Economic analysis of farmers-managed irrigation schemes in Tanzania: a case of mombo, Kivulini and Lekitatu irrigation schemes .

The fact that evaluating economic performance of irrigation schemes are important and therefore needed at regular intervals is actually the motivation behind this study. Major objective of the study is to provide information that can be used to improve performance of the Farmer Managed Irrigation Schemes in Tanzania in terms of; economic returns to farmers, water use efficiency and productivity, operation and maintenance and sustainability of the schemes. The study area covered three farmer managed irrigation schemes Mombo, Kivulini and Lekitatu all located in Kilimanjaro irrigation zone. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, cross tabulation, means, maximum and minimum values and standard deviations were used to characterize the sample households. Farm Enterprise Budget employed to determine the profitability of major crops farmed in the schemes. Economic performances and sustainability of irrigation schemes were also determined. In addition Residual Imputation Method was employed to evaluate economic value of irrigation water. To capture the effects of several hypothesized factors on scheme performance and farmers’ income, multiple regression analysis was estimated. Results show that major crops grown includes paddy supplemented by maize, beans and vegetables. Average profitability from farming for 2006/07 season observed to be Tsh 1 162 751.16 per household including both major and supplementary crops. Average crop yields observed to be 3.87, 0.55, 0.22 and 0.77 tones/ha for paddy, maize, beans and vegetables respectively. The study also shows that the average value of irrigated water is 14.79 Tsh/m 3 and that the estimated average water productivity for paddy is 0.05 kg/m 3 . Regression analysis results showed that all coefficients attached to the estimated parameters as expected were positively related to the dependent variable and that the majority was statistically significant (p>0.05). The study generally concludes that although there are many problems facing farmers in the farmers-managed scheme it is nevertheless profitable engaging in farming in such schemes. It therefore recommends some joint effort among stakeholders in order that farming in these schemes is improved.