PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF CHANCHO SMALL SCALE IRRIGATION SCHEME IN LOKA ABAYA WOREDA, SIDAMA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Performance evaluation of irrigation schemes helps to know the present status of the scheme and enables to employ possible measures for improvement. Efficient operation and management for irrigation system plays an important role in the sustainability of irrigated agriculture. This study was initiated to evaluate the performance of Chancho small-scale irrigation scheme using internal performance indicators. Primary data collected for this study include field discharge measurement and determination of soil physical properties in laboratory. Secondary data were collected from different sources. Internal performance indicators used in this study were efficiency parameters (conveyance, application, and storage), distribution uniformity, deep percolation loss, depth of irrigation and irrigation interval. The result of study showed that average conveyance efficiency MC and SC-1and SC-2 were 64.68, 64.1 and 65.4% respectively. Water distribution uniformity at the head, middle, and tail of the field were 72.6, 66.6, and 75.2% respectively. Application efficiency of head, middle and tail end of selected field were 49.3, 51.4 and 68.7% respectively. Water storage efficiencies of head, middle and tail end of selected fields were 83.4, 80.2 and 87.7% respectively. The result of the study showed that average over all conveyance efficiency, average application efficiency, scheme storage efficiency and average deep percolation loss were 65.1, 56.5, 83.7 and 43.5% respectively. The result of the study also showed that farmer’s application depth of irrigation water was lower than depth of irrigation water that would be required to fill root zone to field capacity. As result showed calculated irrigation intervals was greater than farmer adopted. The study showed that over all irrigation efficiency was relatively poor .Generally, overall performance of the scheme is considered as low. So it is important to adopt water management practices, frequent training of irrigation water user farmers and maintenance canal water conveyance system to achieve good performance of the scheme