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Systematic review and meta-analysis reveals improved food security from small-scale irrigation in smallholder households, highlighting the need for efficient infrastructure.
Only 3% of the irrigated land is in Ethiopia, which has 5.3 million hectares of potential irrigated land. Schemes are only 25%-30% efficient, while traditional surface irrigation systems lose more than half of diverted water to seepage and evaporation, and drip irrigation has much higher productivity. The small-scale irrigation and climate-smart practices resulted in a 69.9% decrease in household food insecurity and a 90.5% increase in dietary diversity. Expansion is constrained by technical, institutional, and socioeconomic barriers. Targeted investments in irrigation infrastructure, capacity building, and enabling policies are needed to realize Ethiopia’s irrigation potential.
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Dagne Kafani Dadi (2026) studied this question.
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