Irrigation in Kenya: Economic Viability of Large-Scale Irrigation Construction
The main reason for the success of the 20th century Green Revolution in Asia was the
development of large-scale irrigation projects. But, since the late 1990s, these investments were
out of the development agenda, partly because the success of the Green Revolution reduced the
need for such irrigation development and partly because the lower-than-expected performance
of many large-scale irrigation projects resulted from difficulties in designing, constructing,
operating, and managing large-scale irrigation schemes. This was the case in sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA) as well. During the past decade, however, large-scale irrigation development seems to be
coming back in SSA as a means to promote a Green Revolution there. This revival has evoked
heated discussion as to whether the conditions that made the large-scale irrigation projects an
infeasible option have been overcome. This paper examines whether large-scale irrigation
construction in SSA is economically feasible by estimating how much it would cost if the Mwea
Irrigation Scheme in Kenya, one of the best performing irrigation schemes in SSA, were to be
constructed today as a brand-new scheme. The results show that the new construction of the
Mwea Scheme may be economically viable if the shadow price of rice is as high as the world
price that prevailed during the mini-rice crisis in 2008-2013; however, the viability is marginal,
by no means robust. The project costs per unit of beneficiary irrigated area of our ‘Mwea
Project’ and a few 21st-century large-scale irrigation projects under planning or under
construction are two to four times higher than those of 20th-century counterparts. For such
expensive projects to be economically viable, the agricultural performance of these projects.. view paper here:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368918558_Irrigation_in_Kenya_Economic_Viability_of_Large-Scale_Irrigation_Construction
