Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

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Table 6.5 Methods of controlling the rich and powerful farmers Qn. No. 3 a b c d Statements OBs OMs Reaches-wise Total UR MR LR F % F % F % F % F % Collective Action 259 63.3 30 62.5 86 56.6 79 58.1 94 77.7 Strong Position of BFA Leadership Police Action Table 6.6 On BFA taking up maintenance Qn. No. 11 a b c Remedying Structural 203 49.6 20 41.7 61 40.1 69 50.7 73 60.3 31 7.6 2 4.2 13 8.6 5 3.7 13 10.7 6 1.5 2 4.2 4 2.6 1 0.74 1 0.83 Statements O.Bs O.Ms Reaches-wise Total U.R M.R L.R F % F % F % F % F % Currently maintenance is carried out by department. At what percentage of that expenditure can BFA take it up? 2 4.2 32 7.8 8 5.3 11 8.0 13 10.7 2 4.2 61 14.9 18 11.8 21 15.4 22 18.2 44 91.7 316 77.3 126 82.9 104 76.5 86 71.1 Desa schemes are found to have been more than adequate for discharging all their functions. As for Kerala BFAs are concerned, the only source to fall back upon for finance, was the membership fee ranging between Rs 5 and Rs 10. Even this item of finance was not tapped properly; there is no periodical payment, annual or seasonal, as in countries like Indonesia. Collection of membership fee for annual renewal of membership is not in practice. Not a single BFA in our sample was found to have any fund worth the name, a fact which was admitted by office-bearers and revealed by BFAs’ statements of accounts. It would be desirable if efforts to improve the financial position are made in two phases: In the first phase, (i) Revise upwards the membership fee and make it an annual payment; 79
(ii) Entrust water charges collection with BFAs, and earmark 3 to 5 percent of the proceeds to BFAs; and (iii) Impose an equitable area levy. In the second phase, after having had sufficient experience in levy and collection of inputs and after ensuring co-operation by all concerned, the following steps may be taken: (i) Replace area levy by periodical payments; (ii) Introduce the system of fines and penalties; (iii) Resort to raising temporary funds to undertake minor repairs, minor renovation schemes and rehabilitation work. The quantum of temporary funds to be levied and the manner, in which they are to be levied, will have to be decided by the BFAs themselves in their general body meetings convened for the purpose. On method of organising beneficiary participation in Kerala BFAs, the major instrument for mass participation was organised under the leadership of CADA, the Indian counterpart for renovation and rehabilitation of existing irrigation schemes. BFAs in Malampuzha project, partake of the features of a government-sponsored programme; this characteristic has been a major contributory factor for its failure. Inadequate commitment and excessive interference of the public authority are the two contrasting reasons for the ineffective functioning of irrigation schemes in several countries 59 . An active presence of the state is detrimental to farmer involvement 60 . Whatever be the claim of CADA officials, the fact remains that farmers in MIP area were not organised the way and to the extent they were expected to be organised. There was organisation on paper and a semblance of beneficiary participation without having much truth behind. It would be ideal if farmers themselves were able to organise BFAs. Given the socio-economic conditions of the State, this ideal may be difficult to realise 61 . Some external agency would have to intervene. The government is not obviously the external agency suitable for the purpose. An appropriate NGO would be a better choice. NGOs may not however, be without constraints of their own. NGOs are, by and large, unable to organise farmers on a massive scale. They may be able to generate some examples or models of organising farmers on a selective basis and demonstrate the same to others including the irrigation department that in turn might replicate the model in a scale appropriate to it. In brief, NGOs could be employed to organise farmers in part, but not for the whole project or projects. The task of replication should be entrusted with a separate agency. For choosing an appropriate method of organising farmer’s associations, one should draw lessons from experiences elsewhere. There is at the one extreme the Chinese example of beneficiary participation, and the experiments in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya, and Malaysia, on the other. The feeling of a large section of officials in the Irrigation Department in Kerala that irrigation is exclusively their domain and the existence of a culture, unsuitable for organising farmers, impedes efforts to mobilisation of beneficiaries in the study area. If this ill-conceived notion 80
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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 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
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: Table 6.3 Staying in the area of op
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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