Impact Assessment of Irrigation Management Transfer in the Alto Rio Lerma Irrigation District, Mexico

Abstract

"This study reports on the findings of a 2-year field research study started by IIMI late in 1995 in the 112,772-hectare Alto Rio Lerma Irrigation District (ARLID), Mexico. The study tests the hypothesis that, in general, irrigation management transfer (IMT) has positive impacts on operational performance, managerial accountability, O&M budgeting, overall O&M expenditures, cost of water to farmers, and agricultural and economic productivity.

"Each of the aspects evaluated was analyzed for the period October 1982 to October 1996, comprising 10 years of pre-transfer information and 4 years of post-transfer information.

"The study found that irrigation management transfer has had very little impact, if any, on surface water allocation and distribution, and the use of groundwater. Changes, if any, in agricultural and economic productivity and costs to farmers are related to the wider set of neoliberal agricultural and economic reforms that started in the 1980s, rather than to the transfer program per se. On the other hand, there is strong evidence indicating that transfer resulted in improvements in system maintenance and O&M cost recovery."