Drivers of Land Fragmentation among Smallholder Irrigators: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

<jats:p>Land fragmentation, particularly in irrigation systems, has emerged as a pervasive global event that profoundly shapes farmers’ decision-making. While land fragmentation has been widely studied, irrigated land fragmentation has received limited scholarly attention. Hence, this study aimed to identify key drivers and assess the level of land fragmentation among smallholder irrigators. Cross-sectional data were collected from 618 randomly selected households. Simpson index and Tobit model were used to assess the level and identify factors linked to land fragmentation, respectively. The Simpson index results show a moderate irrigated land fragmentation level of 38% in the study area. Tobit model results found that; household size, participation in agricultural commercial cluster, farm experience, machinery application, and distance from the nearest market were positively significant, whereas the amount of rented land, land certificate, and soil fertility status were negatively significant drivers of irrigated land fragmentation. Overall, policymakers and development practitioners should focus on these key drivers in designing effective rural development and irrigation policies. To do so would require enhancing family labor productivity; facilitating rental markets and transfer of small parcels; enhancing soil fertility beyond irrigated land; ensuring land certifications; promoting cluster farming initiatives beyond irrigated land; encouraging greater diversity of machinery and technology across different crops; and more robust sharing of experiences among farmers are crucial to keep irrigated land fragmentation at an optimal level.</jats:p>