Despite undeniable agricultural potential, a large proportion of the population of Ethiopia has been faced by food insecurity and poverty. As many of the low productivity areas have untapped water resources, irrigation development is being suggested as a key strategy to enhance agricultural productivity to stimulate economic development, increase HH food security, decrease HH food insecurity and poverty significantly. So the aim of this study is to assess the contribution of small scale irrigation for household food security with the following specific objectives; to determine the status of food security of households, to determine factors affecting HH food security, to assess factors hindering irrigation to contribute for household food security and to identify major reasons of small scale irrigation non participation. The study was conducted in Dangila district of Amhara regional state of Ethiopia done with a cross sectional study design. Both descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression analysis were used. Out of the total sample households 76.5 %( 153) were food secure while 23.5% (47) of the households were insecure. Age of the household head, household size and credit status of the household had a negative and significant influence on HH food security with the AOR of 0.145, 0.907 and 0.945 respectively. Number of contact with extension agents, total cultivated land size in Ha, presence of non-farm income, the size of the livestock owned in TLU and participation in small scale irrigation had positive and significant influence on households’ food security wit 85.45, 8.331, 60.418, and 26.661 respectively. Non-suitable topography of the cultivable land owned by HHs (83%), absence of oxen (9%), inadequate water source for irrigation (4%) and lack of startup capital for irrigation (4%) were the major reasons for not participating in small-scale irrigation among irrigation non user HHs. In conclusion application of small-scale irrigation resulted in significant improvement in HH food security status. Therefore, the food security status of the study households can be improved through the application of these significant results especially improving small-scale irrigation qualitatively and quantitatively.