Download Organisation of Irrigation Schemes

Organisation of Irrigation
Schemes
The three Levels of the Irrigated
agriculture System
• Irrigation Sector – At the highest level, the primary
constituents are policy makers , concerned with the
overall performance of the sector vis-a-vis other
sectors,
• Agency Level- here various institutions share
responsibility for management of inputs and services
that support the irrigation farming community,
• The irrigation system level. – Where the allocation ,
distribution and utilisation of water takes place.
• Focus of this module is on the Irrigation system level.
Objectives of Irrigation systems
• Adequacy- a measure of the degree to which water
deliveries meet soil-plant- water requirements .,
• A system that has adequacy objectives anticipates
delivering water in sufficient volume at appropriate
times to avoid potential yield reductions caused by
periods of water shortages that create plant stress,
• Equity- an expression of the share for each
individual or group that is considered fair by all
system members.
• Reliability- An expression of confidence in the
irrigation system to deliver water as promised
Organizational Structure.
• The success of an organization depends partly on its
structure (the way in which tasks and responsibilities
are formally allocated among its members) and
partly on its management process (the way in which
decisions are taken within the existing structure).
• The choice of an appropriate structure will depend
on a large number of factors specific to the particular
objectives and context of the organization
concerned.
• In other words, there is no single "ideal" structure
which is best for all organizations in all circumstances
Dimensions of Organisational
Structure
• Organizational structure has a horizontal and a vertical dimension.
• The horizontal dimension is concerned with the way in which the
various activities essential to the achievement of an organization's
objectives can best be differentiated (in accordance with the
specialist skills required for each activity) and then coordinated in
order to produce the necessary unity of effort among the resulting
specialist units.
• The vertical dimension is concerned with the way in which
responsibilities are distributed among members working at
different levels of the organization and its component units, from
the project to the small group level.
• Two of the most "important factors affecting the choice of an
appropriate form of horizontal organization at the project level are
the size of the project area and its level of economic development.
• Other important factors include the objectives of government and
the character of existing institutions in the area concerned.
Types of Irrigation Schemes
Large Commercial Projects:
• In Zimbabwe these usually include private
company estates such as Hippo valley and
Triangle and government owned estates such as
ARDA estates.
• Usually greater than 200 ha or more (FAO,
1986). In Zimbabwe can be more than 10 000ha
• Usually run commercially and require a
substantial professional staff to manage them.
Medium-sized Commercial/individual
projects
• In Zimbabwe usually comprised of individually
owned commercial farms made up of white
commercial farmers, and resettled A2 farmers,
• Usually run more or less along commercial lines
and require a considerable input of professional
staff to operate and maintain them.
Small Scale Individual projects,
• In Zimbabwe usually include old resettlements ,
A1 farms and individual plots in Communal areas.
• Stand alone units normally run on semi
commercial to subsistence basis.
Communal Formal irrigation schemes,
• In Zimbabwe these are schemes located in
communal areas and were set up by government
or non governmental agencies.
• Farmers own plot or plots usually ranging from
0.25ha to 0.5ha within an irrigation scheme.
• Usually main objective is food security and are
normally run on subsistence bases.
• A farmer irrigation management body (IMC)
usually coordinate activities in the scheme.
• Can be farmer, government or jointly managed.
Communal informal irrigation schemes
• Schemes that are established informally by communal
people using their own initiatives.
• Individual irrigators usually own pieces of land within the
scheme
• The irrigators themselves are entirely responsible for the
activities of water distribution, repairs and maintenance
and financing, though they may be dependent on outside
support for extension advice and input supplies.
• Group members are often willing to accept stringent
discipline from their selected leaders, who are accountable
to them.
• The most common example of these schemes in Zimbabwe
is the wetland or dambos farming in areas such as
Domboshawa and Mahusekwa .
Irrigation cooperatives
• Many types of cooperatives exist but here
reference is made to a particular type in which a
group of farmers associate to develop a common
irrigation system for their properties, and jointly
farm the land.
