PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF IRRIGATIONAND DRAINAGE SYSTEM IN TANZANIA

Abstract

The irrigation project's performance assessment is an effective management tool for increasing water usage efficiency and financial viability, as well as adopting best management practices and ensuring the irrigated agricultural system's environmental sustainability. continuously assessing the performance of irrigation projects is critical in order to recognize bottlenecks, limitations, managerial lapses, and other grey areas in the system, as well as to provide guidance for improving water resource production and management strategies in order to reap the maximum benefits over time. In Tanzania irrigation schemes, inefficient water use, varying, and low productivity are major concerns. As a result, irrigation schemes must be monitored and evaluated on a regular basis. This prompted evaluation of the performance of six Secondary Canal blocks of the Madibira irrigation scheme in Mbarali using the performance indicators and principal component analysis. The aim of the study was to assess the performance of the Madibira irrigation scheme. The performance of the irrigation scheme was assessed for two years, 2018 and 2019 with the help of selected performance indicators based on water supply, agricultural performance, economic, social, and environmental performance. The PCA was used to weigh the performance indicators, which were then merged to produce a single performance score. The scheme is performing well in terms of "water supply performance, agricultural performance, economic, social, and environmental performance". Despite satisfactory water supply performance, promoting the efficient use of available resources as a step toward achieving sustainable agricultural development should be encouraged. The overall performance score obtained was 62.9%– 63.6% in SC block 1, 67.5%- 67.8% in SC block 2, 77.2%- 78.97% in SC block 3, 65.0%- 66.3 in SC block 4, 65.8- 65.9% in SC block 5 and 67.%- 67.2% in SC block 6, indicating that all Secondary Canal blocks performed well. The overall average scheme performance was 67.6% and 68.2% in 2018 and 2019 respectively, the overall performance of the scheme is rated satisfactory. The majority of the project goals' milestones have been reached to a sufficient degree. The iii degree of government funding, training, and involvement of beneficiaries/ stakeholders in project implementation are all linked to project success. These are some of the main factors that contribute to the scheme's success. The study recognizes that routine maintenance type is the most type of farmers' maintenance operation, including bush clearing along with main canals, secondary canals, and tertiary canals, removal of accumulated soils within the canal, slashing and oiling the sluice and offtake gates, breakdown maintenance, for example, canals bank failure repair and damaged structures. Irrigation canals are cleaned every season before the beginning of the cropping season and during the cropping season, canals cleaning continues regularly with respective plot owners. Canal cleaning is usually contracted to individuals around the scheme who in turn employ laborers from the locality. This work is normally done before the onset of rain to prepare canals to receive irrigation water and better conveyance.