Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

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Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala Experience C. J. Joseph* 1. Introduction Irrigation projects the world over have experienced wide divergence between their respective estimated benefited areas and the actual areas benefited, as also between their respective irrigation potentials created and the levels of their utilisation. Several experiments have gone into reducing these gaps. Earlier projects, now deemed “first generation of projects” used to undertake only construction of storage reservoirs and dams as well as networks of canals to take water to what is technically known as the outlet turnout level, leaving to the beneficiary farmers the construction and maintenance of field channels / water courses necessary for taking water to their farms. Beneficiary participation in almost all the projects was hesitant and inadequate. Even the maintenance of the major reservoirs and their distribution networks fell over time into disuse and disrepair. Later, in the so called second generation of projects, a more integrated and comprehensive approach was followed. Under this category, irrigation is viewed as a soil-water-plant relationship; and irrigation water management came to enjoy a global dimension, with international bodies like FAO organising a series of international seminars on this subject 1 . The project now came to be designed for catering to all the water resource needs of a region comprising its agriculture and industry. Active and sustained beneficiary participation in construction, management, and maintenance came to be ensured in all the second generation projects. In India, the introduction of the second generation approach to irrigation began in the mid-1970’s. The Command Area Development Authority (CADA) introduced during the period envisaged more autonomy for States, in planning, execution, and management of irrigation projects with active involvement of beneficiaries at every stage, from launching of the project to its completion. Despite the introduction of CADA, beneficiary participation is found to be poor in India as a whole 2 ; it would appear that, in this respect Kerala lags even behind the all-India performance level 3 . ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I express my immense gratitude to Dr K. N. Nair, the Programme Co-ordinator of KRPLLD for the quick clearance of the proposal and for the timely assistance, both financial and intellectual, at every stage of this work. I am also thankful to Prof. P. R. Gopinathan Nair on whom I always rely for guidance in all my research activities, including this work. I have benefited from the expertise of several persons like Prof. Narayana Pillai, formerly of Department of Sociology, Prof. George Mathew, Department of Psychology, and Prof. Yageen Thomas, Department of Statistics, both of the University of Kerala. I received assistance from officials of CADA and the Department of Irrigation of Malampuzha, the Vaighai Project (Tamil Nadu), the Lower Bhavani Project (Tamil Nadu), and the Khadakvasala (Maharashtra) project; to all of them I offer my sincere thanks. This work would not have been successful but for the commitment of my research officer Renji G. Joseph and the investigators, Jayakumar, Binoy Kuriakose, and Sunil. I acknowledge with gratitude the services rendered by Integrated Software, Kariavattom, Credit Computers Uzhavoor, and Ideal Bureau, Uzhavoor. * C.J.Joseph is -------------- 5
No serious in-depth study of the causes for the failure or the measures of reform which ought to be taken to improve farmer involvement in major public sector irrigation projects seems to have been undertaken in the Kerala context. The present exercise constitutes an attempt to address this question. Some cardinal issues which would be investigated in the study are given below: A high level of efficiency in performance by Water Users Associations (WUAs) in functions like irrigation, water distribution, and resolution of conflicts is reported in India and abroad 4 . The performance of WUAs of Kerala 5 , in these respects has not yet come under research scrutiny. The role of WUAs, in water distribution and resolution of conflicts among farmers and between farmers and project personnel is examined in depth. Thus, the existing status of farmer-involvement in the study area is assessed, the attitude of the project officials towards farmer-involvement is examined; the incentive structure to attract farmer participation is looked into; and the possibility of total farmer-involvement, commencing from the planning stage through the stages of designing and construction to management and maintenance examined. The organisational and administrative autonomy permitted by the Centre to States, while constituting CADA, resulted in different organisational and administrative patterns at the State level. Assessment of the suitability of the organisational and administrative patterns of CADA, as has evolved and is functioning in Kerala also constitutes part of the present enquiry. A common experience in the working of such voluntary associations is that the local (village level) power structure influences their functioning. Whether the village power structure has exerted any influence in the working of the Beneficiary Farmers Associations (BFAs) is a matter for investigation. If it has, the method of exerting influences, the extent of influence, the factors facilitating interference and the possible remedies for its elimination are issues calling for research attention. It is also necessary to understand the method by which Beneficiary Farmer’s Associations are constituted in CADA projects in Kerala in order to examine its impact on their working. A universally discharged function of WUAs is the maintenance of close laision with government agencies. This is necessary for (i) receiving advice from such agencies and taking decisions on matters of common interest to the body of farmers, and (ii) conveying information from the farm level to the higher government agencies and vice versa. Academics in India report that this is the least performed function in India 6 . The performance of this linkage function by Kerala Beneficiary Farmer’s Associations would be examined in this study. Farmer-involvement in irrigation system is found to enjoy the legal support from presidential/ governor’s decrees and a series of regulations. Experience elsewhere suggests that success/ failure of WUAs has much to do with the legal support systems; the nature and extent of legal support in this regard in Kerala would be looked into in order to suggest legal reforms in this area. The major sources of finance for the WUAs are membership fees, fines, and profit from input sales. The financing of WUAs in Kerala would be examined in the present study. 6
Page 1 and 2: Beneficiary Participation in Irriga
Page 3: Contents 1 Introduction 5 2 Concept
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 and 32: Renewal is given based on the lists
Page 33 and 34: Table 4.6 Details of General Body M
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
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Table 4.15a Performance of Recurrin
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Table 4.15c Performance of Recurrin
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5. Performance, Administration, and
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level of less than one-third [Table
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management function, with an expert
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the critical phases of growth of pl
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Lack of adequate co-operation of th
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The failure in the working of BFAs
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To sum up: past experience of the w
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Table 6.1 Measures of Reforms 74
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“Extending better official co-ope
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Table 6.3 Staying in the area of op
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(ii) Entrust water charges collecti
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7. Summary and Conclusions Most irr
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of using less cement than is requir
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Appendix - I Number of Beneficiary
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Appendix III List of Canal Committe
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BFA Sample’ Name of C.C/BFA Reg.
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the assumed losses of 11 to 20 perc
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34 The NIA was a government corpora
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References Bagodion, Benjamin U.
Page 97:
Silva, De, N. G. R. “Involvement
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