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AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF WATER USERS ASSOCIATIONS IN CANAL IRRIGATED AREA IN TAMIL NADU

KrishiKosh

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Title AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF WATER USERS ASSOCIATIONS IN CANAL IRRIGATED AREA IN TAMIL NADU
M Sc
 
Creator ARUN G.
 
Contributor Dharam Raj Singh
 
Subject irrigation, participation, area, crops, irrigation canals, costs, manpower, marketing margins, rice, diseases
 
Description T-8409
Water is a scare commodity which cannot be created but gets replenished.
Rainfall is the major source of water but highly erratic in nature. Therefore,
management of the water resources becomes an essential function of the society. The
concept of Participatory Irrigation Management has been recognized all over the
world as a tool for improving irrigation management along with sustainability of the
system. In India, Water Users Associations (WUAs) are formed to take the
responsibility of operation and maintenance of downstream parts of the irrigation
system, distribution of water among water users and collection of water rates. The
study was undertaken in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu to examine the structure
and functions of WUAs, farmers’ participation in WUAs, and the determinants and
constraints to the participation and to analyze the impact of WUAs on efficiency,
equity and reliability in water use. Sixty participating farmers in WUAs and sixty nonparticipating
farmers were selected randomly.
Overall participation of the selected participating farmers was satisfactory.
However, purely canal water user farmers have participated in more activities of
WUA than canal plus tubewell user farmers. The education of the head of the family
and operational holding have positive influence and distance from the canal to farm
has negative influence on the farmers’ effective participation in WUAs. The
participating farmers have applied significantly more number of canal irrigations and
realized significantly higher yields after participation in WUAs in comparison to nonparticipating
farmers. The participating farmers have realized higher returns and
technically more efficient in comparison to non-participating farms. The irrigation
efficiency was also more on participating farms in comparison to non-participating
farms. After commencement of WUAs, the inequity in the access to canal water
irrigation had decreased to a great extent and reliability of canal irrigation had
improved. The lack of unity, cooperation and interest among water users were the
most limiting factors followed by the inequity in water allocation for the effective
participation in the WUAs. The constraints to the adoption of WUAs were lack of
proper coordination among the farmers and lack of awareness about the benefits of the
water use associations.
The overall impact of WUAs was found to be effective for improving equity
among the farmers and efficiency and reliability in canal water use. The WUAs were
able to address the major concerns of the water distribution, timing of release of water
and the proper maintenance of channels which reflects in the higher realization of
yield and decreased water losses. Corrective measures should be directed to enhance
the effective participation of all the stakeholders in WUAs and thereby minimizing the
inefficiency and the inequity in water use.
 
Date 2016-11-02T15:22:59Z
2016-11-02T15:22:59Z
2011
 
Type Thesis
 
Identifier http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/83432
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher IARI, DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS