Managing Canal Irrigation

Practical Analysis from South Asia

By: Robert Chambers

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Paperback | 22 May 1989

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308 Pages

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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 policy-makers, 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 topractical action to be taken in the field.

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Preface	p. xiii
List of figures	p. xix
List of tables	p. xxi
Glossary and conventions	p. xxiii
Abbreviations	p. xxvii
Poverty, Canals And Commonsense
Potential for the Poor	p. 3
Poverty in South Asia	p. 4
Production and livelihoods	p. 5
Who gains, who loses?	p. 8
Gains in livelihood	p. 11
Employment and income	p. 11
Security against impoverishment	p. 13
Migration	p. 13
Quality of life	p. 14
Canal irrigation in South Asia	p. 16
Performance	p. 19
Area irrigated	p. 20
Waterlogging	p. 21
Tailend deprivation	p. 21
Average yields	p. 24
Potential	p. 25
Thinking about Canal Irrigation	p. 28
Two questions	p. 28
Purpose and performance: Objectives and criteria	p. 29
Productivity	p. 34
Equity	p. 37
Stability	p. 38
Well-being	p. 39
Perspectives and parts	p. 40
Domains	p. 41
Dimensions	p. 42
Activities and linkages	p. 45
Normal Error
Learning and Mislearning	p. 49
Mahi-Kadana: seeing parts and missing links	p. 49
MRP and HBP: failure through success	p. 54
Islands of salvation	p. 59
Mohini	p. 59
Naurangdeshar	p. 62
Learning and mislearning	p. 63
Reflections on research	p. 64
Determinants of research	p. 65
Approaches	p. 66
Normal Professionalism	p. 68
Introduction	p. 68
The nature of normal professionalism	p. 68
The challenge of canal irrigation: complexity and transience	p. 71
Normal irrigation engineering	p. 72
Engineers and waterlogging: plug, pump and drain	p. 76
Normal social science	p. 79
Normal reflexes	p. 82
The common blind spot	p. 85
Fixation Below the Outlet	p. 86
The fixation	p. 86
Command Area Development in India	p. 87
New warabandi	p. 92
Reasons for error	p. 99
Observational	p. 99
Bureaucratic	p. 99
Professional and territorial	p. 100
Psychological	p. 100
A learning process	p. 101
Professional Gaps As Centres
Main System Management: The Central Gap	p. 105
A mental blank	p. 105
Evidence and opinion	p. 108
Less water than thought	p. 112
Pros and cons of water to the tail	p. 116
Practical political economy: can all gain?	p. 117
Saving water for later	p. 120
Bad effects of excess water	p. 120
The paddy lock-in	p. 121
Less water better delivered	p. 122
Main system scheduling and delivery	p. 124
Communications	p. 127
Communication to managers	p. 128
Communication to farmers	p. 130
Canal Irrigation at Night	p. 133
Night blindness	p. 134
Scale and importance	p. 135
Night irrigation below the outlet	p. 138
Farmers' pluses	p. 138
Farmers' minuses	p. 139
Factors affecting ease and difficulty	p. 140
Above the outlet: control at night	p. 141
Type of conditions	p. 143
Irrigation performance at night	p. 144
Productivity	p. 144
Equity	p. 146
Stability	p. 147
Practical actions	p. 147
Reducing irrigation at night	p. 147
Without water saving	p. 148
With water saving	p. 148
Waste and saving	p. 152
Improving irrigation at night	p. 153
Making flows predictable and manageable	p. 153
Improving convenience and efficiency	p. 153
Choosing easy crops	p. 154
Zoning for night flows	p. 154
Phasing for short nights, warmth and visibility	p. 155
Conclusions	p. 155
Farmers Above the Outlet	p. 158
The farmers' frontier: above the outlet	p. 158
Fact-finding	p. 159
Local negotiation	p. 159
Lobbying	p. 160
Appropriating	p. 161
Guarding	p. 162
Operating	p. 163
Construction, capture and maintenance	p. 165
Spontaneous action analysed	p. 166
Irrigators' first priority	p. 166
The jungle	p. 168
Group boundaries, cohesion and leadership	p. 168
Too important for partisan politics	p. 170
Preconditions for action	p. 171
Farmer joint management	p. 172
Open meetings	p. 173
Channel and zonal committees	p. 174
Project level committees	p. 176
Propositions and implications	p. 177
Managers and Motivation	p. 181
The fourth blind spot	p. 181
Conditions and incentives	p. 183
The transfer trade	p. 185
Effects of corruption	p. 188
Costs to farmers	p. 188
Bad physical work	p. 190
Bad canal management	p. 190
Indiscipline of field staff	p. 191
Demoralisation and distraction	p. 192
Options for reform	p. 193
Vigilance	p. 193
Political reform	p. 193
Discipline	p. 194
Separate O and M cadres	p. 195
Rights and information	p. 198
Incentives and accountability	p. 201
Enhanced professionalism	p. 203
Conclusion	p. 206
Analysis And Action
Diagnostic Analysis: Problems and Approaches	p. 209
The last blind spot	p. 209
Complicating factors	p. 210
Multiple objectives and criteria	p. 210
Complexity	p. 210
Uniqueness	p. 211
Options for action	p. 211
Some strategic options	p. 212
Land: size of area to be irrigated	p. 212
Location and intensity of irrigation	p. 213
Crop choice and zoning	p. 213
Timing: staggering of cultivation	p. 214
Spatial and temporal cultivation rights	p. 214
Lift irrigation and conjunctive use	p. 215
Modes and tools of analysis	p. 216
Resource-based, top-down	p. 216
Performance-based, bottom-up	p. 217
Key probes	p. 217
Diagrams	p. 219
Modelling	p. 219
Appraisal and diagnostic analysis	p. 221
Multi-disciplinary, below the outlet (WMSP)	p. 222
Whole systems (Indian Central Water Commission)	p. 223
RRAs (Bottrall, Potten and Tiffen)	p. 225
Options and techniques for appraisal	p. 226
Planning, preparation and selection	p. 228
Existing information	p. 228
Offsetting tourist biases	p. 228
Checklists	p. 229
Interaction and timing	p. 229
Consultation and considered answers	p. 229
Action, analysis and appraisal	p. 229
Practical Action	p. 232
Three false trails	p. 233
New construction	p. 233
Calls for coordination	p. 234
Normal standard programmes	p. 235
Three points of entry	p. 236
Operational plans	p. 238
Rights, communications and farmers' participation	p. 239
Performance monitoring and computer analyses	p. 242
Linkages and sequences	p. 244
A new professionalism	p. 246
R and D for gap methodologies	p. 247
Training	p. 248
All can act: no need to wait	p. 250
References	p. 253
Index	p. 273
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Managing Canal Irrigation

Practical Analysis from South Asia

At a Glance

Paperback

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