CHALLENGESANDOPPORTUNITIESOFSMALL-SCALE IRRIGATIONPRACTICEONLIVELIHOODSOFSMALLHOLDER FARMERS:THECASEOFCHOLEWOREDAARSIZONE, OROMIAREGION,ETHIOPIA

ABSTRACT Ethiopia’s agriculture is dominated by small-scale rain-fed production whose performance is subject to irregular rainfall pattern. Among others factors Small-scale irrigation is believed in helping to address this problem by reducing rural poverty, food insecurity as well as improving the overall contribution of agriculture to the national economy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of small- scale irrigation practice on livelihoods of small holder farmers at chole woreda of two (2) kebeles those were Gado seka and Gambo dawa. Both primary and secondary data was used to collected data from the respondents and the data was collected from 117 household heads. purposively selected method were used from the total population using Kothari,(2004) formula and 4 key informants selected from both two kebeles. Primary data was collected through questionnaires, key informant interview and observation, which was analyzed and interpreted qualitatively and quantitatively. Simple statistical descriptions like percentage was used for the quantitative analysis. The major findings of the study indicate that, the irrigation activity in the study area was constrained by the socioeconomic factors like accessibility of credit, absence of irrigation associations or cooperatives, lack and accessibility of xvi transportation system, lack of market accessibility and up to date market price information, and physical challenges such as topography and land tenure system. Finally, setup of irrigation associations or cooperatives, redistribution of irrigated farm land, providing education access, designing and applying strong regulatory rules, creating market linkage, planning fund raising strategies and adopting appropriate experimental researches were forwarded as recommendation