Impact of Village Level Irrigation Development on Employment and Income Distribution of Rain-fed Farmers in Blora Regency

Abstract

Water scarcity was the main problem faced by farmers in rain-fed area. Therefore, the development of village level irrigation had an opportunity to solve this problem. The aims of this study were (1) to evaluate financial feasibility of the village level irrigation development in Blora Regency, (2) to assess its impact on income and employment generation, and (3) to assess income redistribution. Financial feasibility of irrigation was evaluated by benefit-cost analysis; its impact on income and employment generation was assessed by pair-test based on before and after project; while its impact on income redistribution was assessed by Gini Index and Factor Share Analysis (FSA). Purposive sampling technique was used to select villages representing three types of irrigation i.e. cekdam (small dam), glontoran (irrigation pumps) and sumur lapang (drilled well). Samples were randomly selected from population in each village. The population was the farmers who got direct benefit from the irrigation development. The results shown that all type of village level irrigation were financially feasible. Financial feasibility of irrigation was affected by water resource reliability and farmers capacity in applying technology and catching agribusiness opportunity. Village level irrigations had generated employment as well as farmers income in these areas. Employment generation lead to benefit agriculture labor indicated by increase of its share on agricultural labor market. Income generation was originated from increase in cropping index and farmer’s commodity reorientation. Result of FSA shown that farmers were the most benefited from this project in terms of relative share either regard to total output or added value. On the other hand, relative share of labor decreased. This means that labor gain less benefit from the project than other factors.