Project profile — Capacity Building for Sustainable Irrigation and Agriculture in Ethiopia

The project aims to train Ethiopian public and private institutions, including colleges, to better design, build, and manage small-scale irrigation and micro-irrigation systems. The project also aims to introduce improved water and soil management and crop irrigation practices to smallholder farmers and water user associations. Small-scale irrigation systems, which cover less than 200 hectares of land, and micro-irrigation systems, which cover small areas such as garden plots, have significant potential to contribute to agricultural growth in Ethiopia. They help to increase farmers' incomes and strengthen farmers' resilience to drought by providing access to more reliable sources of water. The project also aims to promote the role of the private sector as a key provider of services relating to irrigation. The project provides: i) support to technical and vocational colleges, so that they can train skilled technicians to meet the need in both the public and private sectors to support sustainable small-scale irrigation farming; (ii) training to public sector staff, so that they are better able to coordinate and manage small-scale irrigation projects; and (iii) training for smallholder farmers to improve their ability to manage small-scale irrigation and micro-irrigation systems and their ability to grow and market irrigated crops. Canada is working with the Netherlands to carry out this project.

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Results achieved as of March 2018 include: (1) various workshops, consultations and regional assessments were undertaken to strengthen linkages among institutions and core processes involved in small-scale irrigation, micro irrigation, and irrigated agriculture; (2) over 300 individuals participated in training of trainer workshops on various topics including project management and irrigation development; (3) improved planning and design of gender responsive small scale irrigation schemes through the introduction of the participatory irrigation development and management approach, which has been adopted in all regions; (4) establishment of 38 Irrigation Water Users Associations -IWUA’s of which 24 include women sub-committees; and (5) irrigation agronomy and extension training for trainers at the regional and zonal levels have been rolled out to 5,409 district-level experts. These results have contributed improved planning, design, and construction of gender-responsive and sustainable small-scale and micro irrigation schemes by the public and private institutions in a coordinated manner and according to an integrated watershed-based approach.