Irrigation-nutrition linkages under public and farmer-led irrigation arrangements in rural Kenya

Abstract

While great progress had been achieved under the Millennium Development Goals, owing to global crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and ongoing wars, the global food and nutrition crisis is deteriorating and the number of undernourished people is bound to increase by the year 2030 which is a significant year in eradicating hunger and malnutrition under the Sustainable Development Goals. Conversely, despite its land and water resources, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world in absolute terms. In this regard, irrigation has increasingly gained interest as a pivotal solution for the region due to its ability to increase agricultural output, galvanize production from weather and climatic risks and bring underutilized water-stressed lands into cultivation. However, the debate about what kind of irrigation to implement in sub-Saharan Africa and its purposed effect has been a matter of discussion in the global and African policy arena given that irrigation has been in the past considered as a single input factor that disregards irrigation arrangements (i.e. socio-technical set-up in which irrigation takes place (referred herein as irrigation arrangements). Furthermore, the linkage between irrigation and nutrition is still vaguely understood and remain largely understudied. In this regard, postulating that production diversity, farm income and women empowerment as the three vital nutrition pathways, this study investigated the linkages between irrigation and nutrition in a manner that takes into account various socio-technical irrigation arrangements and their differential effects on dietary diversity. Using complementary data collection techniques comprising of reconnaissance visits, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey, cross-sectional data was collected from smallholder farm households in farmer-led irrigation (FLI), public irrigation scheme (PIS) arrangements and non-irrigators in rural Kenya. To analyze the data, the study utilized descriptive statistics and econometric approaches comprising of probit model, multinomial logit regression (MNL), propensity score matching approach (PSM) and a three-stage least squares regression (3SLS). The results from the descriptive statics, probit model and MNL showed that the household socioeconomic factors that affect irrigation and irrigation arrangements were not only different but also different in the direction of effect for the same regressors. The PSM analyses showed that the FLI and PIS arrangements have a positive effect on farm income and dietary diversity. Further analyses using the 3SLS showed that the FLI leads to a more diverse household diet through the farm income and women’s empowerment pathways while the PIS households achieved it only through the women’s empowerment pathway. On the contrary, PIS was found to reduce production diversity and lead to a decrease in dietary diversity through this pathway. This study provided a strong basis to conclude that irrigation positively affects the irrigating households’ farm income and nutrition outcomes at household level across both irrigation arrangements in the context of smallholder agriculture in the study area. In contrast, irrigation was found to negatively affect the production diversity for the farm households in the PIS as well as their dietary diversity while it was not significant for the FLI and neither influenced their dietary diversity. Conspicuously, the feasibility of the women’s empowerment as an irrigation-nutrition pathway in both irrigation arrangements shows the importance of this pathway in improving the nutrition of irrigating households. Therefore, policy should take cognizance of the irrigation arrangements when promoting irrigation as a viable intervention towards production diversity, farm income and women empowerment as well as a means of improving smallholder farm households’ nutrition outcomes. Additionally, there is need to complementary intervene enabling factors that aide irrigating households achieve nutrition outcomes, such as through the markets for the farm income pathways and factors such as decision making, ownership of assets, credit access and decisions, control over use of income, leadership and workload for the women’s empowerment pathways. As regards research and policy analysis, the differences in production, income, women’s empowerment and nutrition outcomes between farmers in different irrigation arrangements needs to be investigated rather than a unitary approach to irrigation as well as a revision of the policy instruments in Kenya to recognize and support farmer-led irrigation arrangement.