necessary information to the objectives of the study. The household survey included personal information, household resources, production and income issues related to irrigation practice, and food security. The questionnaire was prepared in English and later translated into the local language (Wolaytegna) so that the respondents can easily understand the questions. Three enumerators, one for each kebele, were employed based on their ability of local language and culture, and experiences in data collection. The one-day training was provided to the enumerators on the procedure to follow while interviewing respondents and deep discussion was also held to make the questionnaire clear. Supervision was made by the investigator in addition to any data collected during the detailed questionnaire survey administration process.

Data Analysis
Data were entered to EpiData version 3.1 and exported to Stata version 14 software for analysis. Descriptive statistics including proportions, frequency, charts, mean, and standard deviation was employed to describe the quantitative data. As inferential statistics, chi-square was used to identify the associations between categorical variables, and an independent t-test was also used to compare mean differences. Logistic regression was tted to identify factors associated with food security. The goodness-of-t of the nal model was checked Hosmer-Lemeshow (p-value =0.820) it was met the assumption of logistic regression. An adjusted odds ratio with their 95% con dence intervals (CI) was calculated and the statistical signi cance was accepted at the 5% level of signi cance (p < 0.05).  Household food security status

Study variables
The prevalence household food security was 87.5% (95% CI: 82.3%,9.26%) and 66.8%(95%CI;59.6%,74%) for irrigation users and nonusers, respectively. The overall prevalence of food security was to be found at 77% (95%CI; 72%, 81%) (Fig. 2). Factors associated with households' food security The logit model was employed to estimate the effects of the hypostasized independent variables on the food security status of households. Eight signi cant variables were identi ed out of the hypothesized fourteen variables by estimating a logit model. Family labor, TLU, cultivated land size, training, access to irrigation, and participation in nonfarm activities signi cantly and positively affected household food security. Whereas the age of household head and dependency ratio signi cantly and negatively affected household food security.
Age of household head was signi cantly and negatively associated with household food security at a pvalue of 0.001. The negative relationship implies that older age household heads have less chance to be food secured than younger ones. This nding is similar to other studies (21,22), this is possible because older household heads were less productive and they lead their life by remittance and gifts. They could not participate in other income-generating activities. On the other hand, older households have a large number of families and their resources were distributed among their members. This implies that, with the increase in the age of the respondents by one year the likely probability of becoming food secure decreased by 7.4%, holding other variables of the model constant.
Household size per adult equivalent was signi cantly and positively associated with food security at p-value<. 016. This indicates that as the household size increases by one adult equivalent the household food security status increased by 37%. This is consistent with other studies (23)(24)(25), family size in adult equivalents indicates the sample household's average family labor force for agricultural production and other income-generating activities. This is consistent with other studies (23,24), family size in adult equivalents indicates the sample household's average family labor force for agricultural production and other income-generating activities.
Households with a large labor force were food secure more than households with a small labor force.
Large household family size in adult equivalent means a larger amount of labor available to the household. Since households with higher family labor can perform various agricultural actives without labor shortage. Inversely, in other studies households having a larger family size were more likely food insecure (21,26,27). Large family size tends to exert more pressure on food consumption than the labor it contributes to production.
Access to irrigation is positively and signi cantly associated with household food security at a signi cance level of 5%. Irrigation user households were by factors 2.03 times more likely to be food secure compared to irrigation non-users, holding other variables constant. This is in agreement with (24,28,29), irrigation enables households to grow food crops more than once a year, hence increased the production, income, and food availability of the household. Thus, it overcomes food insu ciency in dry or food shortage circumstances and normal seasons.
At a signi cance level of 5%, TLU is positively associated with household food security. After controlling for other variables; the odds of food security increased by 27% as the household TLU increased by one unit. This nding is comparable with (30)(31)(32), livestock possession positively affects food security. According to this study, lacking livestock is one of the fundamental determinants of food insecurity in the study area (30,31), livestock possession positively affects food security. According to this study, lacking livestock is one of the fundamental determinants of food insecurity in the study area.  (24,33,34), if the households have more dependent labor forces, they have less chance to have food security than the households who have economically inactive (≤ 15 and ≥ 65 years). In a household productive age groups are higher than the nonproductive age groups, the probability of the household being food secure would be high.
Cultivated land size owned by households positively associated household food security at a signi cant level of 5%. The land size of households increased by 1 hectare, the probability of food security was increased by a factor of 1.95, other variables in the model were kept constant. This nding is similar to other studies (7,32,35), this could be land size owned is a proxy to wealth status, and households with large land size were expected to have diversi ed the quantity and type of crop produced, which may, in turn, lead to increased consumption and household food security.
Participation in nonfarm activities positively affected household food security at a signi cance level of 5%. This indicates that households who participate in the nonfarm activities were 2.69 times more likely to be food secured compared to non-participating households. This nding is consistent with (7,23,36).
Since the money that they earn from nonfarm activity would increase the household's liquidity to make on-farm investments or increase its income to purchase food and, thereby, improve household food security.
The head households who had received training were 2.1 times more likely food secured than those who had not received training. This is in agreement with (23,30), agricultural extension-focused training regularly is believed to have better skill and knowledge on irrigation practices which encourages them to participate in it. Irrigation needs continuous training because there is continuous production by using irrigation, which needs more regular training than rain-fed agriculture.

Conclusion
About four in ve households' food security. Factors likes: family labor, cultivated land size, access to irrigation, training, TLU, and non-farm activity were positively associated with household food security. While the age of household head and dependency ratio were negatively associated with household food security. Therefore, the government should give attention during planning development strategies of food security through scaleup small-scale irrigation of agricultural production to households in poverty reduction and to improve their food security. Furthermore, the farmers should be supported in the provision of modern agricultural technologies and inputs focusing to increase production status on their piece of cultivated land to be able to get more yields per unit area. Household food security status at kindo didaye district, Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia 2021