Farmers' Perceptions of System Effectiveness, Level of Participation and Equity in Farmer and Agency Managed Irrigation Systems in Nepal

Abstract

"This paper is based on a study which focused on the organization effectiveness of user and non-user controlled irrigation systems in the western hills of Nepal. The study was conducted with the purpose of assessing the extent to which these systems differ in perceptions of equity, level of participation and perceived effectiveness in meeting the water needs of the farmers being served. The study design included a survey of 200 users from different locations of four irrigation systems. The leadership pattern for irrigation related decision making situations was used as a basis for control type and community context. The major hypothesis tested was: Perceived organizational effectiveness will be higher in user controlled irrigation systems than in non-user controlled systems as manifested by higher scores of perceived equity, level of participation and perceived effectiveness. "The findings indicate that among the independent variables location of the parcel showed significant difference in the mean scores of equity, participation and effectiveness. Also the user controlled systems manifested relatively higher interrelationships among equity, participation, and effectiveness. The equity, participation and effectiveness scores were strongly associated with the control type. "Important policy implications of the research include: (1) the agency responsible for irrigation system maintenance should reconsider the present policy which creates unintended results of a dependency and (2) to achieve better organization effectiveness government should turn the system's ownership to the users and provide only emergency back-up services. This may induce higher levels of participation and feelings of fairness among users."

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Keywords

irrigation, IASC, equity, participatory management, Workshop

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