Rehabilitating the Irrigation Canals in Southern Kyrgyzstan: An Impact Evaluation Study

Irrigation canal rehabilitation is one of the widespread interventions used to revive agricultural development in a number of developing countries. However, the impact of this intervention is often questionable in literature. The study provides an analysis of a randomized control trial based on the comparison of two groups of owners of land plots in pilot and control areas. Two sets of panel surveys were conducted to collect household-level microeconomic data from the crop production farmers – owners of the land plots in Southern Kyrgyzstan in 2016 (prior to the irrigation canal rehabilitation), and in 2019 (after the rehabilitation intervention occurred). Sample sizes were 740 farmers in 2016, and 676 farmers in 2019. Difference-in-differences (DD) method demonstrates a positive relationship between irrigation canal rehabilitation and crop production volumes in monetary and natural terms in the target area in comparison to the ones without the irrigation canal rehabilitation. The statistical significance of the model measured in monetary form demonstrates a higher level of statistical error. At the same time the result was more desirable for the uniform indicator measuring crop production in-kind.