Water Users Association and Irrigation Management - Institute for ...

Three brothers working on leased lands in Hagedal mentioned that:
.. Why should we invest in soil and water management practices in someone's land? We just
see to it that we do the minimllm investments so that the yield levels are not declined. When
we hm'e 01/1' 011'/1 lands we will plan of long-term strategies . ..
The inherited and owned lands are still 'good', despite continuous and intensive cultivation
by successive generations, when compared to tenant cultivated lands.
The analysis of various intervention strategies employed at the farm level and project level
reveals that in Gundur, farmers adopted preventive and a combination of curative and
preventive strategies on a larger scale. In Hagedal, since the soil-related problems are more
profound than in Gundur, farmers on a larger scale adopted curative strategies. Adoption of
strategy in Hagedal is mostly determined by the credit availability and the non-farm
Income. But in Gundur. it is the experience in irrigated farming of the farmer, cattle
strength and the presence of the WUA that determines the adoption of management
strategy. The next chapter compares the irrigation system performances in the study
villages, to get a broader understanding of water use and its effect on the environment.
Summary and Conclusion
In TBP, the responsibility to ensure designed discharge of water up to the outlet point omd
also to construct, operate and maintain the canals and hydraulic structures rests with the ID
while the responsibility of maintaining the system and distributing water below the outlet
point rests with thc CADA. The Agricultural department is responsible for providing
extension services. In Gundur, the WUA is present to distribute water beyond outlets, while
in Hagedal, which has no WUA, farmers take water from the outlets based on their turns
and location.
Though scientific, technological and management options are available to manage and
control the problems, farmers have adopted their own methods to tackle the twin problem
of waterlogging and salinity. The sample farmers employ as many as 15 on-farm strategies,
which include various al,'Tonomic and physical soil and water conservation measures. The
strategies adopted are classified under three broad categories namely, preventive, curative
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