Economic efficiency of different irrigation techniques in Armenia
Date
2009-11
Authors
Afyan, Gevorg, author
Horinkova, Vilma, author
U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The economic efficiency and rate of return of different irrigation techniques were demonstrated in Armenia under On-Farm Water Management Component of the Water-to-Market Project. The Project goal was to reduce rural poverty from 32% to 26% and boost annual incomes through sustainable increases in the economic performance of the agricultural sector after 5 years. The objective of the Water Management Component was to set up demonstration farms with irrigation improvements for farmers to adopt. For calculating the economic efficiency, three major impact elements were taken into account: yield increase, water savings and labor savings. Necessary input data were collected from records of demonstration site farmers and questionnaires filled at the beginning and end of vegetation period. The indirect positive impacts of farmers adopting irrigation improvements were appraised as: 1) possibility to irrigate abandoned lands; 2) obtain higher yields; 3) provide opportunity to expand on agricultural activities (double cropping, etc.); and 3) enlarge irrigation system capacity to allow more farmers to share water and regulate its distribution in the peak growing season, and eliminate potential conflicts. In addition, the density of demonstration sites was assessed based on the number of the peasant farms and rural communities, density of farms, and average size of cultivated land, to assure high adoption rate among nearby farmers. The adoption rate was assessed based on specified categories and density of farms in the third year of the five year project and provided a clear direction for future work.
Description
Presented at the fifth international conference on irrigation and drainage, Irrigation and drainage for food, energy and the environment on November 3-6, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah.