Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

2. Concepts, Theory, and Practice of Irrigation Water Management: An
overview
Definition
Irrigation water management means the comprehensive control of such functions as taking
in, conveyance, regulation, measurement, distribution, application at the proper time and in
proper amounts, and drainage of excess water, if any, all aiming at the common target of
increasing production and improving techniques of farming 8 . Water requirements vary with
the crops grown, the age of the crops, the critical stages of their growth and temperature,
humidity and other climatological factors; irrigation water management, therefore, implies
basically the maintenance of soil, water, and plant relationship.
Irrigation water management: The concept
At the conceptual level, the crux of water management consists in matching supply of and
demand for water. Water supply is governed by the characteristics of the dry and the wet
seasons and the type of water storage used 9 - whether reservoir or diversion from a stream
or lifted from the river - and the effective rainfall during the irrigation season. Very often,
supply remains uncertain. The cropping pattern and the irrigation efficiencies at the farm as
well as at the project level together determine the demand for water. Matching supply with
demand is perhaps the most difficult part of the exercise. Three situations are possible. (i)
Supply exceeds demand; the issue of matching supply with demand does not arise at all.
But, the system will then be inefficient and would yield only poor returns on investment.
(ii) Supply falls far short of demand: This is the case with many irrigation projects in
several countries of the Middle East and in the Indian sub-continent where the deficit is
more than 50 percent of the supply. As a consequence, cropping intensities are low, and the
irrigation projects yield much less water than expected due to water losses, salinity in water,
and failure to reach water to all those who are in need of it. 10 (iii) Supply falls short of
demand, but only by a low margin say 10-20 percent. Here, there is better scope for
improvement by resorting to, say restrictive measures, to match supply and demand. The
chief restrictive measures adopted are (a) adjusting cropping pattern, (b) modifying water
chargers, and (c) controlling water distribution practices. These measures are to be employed
as management tools in irrigation. The theme of our study pertains to item (c).
Specialised water management organisation
Broadly the functions of these organisations comprise (i) operation of irrigation and drainage
systems, (ii) maintenance of these systems, and (iii) assessment and collection of water
charges. There are a few other minor functions as well. Three types of organisational
structuress characterise these specialised water management organisations. They are
organisations (i) controlled namely by farmers (ii) controlled by government, and (iii) under
the mixed control of the government and the farmers. In the first category come Irrigation
Districts of U.S.A, the Subak Irrigation Association of Indonesia, the Irrigation Association
of Afghanistan, the Communidades de Regantes of Spain, and the Associanes de Canalisatas
of Chile. There are Government-controlled organisations in Spain, Turkey, Boivia, and
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