Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

Renovation and rehabilitation of early irrigation systems is acknowledged as essential all
over the world, especially in countries in South and South East Asia (eg: Bangladesh, India,
Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Srilanka, Thailand, Pakistan, Soviet Union, and Vietnam).
It comprises levelling and grading of land, consolidation of holdings, and rectangulation.
The question as to who should bear the costs of renovation and rehabilitation remains,
however, unsettled.
In many countries, the responsibility was left to the beneficiary farmers; they failed to
execute the task in most of the cases since technical knowledge and financial ability was
required, which normally farmers did not possess. In some other countries, it was done by
the project authority itself as part of the project. A compromise between the two approaches
is also advocated by many. The government should stimulate the interest of the farmers to
carry out improvements in their farms; this, government should do, by providing technical
advice and a part of the finance.
The underlying idea behind on-farm development (OFD) when undertaken in the public
sector is that every farmer is intrinsically interested in OFD activities and that he does not
do it simply because he does not have the required technical skill, machinery, and finance.
Therefore the public administration does the work in consultation with the farmer. The
government meets a part of the cost, leaving the other part to be borne by the farmer, on the
basis of a contract signed between the two. It is executed as a national programme with a
large degree of financial and institutional autonomy. The project authority earmarks the
total area to be covered during the life span of the programme, as also the priority regions
and areas to be covered, each year. The general procedure is to concentrate on a particular
region first and complete the work there, and then proceed to the area of the next priority;
this process goes on until the targeted area is covered completely. The major impediment to
the implementation of such programmes is the immense cost involved, which many developing
countries with scant foreign exchange resources, find difficult to meet.
The next is OFD by the farmer himself. Under this, the farmer is supposed to be not only
interested but capable of executing it as well. What he needs is some construction materials
such as iron and cement, and some technical guidance for carrying out the different jobs.
The available labour potential of the farming communities would be effectively employed to
do the job rather than leaning on costly equipment and machinery for earth-moving.
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