South Africa is a water scarce country. With the increasing demand of water from other
users, irrigation, as the largest water user, has to find ways to produce more per drop and
meet the food demands of the growing population. Enhancing the performance of
smallholder irrigation schemes (SHI) is one way of saving water since they are fast
becoming the largest water users in South Africa and the world over. Performance in the
smallholder sub-sector is reportedly below the expectations of stakeholders. However,
performance in smallholder irrigation schemes is multi-dimensional and can be looked at
from different perspectives. This study assessed the technical performance of the Mooi
River Irrigation Scheme (MRIS) from the technical managers` and the farmers` points of
view and integrated them into one to derive a comprehensive set of best management
practices (BMPs) for the scheme. This was done acknowledging that the farmer is now the
water manager in line with Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) and Irrigation
Management Transfer (IMT).
Three performance indicators related to water supply and delivery: conveyance efficiency,
dependability of irrigation intervals between water applications and relative irrigation
supply, and two agricultural performance indicators namely, output per unit irrigation
supply and output per unit water consumed, were assessed during the spring and summer of
the 2010/11 season. The field measurement method was used for the assessment of these
indicators as opposed to the faster and more encompassing remote sensing method, due to
resource constraints. The Velocity-area method was used to measure flow-rates in canals
and crop water demands were estimated from FAO Cropwat 8.0 and Aquacrop 3.1. The
results show an overall scheme conveyance efficiency of 86.4%, a maximum dependability
of irrigation intervals between water applications of 2.57 in spring and a scheme relative
irrigation supply of 1.48. Agricultural performance indicators, output per unit irrigation
supply and water productivity per unit crop evapotranspiration (ET), were found to be 0.64
kg/m3 and 5.37 kg/m3 on average for cabbage, respectively.
Farmers` satisfaction with taking an irrigation service can be used as a measure of the
scheme`s performance. A questionnaire was administered among farmers to gather their
views on the performance and to determine the factors that significantly influence their
satisfaction status with taking the irrigation service at MRIS. Information collected from
the questionnaire include age, gender, irrigation training, timeliness of water delivery,
water distribution among the blocks, farming experience, farmer involvement in inspection
of irrigation infrastructure and maintenance, among others. Farmers` were also asked for
suggestions on improving the performance of their scheme. Their responses were analysed
using a multinomial logit model. Results showed that 57% of the farmers are satisfied with
using the irrigation service at MRIS, 30% are not satisfied, while 13% are neutral. Eight
factors were found to be statistically significant in influencing the farmers` satisfaction
status namely: location with respect to the water diversion point, location within a block
from the main canal, age of the farmer, education level attained by the farmer, farming
experience, the number of plots a farmer owns, fairness of water distribution across the
blocks and the number of days a farmer accesses water
The technical performance indicators assessed and the suggestions from the farmers on the
way to improve performance of MRIS allowed the selection of the BMPs for the scheme. A
set of seven BMPs based on farmer suggestions was derived. BMPs used as a guideline.
The farmers were also tasked with the ranking of the derived BMPs according to their
preference. The collected data was then ranked through an Analytic Hierarchy Process
(AHP). The results show that establishment of and adherence to an irrigation schedule was
the most preferred BMP by the farmers, while volumetric measurement of irrigation water
used by each block was the least preferred.
This study concludes that the performance of MRIS is comparable to other schemes and
that farmers are aware of the problems bedevilling their scheme. It is also concluded that
the performance of the scheme meets the farmers`, the key stakeholders, expectations and
that irrigation scheduling is the most preferred BMP. The study recommends that farmers
be more involved in performance assessments and management of their schemes. It is
crucial to ensure that the recommended BMPs are acceptable to the farmers in the scheme. The best way to achieve this is by allowing farmers to participate in policy formulation and
decision making. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/5830 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Gomo, Taziva. |
| Contributors | Senzanje, Aiden. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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