Farmer and Government Organized Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Preliminary Findings from Analysis of 127 Systems

Abstract

"In the first half of this paper we will briefly review the development of knowledge about irrigation to preserve context and a comparative research effort that seeks a level of generality. Then we will go on to discuss briefly the construction of a structured database from qualitative cases and describe the coding manual we have developed. We then will discuss the combination of research methods we have used to understand irrigation and our fieldwork in Nepal. In the second half of the paper we will present a comparative analysis of 127 irrigation system located in the three major terrains of relevance for Nepal governed and managed by farmers and those managed and governed by government agencies. The comparison will include physical characteristics of the irrigation systems, institutional rules, community attributes and agricultural performance of these systems."