BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES GRADUATE PROGRAM INVESTGATION OF POTENTIALS AND CHALLNEGS OF SMALL-SCALE IRRIGATION IN THE HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA: THE CASE OF ABAGERIMA WATERSHED, LAKE TANA SUB-BASIN, ETHIOPIA M.Sc Thesis By Banchiamlak Kassawmar Nigussie Department: Natural Resource Management Program: Land Resource Management Main Advisor: Solomon Addisu (PhD) Co-Advisors: Asnake Mekuriaw (PhD) Co-Advisors: Amare Haileslassie (PhD) September, 2017 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia   BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES GRADUATE PROGRAM ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIALS AND CHALLNEGS OF SMALL-SCALE IRRIGATION: THE CASE OF ABAGERIMA WATERSHED, LAKE TANA SUB-BASIN, ETHIOPIA MSc. Thesis By Banchiamlak Kassawmar Nigussie Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science (MSc.) in Land Resource Management Department: Natural Resource Management Program: Land Resource Management Main Advisor: Solomon Addisu (PhD) Co-Advisors: Asnake Mekuriaw (PhD) Co-Advisors: Amare Haileslassie (PhD) September, 2017 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia THESIS APPROVAL SHEET As member of the Board of Examiners of the Master of Sciences (M.Sc) thesis open defense examination, we have read and evaluated this thesis prepared by Mrs. Banchiamlak Kassawmar Nigussie entitled “Assessment of Potentials and Challnegs of Small-Scale Irrigation: The Case of Abagerima Watershed, Lake Tana Sub-Basin, Ethiopia”. We hereby certify that, the thesis is accepted for fulfilling the requirements for the award of the degree of Mster of Science (M.Sc) in Land Resources Management. Board of Examiners __________________________ _______ _________ Name of the Examiner Signature Date __________________________ _______ _________ Name of the Examiner Signature Date __________________________ _______ _________ Name of the Examiner Signature Date   DECLARATION This is to certify that this thesis entitled “Assessment of Potentials and Challnegs of Small-Scale Irrigation: The Case of Abagerima Watershed, Lake Tana Sub-Basin, Ethiopia” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Science in “Land Resources Management” to the Graduate Program of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University by Mrs. Banchiamlak Kassawmar Nigussie (ID. No. BDU 0602087) is an authentic work carried out by her under our guidance. The matter embodied in this project work has not been submitted earlier for award of any degree or diploma to the best of our knowledge and belief. Name of the Student _______________________ Signature & date ___________________________ Name of the Supervisors 1) _____________________________(Major Supervisor) Signature & date_______________ 2) _____________________________Co-Supervisor) Signature & date__________________ 3) ____________________________Co-Supervisor) Signature & date___________________   ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost, I thank the Almighty God for everything He did in my life. I would like to express thanks to my advisors Dr. Solomon Addissu, Dr. Asnake Mekuriaw, and Dr. Amare Haileslassie, for their unreserved support. I would also like to acknowledge my office (Amhara National Regional State Bureau of Agriculture) for giving me this opportunity. I am also happy to forward my acknowledgement to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholder (LIVES-Ethiopia) for their financial and technical supports for the success of the research. My appreciation goes to the Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC), and the National Meteorology Agency for sharing me watershed hydro meteorological data. Finally, my thanks extend to my family, especially to my beloved husband and to my brother, who helped me a lot. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT v LIST OF TABLES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi ABSTRACT: vii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Problem Statement 2 1.3 Objective 3 1.3.1 General Objective 3 1.3.2 Specific Objectives: 3 1.4 Research Questions 4 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 Small-scale irrigation Suitability in Ethiopian Highlands 5 2.2 Application of RS and GIS in irrigable land suitability analysis 7 2.3 Spatial analysis 9 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS 11 3.1 Study Area Description 11 3.1.1 Location 11 3.1.2 Socio-economic characteristics 12 3.2 Data Collection and Analysis Techniques 13 3.2.1 Biophysical aspect 14 3.2.1.1 Understanding existing irrigation practices 14 3.2.1.2 Future irrigation potential assessment 14 3.2.2 Suitability assessment 14 3.2.3 Potential assessment 19 3.2.3.1 Crop Water Requirement (Etc) and Irrigation Efficiency 19 3.2.3.2 Water Resource Potential 21 3.2.4 Socio-economic aspect 23 4. RESULTS 26 4.1 Current Irrigation Practice in Abagerima Watershed 26 4.1.1 Irrigation potential suitability analysis 27 i. Topography 27 ii. Land use and land cover 28 4.1.2 Crop Type and Cropping Practice 29 4.1.3 The sources of water, means of transport and application for irrigation in the Abagerima Watershed 32 4.1.4 Challenges in relation to the uneven distribution of water resources 36 4.1.5 Irrigation Potential Assessment 38 4.1.5.1 Landscape Suitability based irrigation potential assessment 38 4.1.5.2 