Abstract:
High underground water levels in household wells during rainy season create a chance to be
harvested for micro irrigation by households during dry spell. However, an opportunity to
harvest groundwater from household wells has remained untapped. This study explores the
potential of harvesting groundwater at household wells for micro irrigation and its possible
welfare effect to households. Primary data was obtained using structured questionnaires, where
systematic simple random sampling technique was used in this study. Excel and Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) were used in analysing data. The potential capacity of
groundwater that could be harvested by each household and possibly used in micro irrigation is
about 25 cubic metres during the wet seasons of May to September. The results on welfare effect
on household if groundwater is harvested and used in micro irrigation could improve
household’s income stream at 1.009 percentage point increase. Socio economic determinants
such as household size, number of animals reared and size of kitchen garden was found to
significantly influence household water demands at (t = 1.92, p < 0.1), (t = 1.2.7, p < 0.1) and (t
= 3.75, p < 0.1) respectively. However, the random factor value in the regression model showed
significant difference at (t = 1.67, p < 0.1) in influencing consumptive demands of groundwater,
which explains the need to research more on other factors that influence consumptive demand on
water that were beyond the scope of this study. Therefore, these findings will inform policy and
decision makers on the strategies of utilising untapped groundwater supply for poverty
alleviation and improved food supply to the population |
