Performance of agency-managed and farmer-managed irrigation systems: A comparative case study at Chitwan, Nepal

Abstract

Management reforms are considered one of the best alternatives in increasing efficiency of the irrigation systems. Transfer of day-to-day operation and maintenance to farmers is not a new concept. However due to lags, even now it is a hot issue in developing countries and Nepal is not an exception. In this context of growing argument about the transfer of management of public irrigation systems to the Water Users' Group, this paper examines the comparative performance of farmer-managed and agency-managed irrigation systems. Khageri Irrigation System in the Chitwan district of Nepal was taken as the study site where complete management transfer has been done in 1996. The situations before and after complete transfer were compared. Intensive case studies of the selected farmers showed that equity in distribution of water and leakage had significantly improved after management transfer. Logit analysis revealed that age and education level of the household head, distance from main canal, leakage of the canal and equity in distribution are significantly related to the satisfaction level of the beneficiary farmers from FMIS compared to AMIS. However, landholding size of the respondent farmer has no significant effect. Similarly results from t-test revealed that rice productivity and overall profits from agriculture has also increased significantly due to irrigation management transfer.

Environmental variability and child growth in Nepal

“…Of this proportion, less than a third is irrigated year-round (Government of Nepal [GON] and Department of Irrigation, 2015). This leaves agriculture and those who depend on it vulnerable to either the vagaries of weather or the rudimentary irrigation schemes under farmer-and agency-managed systems (Bastakoti et al, 2010;Bhatta et al, 2005). Poor seed quality, low rates of fertilizer use, and high rates of land degradation all contribute to Nepal's poor agricultural performance, further compromising food security, with potentially important implications for child growth.…”

Impact of Participatory Irrigation Management - Case Study: Cocurirwa Cooperative, Rwamagana Rice Project, Rwanda

“…On the other hand, since other factors such as prices of the agricultural products and yield changes based on climatic volatilities may have an impact on the evolution of this indicator, the results should be considered cautiously. Both the rice productivity and profits from agriculture increased significantly due to irrigation management transfer [17]; suggesting that farmer-managed irrigation system is significantly more efficient than the agency-managed one in water delivery.…”

Assessing the impact of rehabilitation and irrigation management transfer in minor irrigation projects in Orissa, India: A case study

“…Another study on assessment of IMT (Kucu et al, 2008) revealed that farmers' perceptions concerning pre-and posttransfer are significantly positive with respect to the adequacy of irrigation water supplied to the farm, fairness of water distribution within the system, frequency of water distribution conflicts, timeliness of water delivery to the farm, irrigation fee policy, and maintenance of drainage canals. Intensive case studies in Nepal showed that equity in distribution of water has increased significantly due to IMT (Bhatta et al, 2005). Responsiveness, timeliness and flexibility of system operations have either remained the same or improved during the post-IMT period in Mexico (Salas and Wilson, 2004).…”

“…IMT in Pakistan, which took place during 2000, resulted in an increase in irrigated area of 6-7%, even under severe drought-like conditions (Latif and Pomee, 2003). Case studies in Nepal showed that rice productivity and overall profits from agriculture increased significantly due to IMT (Bhatta et al, 2005). In Turkey, Yercan et al (2004) reported an increase in irrigated areas compared to those in the pretransfer period; another study on assessment of IMT (Kucu et al, 2008) revealed that the irrigation ratio increased by around 4% (from 58 to 62%) after the transfer.…”