Irrigation potential based on water Resources 46 4.1.5.3 Irrigation water Demand assessment 46 4.1.6 Irrigation water Potential Assessment 48 4.2 Challenges and Gap Analysis to Increase the Efficiency of Irrigation Practice 50 4.2.1 Area utilization gap 50 4.2.2 Water utilization gap 51 4.2.2.1 Ground water exploration and extraction 52 4.2.2.2 Inefficiency in the transportation of water 53 4.2.2.3 Inefficiency in the application of water 53 5. DISCUSSIONS 55 6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 60 6.1 Conclusions 60 6.2 Recommendations 60 ANNEX : QUESTIONNAIRE 64   LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Reclassified Layers 17 Table 2: Weight of influence for determinant factors 18 Table 3: Slope in percent 27 Table 4: Land use 27 Table 5: Major Rain fed and Irrigated Crops Average land coverage and annual HH income in Abagerima Watershed 29 Table 6: Farmers reason for not irrigating their land 35 Table 7: Reasons for water shortage in the watershed by the farmer’s perception. 36 Table 8: Biophysical suitability based irrigation potential assessment result of Abagerima Watershed 39 Table 9: Suitable and non-suitable area of the watershed 42 Table 10: Existing Major Irrigated crops land coverage and crop coefficient estimation for the Abagerima Watershed 43 Table 11: Crop Water Requirement for the Abagerima Watershed 43 Table 12: Water Resource Potential and the extent of utilization 44 Table 13: Currently irrigated land compared to the potential irrigable land of Abagerima Watershed 47   LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Location map of the study area 12 Figure 2: Conceptual framework developed for the Assessment 24 Figure 3: Watershed topography 26 Figure 4: New chat farm expansion near to the river course 30 Figure 5: Irrigated inter cropping practice in Abagerima Watershed 31 Figure 6: Irrigation Water Sources and water conveyance systems in Abagerima Watershed 33 Figure 7: Main Sources of Irrigation Water Source for Abagerima Watershed 34 Figure 8: Raw input layers used to make multi-criteria evaluation (a. River Map, b. Soil Map, c. Land cover map, d. Slope Map) 38 Figure 9: Reclassified input layers used to make multi-criteria evaluation (Slope, River, Soil, and Land cover map) 39 Figure 10: Land suitability based irrigation potential assessment result 41 Figure 11: Rainfall and crop water requirement variation throughout the year. 44 Figure 12: (a) Currently irrigated landscapes in the Abagerima watershed, (b) Spatial distribution of shallow hand dug wells in Abagerima watershed 47   LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ETo Reference crop evapotranspiration ETc Crop evapotranspiration FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation FGD Focused Group Discussion GPS Global Position System GIS Geographic Information System ILRI International Livestock Research Institute IWMI International Water Management Institute Kc Crop coefficient MCDR Multi-criteria decision rule MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer RS Remote Sense WLRC Water and Land Resource Centre   ABSTRACT: This study was conducted in Abagerima watershed, Lake Tana sub basin in 2016/2017. The objective of the study was to assess the level of suitability and potential of the watershed for small scale irrigation using integrated approach that includes Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS), ground survey and socio-economic survey. Land evaluation assessment was performed based on the FAO land evaluation techniques employing multi-criteria decision rule (MCDR) that integrates major determinant factors to practice irrigation at smallholder scale. As the watershed is small in size, only few determinant factors; such as, slope, land use, soil type and water (accessibility and availability) were considered and for each factor, raster based spatial data was produced. The relative landscape suitability of the watershed was characterized as, highly suitable (rank 1), moderately suitable (rank 2), marginally suitable (rank 3) and unsuitable (rank 4). A cumulative suitability rank was determined using ArcGIS10.2 software. Finally, a suitability map was produced using ArcGIS10.2. According to the landscape suitability result, about 20% of the watershed can be used for irrigation. From water availability point of view, the total water potential to be used for irrigation development was considered to be 15% of the annual rainfall. The result showed that, only 2% of the watershed is currently irrigated. This implies that, about 20% of the watershed that can potentially be irrigated is not yet exploited and need to be further developed. The major challenges that hinder irrigation development in the watershed includes; land degradation, fragmentation and un-fair land distribution, ownership, technology, and uneven land and water resources distribution over the watershed. Problems are identified both from the spatial data analysis and feedbacks from the community. Based on the landscape potential, water availability and crop water requirement assessment, the Abagerima watershed community can increase the currently irrigated area from 2% to 20% by introducing better water resource utilization and exploring more water sources. Key words; Chat; Lake Tana –sub-basin; Small – scale irrigation; Irrigation suitability; Land evaluation; Abagerima watershed.