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Executive summary

Zimbabwean debates on irrigation have concentrated on expansion of hectarage under irrigation, whilst skirting around the socio-economic effects of such investments. Attention paid to the socio-economic impact of smallholder irrigation development although growing is still limited. This study aims at contributing to a better understanding of the smallholder irrigation sector.

The impact assessment was carried out on ten smallholder irrigation projects through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) covering the farmers, various institutions and local authorities. Comparative impact analysis was effected across agro-ecological zones, between different irrigation systems as well as between farmer managed and government managed schemes. Five of the schemes (Chitora, Murara, Mzinyathini, Principe and Wenimbi) were pre-assumed to be operating well and the other five (Longdale, Mambanjeni Ngezi, Mamina, Oatlands and Rozva) were pre-judged to be poor.

It came out from the study that whilst some schemes can be performing very well others can actually be performing badly. Good schemes can result in increased productivity, improved incomes and nutrition, employment creation, food security and drought relief savings for the government. All these effects are paramount for economic and social development. Poor schemes struggle to achieve the above improvements.

Efforts were made to assess what makes good schemes good and bad schemes bad. Factors, which determine the performance of an irrigation scheme, include planning, group cohesion, institutional support, strength of the Irrigation Management Committee (IMC), choice of crops, appropriateness of the technical design and the commitment of the farmers.

The following are the major findings of the study:

The study led to the following recommendations:

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