eprintid: 11653 rev_number: 8 eprint_status: archive userid: 3170 dir: disk0/00/01/16/53 datestamp: 2020-11-14 09:29:25 lastmod: 2020-11-14 09:29:25 status_changed: 2020-11-14 09:29:25 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Bjornlund, V creators_name: Bjornlund, H creators_name: van Rooyen, A F icrisatcreators_name: van Rooyen, A F affiliation: UniSA Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide affiliation: ICRISAT (Bulawayo) country: Australia country: Zimbabwe title: Exploring the factors causing the poor performance of most irrigation schemes in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa ispublished: pub subjects: s11 subjects: s2.4 subjects: s23 divisions: CRPS5 crps: crp1.13 full_text_status: public keywords: Agricultural water Management, Farmer-led, sub-Saharan Africa, Rural economic development, Agricultural production systems note: We would like to acknowledge the important support received in writing this article from Ms Karen Parry in structural and copy editing. The article was produced in the context of the project Transforming Smallholder Irrigation into Profitable and Self-Sustaining Systems in Southern Africa, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (LWR/2016/137 and FSC/2013/006) and by the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems with support from the CGIAR Fund. We also acknowledge the significant contribution of the two reviewers, who spent considerable time and effort to provide valuable comments and contributions, resulting in a much-improved article. abstract: This article explores the factors causing the current poor performance of most government irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa. The literature review finds that the poor performance is not primarily caused by socioeconomic and biophysical conditions inherent to sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers have adapted to diverse biophysical conditions and expanded or contracted their area under agricultural water management in response to market signals. Rather, this poor performance is predominantly linked to the production systems introduced during colonialism and developments since independence, such as agricultural policies restraining rural economic development, unsuitable irrigation technologies and agricultural practices, and international lending practices and trade arrangements. date: 2020-09 date_type: published publication: International Journal of Water Resources Development (TSI) volume: 36 number: 51 publisher: Routledge pagerange: S54-S101 id_number: doi:10.1080/07900627.2020.1808448 refereed: TRUE issn: 0790-0627 official_url: https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2020.1808448 related_url_url: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=10.1080%2F07900627.2020.1808448&btnG= funders: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research citation: Bjornlund, V and Bjornlund, H and van Rooyen, A F (2020) Exploring the factors causing the poor performance of most irrigation schemes in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of Water Resources Development (TSI), 36 (51). S54-S101. ISSN 0790-0627 document_url: http://oar.icrisat.org/11653/1/Exploring%20the%20factors%20causing%20the%20poor%20performance%20of%20most%20irrigation%20schemes%20in%20post%20independence%20sub%20Saharan%20Africa.pdf