Managing canal irrigation : practical analysis from South Asia / Robert Chambers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chambers, Robert, 1932-

Series:

Wye studies in agricultural and rural development

Wye studies in agricultural and rural development.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Irrigation--India--Management.

Irrigation.

Irrigation--Sri Lanka--Management.

Irrigation--Philippines--Management.

Irrigation--Management.

Management.

Philippines.

Sri Lanka.

India.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 279 pages : tables ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Summary:

The many billions of dollars invested in canal irrigation in recent decades have had disappointing results. Rarely have projected benefits in well-being or production been achieved. In consequence, in the mid-1980s, further vast sums are being spent throughout the Third World on programmes for rehabilitation, canal lining, on farm development, and farmers' organisation.

In this book, Robert Chambers shows that much of this policy and practice is based on misleading research and misdiagnosis. When applied to the complexity and uniqueness of canal irrigation systems, the normal professionalism of civil and agricultural engineers, agronomists, economists, and sociologists, leaves gaps which are keys to better performance. In successive chapters, five such gaps are analysed and presented: main system management, including the scheduling and delivery of water, and communications; canal irrigation at night; management of canal systems jointly by farmers and officials; professional conditions and incentives for irrigation managers; and methods for diagnostic analysis to identify cost-effective actions for improvement.

Managing Canal Irrigation has been written for policymakers, irrigation managers, consultants, researchers, trainers and teachers. It challenges all concerned with improving the performance and anti-poverty impact of canal irrigation, whether in government departments, aid agencies, consultancy firms, training and research institutes or universities, to re-examine their beliefs, biases and actions. By going beyond the limits of normal professionalism, the book presents a new syllabus for training, a new agenda for research and development, and points to new policies and to practical action to be taken in the field.

Contents:

Part I Poverty, Canals And Commonsense

Chapter 1 Potential for the Poor 3

Poverty in South Asia 4

Production and livelihoods 5

Who gains, who loses? 8

Gains in livelihood 11

Employment and income 11

Security against impoverishment 13

Migration 13

Quality of life 14

Canal irrigation in South Asia 16

Performance 19

Area irrigated 20

Waterlogging 21

Tailend deprivation 21

Average yields 24

Potential 25

Chapter 2 Thinking about Canal Irrigation 28

Two questions 28

Purpose and performance: Objectives and criteria 29

Productivity 34

Equity 37

Stability 38

Well-being 39

Perspectives and parts 40

Domains 41

Dimensions 42

Activities and linkages 45

Part II Normal Error

Chapter 3 Learning and Mislearning 49

Mahi-Kadana: seeing parts and missing links 49

MRP and HBP: failure through success 54

Islands of salvation 59

Mohini 59

Naurangdeshar 62

Learning and mislearning 63

Reflections on research 64

Determinants of research 65

Approaches 66

Chapter 4 Normal Professionalism 68

The nature of normal professionalism 68

The challenge of canal irrigation: complexity and transience 71

Normal irrigation engineering 72

Engineers and waterlogging: plug, pump and drain 76

Normal social science 79

Normal reflexes 82

The common blind spot 85

Chapter 5 Fixation Below the Outlet 86

The fixation 86

Command Area Development in India 87

New warabandi 92

Reasons for error 99

Observational 99

Bureaucratic 99

Professional and territorial 100

Psychological 100

A learning process 101

Part III Professional Gaps As Centres

Chapter 6 Main System Management: The Central Gap 105

A mental blank 105

Evidence and opinion 108

Less water than thought 112

Pros and cons of water to the tail 116

Practical political economy: can all gain? 117

Saving water for later 120

Bad effects of excess water 120

The paddy lock-in 121

Less water better delivered 122

Main system scheduling and delivery 124

Communications 127

Communication to managers 128

Communication to farmers 130

Chapter 7 Canal Irrigation at Night 133

Night blindness 134

Scale and importance 135

Night irrigation below the outlet 138

Farmers' pluses 138

Farmers' minuses 139

Factors affecting ease and difficulty 140

Above the outlet: control at night 141

Type of conditions 143

Irrigation performance at night 144

Productivity 144

Equity 146

Stability 147

Practical actions 147

Reducing irrigation at night 147

Without water saving 148

With water saving 148

Waste and saving 152

Improving irrigation at night 153

Making flows predictable and manageable 153

Improving convenience and efficiency 153

Choosing easy crops 154

Zoning for night flows 154

Phasing for short nights, warmth and visibility 155

Chapter 8 Farmers Above the Outlet 158

The farmers' frontier: above the outlet 158

Fact-finding 159

Local negotiation 159

Lobbying 160

Appropriating 161

Guarding 162

Operating 163

Construction, capture and maintenance 165

Spontaneous action analysed 166

Irrigators' first priority 166

The jungle 168

Group boundaries, cohesion and leadership 168

Too important for partisan politics 170

Preconditions for action 171

Farmer joint management 172

Open meetings 173

Channel and zonal committees 174

Project level committees 176

Propositions and implications 177

Chapter 9 Managers and Motivation 181

The fourth blind spot 181

Conditions and incentives 183

The transfer trade 185

Effects of corruption 188

Costs to farmers 188

Bad physical work 190

Bad canal management 190

Indiscipline of field staff 191

Demoralisation and distraction 192

Options for reform 193

Vigilance 193

Political reform 193

Discipline 194

Separate O and M cadres 195

Rights and information 198

Incentives and accountability 201

Enhanced professionalism 203

Part Iv Analysis And Action

Chapter 10 Diagnostic Analysis: Problems and Approaches 209

The last blind spot 209

Complicating factors 210

Multiple objectives and criteria 210

Complexity 210

Uniqueness 211

Options for action 211

Some strategic options 212

Land: size of area to be irrigated 212

Location and intensity of irrigation 213

Crop choice and zoning 213

Timing: staggering of cultivation 214

Spatial and temporal cultivation rights 214

Lift irrigation and conjunctive use 215

Modes and tools of analysis 216

Resource-based, top-down 216

Performance-based, bottom-up 217

Key probes 217

Diagrams 219

Modelling 219

Appraisal and diagnostic analysis 221

Multi-disciplinary, below the outlet (WMSP) 222

Whole systems (Indian Central Water Commission) 223

RRAs (Bottrall, Potten and Tiffen) 225

Options and techniques for appraisal 226

Planning, preparation and selection 228

Existing information 228

Offsetting tourist biases 228

Checklists 229

Interaction and timing 229

Consultation and considered answers 229

Action, analysis and appraisal 229

Chapter 11 Practical Action 232

Three false trails 233

New construction 233

Calls for coordination 234

Normal standard programmes 235

Three points of entry 236

Operational plans 238

Rights, communications and farmers' participation 239

Performance monitoring and computer analyses 242

Linkages and sequences 244

A new professionalism 246

R and D for gap methodologies 247

Training 248

All can act: no need to wait 250.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages [253]-270.

ISBN:

0521345545

0521347882

OCLC:

16404021