An Assessment of the Small-Scale Irrigation Management Turnover Program in Indonesia

Abstract

"The purpose of this study is to assess the results of the Small-Scale Irrigation Turnover Program in Indonesia. In 1987, the Government of Indonesia adopted a policy to turn over to water user associations (WUAs) the management of all public irrigation systemsfrom the intake to drainage facilitiesin the country, which are 500 hectares or less in service area. The primary interest of the government in the turnover policy is to lighten its cost burden for the irrigation subsector while enabling farmers to sustain and even improve the productivity of irrigated agriculture through the mobilization of their own local resources. Generally speaking, the primary concern of farmers (in a context where there is no volumetric water charge) is to maintain or increase the returns per unit of land and labor."