Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

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years after the introduction of CADA in Kerala, was to avail the facility of funds from international lending agencies. The casual and adhoc approach followed in the formation of BFAs seems to have contributed to their failure. The CADA authorities were forced to compromise on the statutory obligations of BFAs, such as renewal of irrigation, submission of the list of office-bearers and furnishing of the annual statements of accounts. Role of GBM Annual general body meeting is a statutory obligation on the part of registered BFAs. There could be any number of general body meetings in a year depending upon requirements, such as for taking decisions on innovative programmes and issues connected with water distribution, for discussing and responding to decisions of the Canal Committee/Project Advisory Committee, for arriving at general consensus on issues demanding group activity and for working out solutions of disputes among BFA members, among different BFAs, and between BFA and Canal Committee. The frequency with which general body meetings are held and the quality of decisions taken in them would reflect the health of the BFA, in general. Success factors of GBM The success of a general body meeting depends on the seriousness with which it is held and factors like its timeliness and the place at which it is held. Meetings held as mere ritual render the general body ineffective. The interest which the office-bearers show in facing the general body is a decisive determinant of its performance. The response of sample irrigators to statements about general body meetings are presented in Table 4.6. To the statement that office-bearers are genuinely interested in facing the ordinary members in the general body meeting of BFA, 62 percent respondents disagreed; more than one-third disagreeing ‘strongly’ a conclusive indication that office-bearers are to a large extent reluctant in facing the general body. More than one-third of the office-bearers admitted that the allegation of lack of interest in the matter on their part was valid. The majority of the members were of the view that general body had to be summoned at least at the commencement of every crop season. General body meetings are held more at the convenience of office-bearers than of ordinary members. In fact the vast majority of ordinary members did not have any idea as to whose convenience the meetings are held. Most of them pleaded ignorance of general body meetings at all. Some pointed out that general body meetings are not held for years together in a large number of BFAs, and that the question of convenience does not arise at all. Documentary evidence corroborates this allegation. Our field enquiry convinced us that manipulation and even falsification of records have taken place in BFAs in order to secure renewal of registration with a view to securing management subsidy and other incentives from CADA. The majority of office-bearers of BFAs agreed with the statement that general body meeting was only a ritual and that the ordinary members were right in making such an allegation. 33
Table 4.6 Details of General Body Meeting T. Value O.ms S.A A D.A SDA D.K O.Bs S.A A D.A SDA D.K Qt.No. Statements Total S.A A D.A SDA D.K 22 4.71130 45 80 107 153 20 11.0 19.6 26.2 38.4 4.9 14 16 9 9 - 29.2 33.3 18.8 18.8 59 96 116 166 20 12.9 21.0 25.4 36.3 4.4 320 83 - 3 3 20 12 12 4 - 340 95 12 7 3 23 0.82421 78.3 20.3 0.73 0.73 41.7 25.0 25.0 8.33 74.4 20.8 2.6 1.5 0.66 O.Bs are interested in facing the ordinary members in G.B. meeting Good that G.B is summoned in the beginning of every season 7 25 15 4 358 5 26 13 4 - 12 51 28 8 358 1.98306 1.7 6.1 3.7 0.99 87.5 10.4 54.1 27.0 48.3 2.6 11.2 6.1 1.8 78.3 24 1.22855 2 24 15 3 365 0.5 5.9 3.7 0.73 89.2 2 4 30 12 - 4.16 8.33 62.5 25.0 4 28 45 15 365 8.75 6.1 9.8 3.3 79.9 27 0.95956 G.B is summoned after ascertaining the convenience of members to attend G.B is summoned only as per the convenience of office bearers Summoning G.B is just a ritual now 26 0.00974 13 20 77 4 295 3.2 4.9 18.8 0.98 72.1 20 34 55 5 295 4.9 8.3 13.5 1.2 72.1 10 16 15 7 - 20.8 33.3 31.3 14.6 20 15 10 3 - 4.17 31.3 20.8 6.3 23 36 92 11 295 5.0 7.8 20.1 2.4 64.6 40 49 65 8 295 8.8 10.7 14.2 1.8 64.6 Members participate in G.B only for the sake of participation 28 0.62216 18 63 19 17 292 4.4 15.4 4.7 4.2 71.4 25 28 98 21 18 292 10 35 2 1 - 6.1 21.4 4.6 3.9 63.9 20.8 72.9 4.2 2.1 Source: Field Survey Note: O.B - Office-bearers, O.Ms - Ordinary memebers of BFA, Qn. No - Question Number (in shedule), S.A - Strongly Agree, A - Agree, D.A - Disagree, S.D.A - Strongly disagree, D.K - Don’t Know. All irrigation issues are discussed in G.B 34
Page 1 and 2: Beneficiary Participation in Irriga
Page 3 and 4: Contents 1 Introduction 5 2 Concept
Page 5 and 6: No serious in-depth study of the ca
Page 7 and 8: The Malampuzha project has 15 Canal
Page 9 and 10: 2. Concepts, Theory, and Practice o
Page 11 and 12: of a few man-days of labour as is s
Page 13 and 14: 3. Empirical Research on Irrigation
Page 15 and 16: Our interest is neither in the Prod
Page 17 and 18: The author points out how the press
Page 19 and 20: field level officers resemble the c
Page 21 and 22: fields and project demonstration fa
Page 23 and 24: To ameliorate the situation, the Eg
Page 25 and 26: development factors and processes,
Page 27 and 28: Canal Committee (CC) Canal Committe
Page 29 and 30: This fact was endorsed by both offi
Page 31: Renewal is given based on the lists
Page 35 and 36: Table 4.7 Details of Canal Committe
Page 37 and 38: Table 4.8 Nature of Decisions in Ca
Page 39 and 40: ecause of their vital importance to
Page 41 and 42: of the office-bearers and more than
Page 43 and 44: Table 4.13a Performance of Recurrin
Page 45 and 46: Table 4.13 c Performance of Recurri
Page 47 and 48: inclusion of ineligible persons in
Page 49 and 50: aspect. The reasons reported for in
Page 51 and 52: Table 4.14c Performance of Recurrin
Page 53 and 54: all farmers in an area did this act
Page 55 and 56: Table 4.15a Performance of Recurrin
Page 57 and 58: Table 4.15c Performance of Recurrin
Page 59 and 60: 5. Performance, Administration, and
Page 61 and 62: level of less than one-third [Table
Page 63 and 64: management function, with an expert
Page 65 and 66: the critical phases of growth of pl
Page 67 and 68: Lack of adequate co-operation of th
Page 69 and 70: The failure in the working of BFAs
Page 71 and 72: To sum up: past experience of the w
Page 73 and 74: Table 6.1 Measures of Reforms 74
Page 75 and 76: “Extending better official co-ope
Page 77 and 78: Table 6.3 Staying in the area of op
Page 79 and 80: (ii) Entrust water charges collecti
Page 81 and 82: 7. Summary and Conclusions Most irr
Page 83 and 84:
of using less cement than is requir
Page 85 and 86:
Appendix - I Number of Beneficiary
Page 87 and 88:
Appendix III List of Canal Committe
Page 89 and 90:
BFA Sample’ Name of C.C/BFA Reg.
Page 91 and 92:
the assumed losses of 11 to 20 perc
Page 93 and 94:
34 The NIA was a government corpora
Page 95 and 96:
References Bagodion, Benjamin U.
Page 97:
Silva, De, N. G. R. “Involvement
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Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

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