Measure and improve performance of canal irrigation sector in india through ict-based participatory water governance system
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Ahmedabad University
Abstract
In a rainfall-dependent country like India, where most rainfall is received between June September (Southwest monsoon) and October-December (Northeast monsoon), the irrigation sector is important for agriculture and drinking water. In India, canal irrigation is one of the important sectors of irrigation. The Planning Commission of India, in its 2017 report, states that the government has invested over 2950 billion rupees in medium and major irrigation schemes in infrastructure development across the country, with hardly any revenue generated by the government. Even after these enormous investments in the sector, there has been growing dissatisfaction among the stakeholders, especially in the farming sector, due to the disarray in service provision. During the past three decades, many states have undergone numerous reforms to address these issues and improve the system’s performance. Under these reforms, emphasis was placed on facilitating farmers’ participation in irrigation management (Participatory Irrigation Management), both under externally aided irrigation development and agricultural intensification programs through state government initiatives, Planning Commission (2011). This led to the formation of Water User Associations (WUA). Even after the formation of WUA, there was hardly any increase in revenue generated from the farmers
on the contrary, the income of the irrigation department (government) drastically decreased from about 45 percent to 7.9 percent and also has not even been able to cater to the dissatisfaction of the farming community. To understand the actual causes at the ground level (WUA), one needs to understand which sectors are the problem areas. For this, the biggest question is how to measure the performance and impacts of WUAs and distinguish which are performing well and which are not to improve the overall irrigation system. The functioning of the WUA can be classified into four broad sectors: 1. Operation and maintenance parameters (O & M), 2. Financial parameters, 3. Agricultural and economic parameters, and 4. Participatory parameters. The findings help to understand how to improve the functioning of the WUAs. One of the leading causes is a lack of communication and transparency among the stakeholders, viz WUA, Irrigation Department (ID), and the farmers, on matters such as quantity and distribution of water in the irrigation system, especially between head and tail. There has been no feedback mechanism to ensure the water has been delivered to the farmers or the maintenance of the provided infrastructure. On the other hand, there is no accountability if farmers have made payments to the Irrigation Department. Much money and effort has been spent developing the infrastructure, but the service aspects have been completely ignored. This can also be attributed to the lack of workforce in the sector. The government has started the Digital India initiative to bring transparency into various sectors. This research explores how ICT can help bring transparency, accountability, and trust into the system by proposing a water governance farmer-centric model incorporating crowdsourcing techniques to minimize the communication gap between the stakeholders. The system also addresses one of the major concerns of the Irrigation Department, which is estimating the water requirement given the number of farmers willing to take up water from the canal system for a particular season well in advance so that the Irrigation Department can plan more accurately.
on the contrary, the income of the irrigation department (government) drastically decreased from about 45 percent to 7.9 percent and also has not even been able to cater to the dissatisfaction of the farming community. To understand the actual causes at the ground level (WUA), one needs to understand which sectors are the problem areas. For this, the biggest question is how to measure the performance and impacts of WUAs and distinguish which are performing well and which are not to improve the overall irrigation system. The functioning of the WUA can be classified into four broad sectors: 1. Operation and maintenance parameters (O & M), 2. Financial parameters, 3. Agricultural and economic parameters, and 4. Participatory parameters. The findings help to understand how to improve the functioning of the WUAs. One of the leading causes is a lack of communication and transparency among the stakeholders, viz WUA, Irrigation Department (ID), and the farmers, on matters such as quantity and distribution of water in the irrigation system, especially between head and tail. There has been no feedback mechanism to ensure the water has been delivered to the farmers or the maintenance of the provided infrastructure. On the other hand, there is no accountability if farmers have made payments to the Irrigation Department. Much money and effort has been spent developing the infrastructure, but the service aspects have been completely ignored. This can also be attributed to the lack of workforce in the sector. The government has started the Digital India initiative to bring transparency into various sectors. This research explores how ICT can help bring transparency, accountability, and trust into the system by proposing a water governance farmer-centric model incorporating crowdsourcing techniques to minimize the communication gap between the stakeholders. The system also addresses one of the major concerns of the Irrigation Department, which is estimating the water requirement given the number of farmers willing to take up water from the canal system for a particular season well in advance so that the Irrigation Department can plan more accurately.