Abstract The 21st century revival of large-scale water resources development projects makes it important to keep assessing their impacts – preferably from an interdisciplinary perspective – in order to not repeat past mistakes and explore whether they could improve livelihood conditions for rural communities. In this study, costs and benefits of the World Bank-funded Ribb Irrigation and Drainage Project (RIDP) were investigated using a unique systems approach. The impact for farmers with different initial farming systems (rainfed – residual moisture – irrigated) was studied using field observations, document analyses, remote sensing, agronomic data and semi-structured interviews (n = 165). Data on project-induced changes to land and water availability, cropping patterns, farming systems and farm-level economics were collected. The results show that dam and dyke construction has reduced flooding, which has resulted in declining rice productivity (−42%) and concomitant shifts to lower value cropping systems. Results also reveal that the land redistribution has caused widespread livelihood deterioration as households had to give up 25% of their farmland and the communal grazing land was fully converted into farmland. Due to top-down implementation, nontransparent communication, delayed construction and lagging financial compensation, social resistance has appeared in the command area, impeding the construction works. In addition to these problems, if no rapid change to higher value crops can be realized, 20.5% of the farmers (those who already irrigate) will experience a loss of livelihood, 64.1% of the farmers (those with rainfed and residual moisture cultivation) will be on the verge of livelihood deterioration and only 13.5% of the farmers (those with solely rainfed cultivation) will enjoy RIDP-induced improved livelihoods. The fate of this project stresses the importance of investigating initial farming systems, exploring worthy project alternatives, improving participation, communication and benefit-sharing and strengthening the institutional capacity of implementing authorities.

中文翻译：

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从快速实施到生计恶化：埃塞俄比亚西北部基于大坝的 Ribb 灌溉和排水项目

摘要 21 世纪大规模水资源开发项目的复兴使得不断评估其影响——最好是从跨学科的角度——非常重要，以免重蹈覆辙，探索它们是否可以改善农村社区的生计条件。在这项研究中，使用独特的系统方法调查了世界银行资助的 Ribb 灌溉和排水项目 (RIDP) 的成本和收益。使用实地观察、文件分析、遥感、农艺数据和半结构化访谈（n = 165）研究了对不同初始耕作系统（雨养 - 剩余水分 - 灌溉）的农民的影响。收集了有关项目引起的土地和水资源可用性、种植模式、耕作系统和农场层面经济变化的数据。结果表明，大坝和堤坝的建设减少了洪水，这导致水稻生产力下降 (-42%) 并随之转向价值较低的种植系统。结果还显示，由于农户不得不放弃 25% 的耕地，公共牧场完全转为耕地，土地重新分配导致了普遍的生计恶化。由于自上而下实施，沟通不透明，施工延误，经济补偿滞后，指挥区出现社会阻力，阻碍了建设工作。除了这些问题之外，如果不能实现向更高价值作物的快速转变，20.5% 的农民（已经​​灌溉的农民）将失去生计，64。1% 的农民（那些靠雨养和剩余水分种植的）将处于生计恶化的边缘，只有 13.5% 的农民（那些只靠雨养种植的）将享受 RIDP 导致的生计改善。该项目的命运强调了调查初始农业系统、探索有价值的项目替代方案、改善参与、沟通和利益分享以及加强执行当局的机构能力的重要性。