Are subsidies the solution for ‘costly’ small-scale irrigation technologies?
A common claim we hear in discussions about small-scale irrigation in low- and middle-income countries is that the technologies are simply too expensive, and that subsidies are therefore the only way to make them viable for smallholders.
- irrigation
- subsidies
By Claudia Ringler and Nicole LeforeJune 10, 2026
Key takeaways
- Irrigation subsidies alone rarely solve smallholder adoption challenges. Evidence shows high upfront costs are only one of several constraints.
- Multiple barriers limit uptake beyond price. Water access, information gaps, and supply constraints often matter just as much or more.
- Falling costs for solar irrigation technologies, targeted subsidies, and creating an enabling environment for adoption offer promising alternatives.
A common claim we hear in discussions about small-scale irrigation in low- and middle-income countries is that the technologies are simply too expensive, and that subsidies are therefore the only way to make them viable for smallholders. It’s a familiar argument—and on the surface, it sounds perfectly reasonable. If you search online, you’ll quickly find headlines reinforcing this idea. In India, farmers are described as being unable to switch to solar-powered irrigation because the upfront costs are too steep; and in Kenya, affordability is raised as the key challenge to adoption. But once we look at actual field evidence, we find that reducing costs is far from the main—or only—solution for supporting smallholders in accessing irrigation technologies, and that subsidies are a blunt instrument for reducing farmers’ costs.
Perceived lack of access to water resources prevents investment in irrigation
While small-scale irrigation technologies do require investment, cost is often not the primary constraint. Other barriers show up as or even more strongly across multiple countries and studies. A recent survey of 600 Ethiopian farmers, conducted to assess constraints and opportunities for solar-powered irrigation within a cluster farming intervention, found that although 19% of respondents used irrigation, only 12% of those irrigators used groundwater, typically lifting water with diesel-operated pumps. Unsurprisingly, many communities reported a lack of water access as a key reason for not using irrigation technologies—equating the absence of visible surface water with the absence of water, given the invisibility of groundwater resources.