DR. WANJOHI JOHN MURABA

ABSTRACT
Water Irrigation has become one of the
vital income generating activities on land
,in that it enhances food security ,creates
employment opportunities ,improves
nutritional status of a nation and brings
about good health in a particular society.
The purpose of this study was to establish
the determinants of performance of
irrigation projects a case of Nthawa
irrigation project of Mbeere North Subcounty of Embu county Kenya. The study
sought to determine the effect of
management of the project, community
participation, resources adequacy,
technology and availability of sizable land
for irrigation on performance of irrigation
projects in Mbeere North Sub-county,Embu
county Kenya. The target population for
this study comprised the 500 registered
members in Nthawa Irrigation Project of
Mbeere North Sub- County, Embu County.
In addition, 19 key informants comprising
9 executive management committee
members from the project and 10 Ministry
of Water and Irrigation officials made up of
2 technical officers from the District
Irrigation Office and 8 Water Resource
Management Authority (WRMA) regional
officials. For this study, the sample size
was 130 respondents. On the Executive
committee members and officials, the
researcher did not sample since the target
population was small, hence the study
employed a census method that is by
capturing the entire population of
Executive Committee Members and
Ministry of Water and Irrigation Officials.
The primary data was collected using selfadministered questionnaires made up of
both open ended and closed ended
questions. The data collected was analyzed
using Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS Version 21.0). All the
questionnaires received were referenced
and items in the questionnaire were coded
to facilitate data entry. After data cleaning,
the data was presented inform of tables
showing frequencies, percentages, mean
score and standard deviation. From the
results, it was observed that management of
the projects , resource adequacy, and
technology used, community participation
and availability of sizable land for
irrigation all positively and greatly affect
the performance of public irrigation
projects in Kenya. It is thus recommended
that full participation of members in
irrigation project development should been
encouraged to enhance capacity to perceive
their own needs and members’ managed
irrigation projects should encourage a
maximum number of people to participate
at various stages of project development.