Challenges and Prospects of Hydro-Pumps for Small Scale Irrigation

Escalation of small‐scale irrigation is supposed to be an essential requirement for the growth of the agricultural sector in developing countries. In Ethiopia intensification of small-scale irrigation has got a policy priority for rural poverty mitigation, growth, and building climate adaptation economy. The irrigated land in Ethiopia is not far from 5% of irrigable land, and only around 5% of available water resources are utilized annually. To maximize the effort deploying an environmentally friendly and less expensive technological alternative needs attention. In this regard, pressurized irrigation schemes that operate on renewable energies such as hydro-powered pumping contribute more. Even though the technology has an obvious advantage over the other pumping technologies, they are not been used gradually through time and are mostly ignored. The objective of this study was to conduct strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis on prospects of a hydro-powered pumping system for small-scale irrigation in Ethiopia. In this regard, important small-scale irrigation pump problems were examined and prospects and barriers of hydro-powered small-scale irrigation pumping systems were identified. A comparative study was conducted for comparative between existing pump types (Engine powered, Motor powered, and Manual) deployed in the community for small-scale irrigation. According to the study result, the hydro-powered pumps have better prospects for small-scale irrigation.