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Conference Paper Challenges in Getting off the Ground the New Nicaraguan Water Law: From Farmer Groups to Formalized Irrigation Districts?(2011) Novo, P.; Garrido, A.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth"The Nicaraguan Water Law was passed in September 2007. While all new Water Laws need time to be implemented, the progress in Nicaragua is meager. Nicaragua’s water sector, especially in rural areas, is highly informal and primarily based on small water supply systems and on local informal water institutions. The new Water Law foresees setting up irrigation districts to improve water management in the agricultural sector. Despite the lack of formal users’ organizations, there is evidence of farmer groups sharing and managing common irrigation systems without any formal bonds or statutes. The objective of this research is to assess the challenges in the formalization process of the agricultural water sector in a developing country, such as Nicaragua. Since major water-related problems have already been identified, the new Water Law still faces a number of barriers that may delay its implementation. It is essential to indentify the socioeconomic, institutional and environmental factors that structure incentives for farmers to willingly become involved in a formalization process. The theoretical framework is based on the literature on collective action and social capital. The empirical focus is given by 5 focus groups and 98 surveys hold in the Upper Rio Viejo Sub-basin in North Nicaragua. The study focuses on (i) the problems related to agricultural production that farmers face, (ii) how they are organized for irrigation, (iii) how they perceive public organizations and (iv) the pros and cons of formalizing in irrigation districts. The study attempts to contribute to the Water Law implementation by analyzing both the impact of the Water Law in agricultural water managed areas and the cooperative behavior of the different farmer groups considered in the Upper Rio Viejo Sub-basin."Working Paper A Review of Management Strategies for Salt-prone Land and Water Resources in Iran(2007) Qureshi, Asad Sarwar; Qadir, Manzoor; Heydari, Nader; Turral, Hugh; Javadi, Arzhang"Approximately half of the irrigated area of Iran falls under different types of salt-affected soils and average yield losses may be as high as 50 percent. Slightly and moderately salt-affected soils are mostly found on the piedmonts at the foot of the Elburz (Alborz) Mountains in the northern part of the country. The soils having severe to extreme salinity are predominantly located in the Central Plateau, the Khuzestan and Southern Coastal Plains and the Caspian Coastal Plain. The process of salinization of the surface water resources is mainly due to natural conditions, and to a lesser extent, to the discharge of drainage water into the river systems. Estimates show that about 6.7 km3 of brackish water flow annually through 12 major rivers. There is no straightforward solution to the complex problems of salt-induced soil and water resources degradation in Iran. The approaches addressing the management of these resources need to be multidimensional and must take into account biophysical and environmental conditions of the target areas as well as livelihood aspects of the associated communities."Working Paper Farmer-Based Financing of Operations in the Niger Valley Irrigation Schemes(2000) Abernethy, Charles L.; Sally, Hilmy; Lonsway, Kurt; Maman, Chegou"Presents the results of case-studies of the functioning of four pump-based irrigation systems in the Niger River Valley. Prospects for sustainability are analyzed, especially in the light of the government's policy of promoting irrigator organizations to take over responsibilities for operation and maintenance."Working Paper Improving Irrigated Agriculture: Institutional Reform and the Small Farmer(1982) Bromley, Daniel W."Irrigation is a technological and institutional innovation which permits cultivation of lands otherwise ill-suited to agriculture. The institutional environment in which irrigation takes place is critical to the successful operation of any system. This institutional environment has received little analytical attention by those concerned with irrigation. "A model of farmer interdependence is developed and is related to the concept of farmers as cautious optimizers. This allows a focus on institutional uncertainty as a major impediment to creating irrigation systems which meet both efficiency and equity goals. "Suggestions for improving existing irrigation systems-and for designing new ones-are derived from the framework."Working Paper Organizational Aspects of Improved Irrigation Management: An Experiment in Dewahuwa Tank, Sri Lanka(1990) Ekanayake, R.; Groenfeldt, David"This report is one of several IIMI publications addressing the issue of irrigation management to promote diversified crops during the dry season. As Sri Lanka approaches self-sufficiency in rice production, a target already achieved by some other countries in the region, there is little logic in growing rice using land and water resources which could support higher- value non-rice crops, using less water. Thus, one of the incentives in improving irrigation management is to find ways of stretching water further during the dry season in water-deficit systems, when rice is relatively more expensive to grow than during the wet season, and when other crops which can be grown only during the dry season (when there is less danger of water-logging) offer the farmer and the country a comparative advantage."Journal Article Institutional Options for Irrigation: The Bulgarian Case(2003) Penov, Ivan"During the transition period the irrigation water usage in Bulgaria declined by nearly 85% and many parts of the existing canal systems were abandoned. We review the roots of the problem and discuss possible institutional options to cope with the situation. The following determinants of institutional change are considered: features of transactions related to nature; characteristics of actors; governance structure; and property rights system. Data and information refer to interviews conducted in the Plovdiv region."Working Paper Modernization Using the Structured System Design of the Bhadra Reservoir Project, India: An Intervention Analysis(1999) Sakthivadivel, R.; Thiruvengadachari, S.; Amarasinghe, Upali A."Evaluates the performance of the Bhadra Reservoir Project-before, during, and after the introduction of modernization with structured system design. Analysis focuses on water management, agricultural productivity, and farmer participation and perception. Identifies the absence of a continuing support mechanism and lack of farmer participation as the major causes for the project's decline."Working Paper Irrigation Impacts on Income Inequality and Poverty Eleviation: Policy Issues and Options for Improved Management of Irrigation Systems(2002) Bhattarai, Madhusudan; Sakthivadivel, R.; Hussain, Intizar"This study explores the conceptual and policy issues relating to the impact that irrigation has on crop production, farm income, inequities in income distribution and poverty alleviation. It also focuses, specifically, on poverty issues associated with head-tail water distribution inequity in an irrigation system."Conference Paper Vertical Collective Action: Addressing Vertical Asymmetries in Watershed Management(2009) Cárdenas, Juan-Camilo; Johnson, Nancy; Rodriguez, Luz Angela"Watersheds have the characteristic of connecting people vertically by water flows, making relationships among users of water more complex. The location of the people along the watershed defines their role in the provision and appropriation of water. Verticality in watersheds thus imposes a challenge to collective action. This paper presents the results of field experiments conducted in four watersheds of two different countries: Colombia (South America) and Kenya (Africa). We recruited around 639 watersheds inhabitants from upstream, midstream and downstream locations in these basins and conducted field experiments to study the role that location and verticality plays in affecting cooperation at the provision and appropriation decisions. Two field experiments were conducted: the 'Irrigation Game' a new experimental design that includes the provision and appropriation nature of the resource, and the 'Water Trust Game' an adaptation of the Trust Game where we explicitly announce the actual location upstream or downstream of the two players. The results show that reciprocity and trust are very important motivations for upstream-downstream cooperation and that the role of upstream players has important implications in water provision decisions. Results from both experiments suggest that the lack of trust from downstream players towards upstream players restricts the possibilities of cooperation among the watershed users."Working Paper Olifants River Irrigation Schemes: Reports 1 & 2(2000) Tren, Richard; Schur, Michael"Report 1 documents key data affecting crop budgets and water supply costs in several Olifants Basin irrigation schemes. The data will be used to develop an irrigation water-pricing model to describe supply-side and demand side forces. Report 2 investigates the management and operations of these schemes. It compares farming and irrigation practices in several different types of schemes - a government-run scheme, a private commercial scheme and two small irrigation schemes managed by black farmers."