RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF ASIAN IRRRIGATION IN TRANSITION

1. RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF ASIAN IRRRIGATION IN TRANSITION Ganesh P. Shivakoti Professor, Natural Resources Management Asian Institute of Technology Bangkok, Thailand 19th January 2009

2. Presentation outline • Irrigation policy context in Asia • Institutions and the Intervention Process in Asian Irrigation Systems • Policy Interventions in Asian Irrigation Management • Understanding Puzzles of Diversification in Asian Irrigation Governance • How political and economic changes impinge upon irrigation institutions? • How local irrigation institutions develop coping mechanisms to deal with these changes and alternative policies evolve?

3. Diversity of Policy Problems in Asian Irrigation SystemsMacro setting: • Water scarcity & increasing competition for water among urban and rural users • Privatization of water supply through individual farmer investment in micro irrigation technologies • The groundswell in pump due to declining cost of groundwater extraction • Expansion of irrigation & improved cereal grain technologies has driven down the the price of cereal grains in some regions and other regions are experiencing decline in cereal production due to high demand for bio-fuel crops • Growing environmental concerns – water quality and pollution

4. System-level problems • Either Overuse of water or Water supply not timely & not according to water requirement • Poor maintenance due to labor shortage in rural areas due to urban migration of work force • Water policies are government driven, under budgeted, not respondent to farmer needs • Farmers pay fee based on crop or area but fees go to treasurer • No relation between water supply, maintenance and fees paid

5. Future scenario: Diverse nature of problems • Demands for water in river basins exceed supplies in Thailand and Indonesia, • Groundwater tables in India and China drop below levels that are economically viable for pumping, • Global markets arrive at the farm gate in Vietnam and Nepal, • Water-logging or salinity begin to displace entire villages in Pakistan,

6. Future scenario (cont.) • Funds from international banks run out for irrigation rehabilitation projects, • Large corporations attempt to buy up water use rights or obtain long-term water services contracts, and • People realize that they must get serious about producing more food with less water in emerging market competition and negative effect of climate change.

7. Coward, however, cautions that: • Locals will still count • Asian irrigation will continue to be an amalgamation of diversity • Increasingly irrigators will operate in highly dissimilar basins

8. Field studies and the literature documented show • that farmers can organize small-scale irrigation systems themselves or participate in the governance and management of large-scale systems • In many villages using irrigation systems, roles, rules, precedents, and procedures exist that ease development of of social capital. • Social capital assets can be used for own enrichment

9. State-owned irrigation systems relevance • Larger irrigation systems managed by state can facilitate farmer organization by providing: • accurate information, • conflict resolution arenas, • effective technical assistance, • mechanisms to back up local monitoring and sanctioning efforts.

10. State hand-over of irrigation systems • The Fad of Management Transfer • Degraded physical capital • Either destructed or absence of social capital • Retain government ownership • Control of financial resources • Expect users to perform what government agencies have failed to do

11. Salient characteristics of FMIS • The traditional irrigation systems have provided an efficient basis, in terms of technology and social organization for irrigated crops cultivation. • This efficiency achieved through heavy demands on labor and a complex social organization. • The entire weir community acted as an autonomous unit, technologically and organizationally, without state support.

12. Salient characteristics (cont.) • Consequently, the communities had easy access to and control over means of production as well as enforcement of norms such as acquisition, regulation, and allocation of water and dispute settlement. • These roles, however, have changed overtime and role of local communities are even important in the current irrigation management.

13. How local irrigation institutions develop coping mechanisms to deal with these changes and alternative policies evolve? • Nesting of institutions and Co-production • Coalition building cases of Andhra Pradesh, India • Participatory irrigation management in Philippines • Adaptive Management • Chhattis Mauja and Ban Ganga AMIS(JMIS) of Nepal • Caho Phrya basin of Thailand • Red river delta and montane irrigation systems of Vietnam • Social capital and self-governance • FMIS in Chitwan, Palpa districts of Nepal • Ping river basin upland farmers coping mechanism in Thailand • Resilience or Robustness? • 19 irrigation systems in Sindhpalchok in Nepal • 39 irrigation systems in Kangra valley in India • Montane community irrigation in transition in Thailand

14. Conclusions • Policies facilitating: • increase in water productivity or augment supplies • enhancement of building effective institutions to facilitate better irrigation management as well as integrated water resource management • effective and equitable accomplishment of inter-sectoral transfers • Role of water rights at multiple levels

15. Conclusions (cont.) Policies should also be conducive to farmers’ needs with special focus on smaller land holdings, labor shortages, part-time farming, declining cereal prices • Rapid economic and technological, and climate change requires increased flexibility of water and food systems and adaptability to stress • To address these issues role of NGOs, extension agents, NARS research centers, Universities and facilitators are crucial. • Need enhancement of social capital with emphasis on farmer associations to obtain credit, buy inputs cheaper, develop marketing infrastructure • Some WUA may evolve – but may need new organizations including farmer owned business or cooperatives