Smallholder irrigated horticulture has proven to be a viable and attractive option for poor farmers in developing countries. This paper relates two important lessons learned: low-cost productive technologies must be available to smallholders in terms of both location and price and must correspond to their needs, and the importance of a market-led approach for financing technology acquisition. The paper concludes with the following recommendations: use privately owned technologies to avoid collective action problems and reliance on government assistance -- this increases the likelihood that irrigation assets will be maintained
consider simple technologies such as treadle pumps and drip irrigation kits -- these self-select for poor households
ensure that a minimum set of resource and market conditions are satisfied before promoting irrigation
develop supply chains that are dominated by private entrepreneurs such as pump manufacturers and repair shops
rethink the definition of smallholder-irrigated agriculture in view of market gardening -- many farmers, particularly the poorest, irrigate plots smaller than one-tenth of a hectare
recognize that rapid introduction of mechanized technologies can easily overwhelm a poor smallholder in terms of capacity -- scaling up to mechanized pumps has been demonstrated successfully but may take time
and make sure there are markets for the outputs, or help create them, to ensure that increased production is profitable.