The focus of irrigation development in most sub-Saharan African countributes appears to be shifting towards small-scale irrigation based on motorised pumps. The success of this approach depends, however, on its widespread adoption by farmers who are accustomed to traditional small-scale irrigation systems based on shadoof, calabashes, buckets, etc. To get the farmers to adopt the modern system, it must be proved to be superior to the traditional methods. This study was therefore aimed at comparing the potentials of the new system with the traditional one. To achieve this, data were collected from farmers producing vegetables (tomato, pepper, onion and eggplant) under shadoof and pump irrigation systems in Bauchi State in the 1987–1988, 1988–1989 and 1989–1990 dry seasons. Analysis of the data revealed that pump irrigation is superior to shadoof in terms of resource use, yield and profit.