• Such a type of cooperative occurs mostly among
progressive farmers and is generally found in
developed countries.
• It is often financially attractive to farmers because
they enjoy the advantages (tax exemptions or
reductions) applicable to any other cooperative.
Organizational structure at the small
group level
• There is a particular need to establish farmer
management groups at the Scheme. E.g. Irrigation
Management Committees. IMCs
• On large and medium-sized irrigation projects, this
generally leads to the need for water users' groups
(Water Users Associations, WUAs) to be formed for
the purpose of organizing water distribution and
maintenance work in shared infrastructure.
• In small-farmer agriculture, there will almost always
be a need for intensive extension work on water
management and irrigated farming especially in the
early stages of an irrigation project.
Organization at the government level
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A few words also need to be said about organizational structure at the national and
provincial government levels, since this too can often have a very significant influence on
an irrigation project's performance.
As far as horizontal relationships between departments are concerned, it is clearly
desirable that collaboration between irrigation and agriculture be very close even if they
are not in fact part of the same Ministry. This is particularly important for the purposes of
achieving a balanced and integrated approach to project planning. Invaluable support can
also be given to the improvement of management practices at the project level through a
central research agency with responsibilities for directing and coordinating field
experiments on crop water requirements, optimum irrigation intervals, etc., in different
agro-climatic regions of the country. The results of these experiments can then be tested
on each irrigation project and adapted to its own particular circumstances.
The nature of the vertical relationship between the higher level of government
administration and project management is of great importance. If the project manager is
to perform his function well it is essential that so long as his appointment is in the hands
of government, very substantial authority and autonomy of decision-making should be
delegated to him. At the later stages of a project's development the manager may
automatically acquire greater autonomy if a policy is followed (as in many Irrigation
Associations) of retaining the revenue from farmers' fees within the project agency itself.
This process may eventually lead to the manager becoming an appointee of the farmers
themselves, with government providing only a limited amount of supporting finance. In
the absence of such a policy of devolution of powers to an Association or a project
authority, however, the government must ensure that the project manager and his senior
staff are in a position to act as relatively independent managers, not simply as passive
administrators of policies laid down for them at higher levels.
State farms
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Often established where the land is nationalized or where land reform processes have taken place.
The purpose of establishing a State Farm can be to maximize agricultural production or to gain experience
on newly reclaimed lands for its later transfer to farmers as settlement projects.
The first type is the most commonly found.
Much disappointment exists all over the world with the performance of State Farms.
Since all the production inputs can be provided at their optimum level one would expect that State Farms
would be able to achieve the highest production levels.
However, it is often found that the production levels are higher in private farms and their operating costs
are similar to those of the State Farms. There are even cases where State Farms operate at higher cost
than settlement schemes.
The management of a large State Farm, with all the numerous and complex activities that it involves, is
extremely difficult under the limitations usually imposed on public institutions. Some of the reasons which
often hamper the management of State Farms are;
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Late release of government funds for operating the farm,
unavailability of inputs at the time needed,
lack of involvement by the government officials in the potential benefits,
and large bureaucracies,
In order to maximize the productivity, there is a noticeable tendency to use highly capital intensive
technology for the water distribution systems and machinery for the agricultural practices.
This in turn means that the management of these farms must be highly technically qualified.
Unfortunately such personnel are not abundant in developing countries and they are more attracted by
positions in the main offices than by those in the field.
Insufficient properly trained personnel is often a serious limitation for the development and operation of
State Farms.
The organizational structure of State Farms is characterized by a number of units covering the main
development and production activities and directly dependent on the Manager or Executive Director. An
example is shown in Figure 5.
Fig. 5 Organizational chart of a State Farm (Kufra Production Project, Libya)
Irrigation settlement projects
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The most complex of the Integrated Management Organizations are the irrigation settlement projects,
Irrigation settlement projects aim at improving the economic and social welfare of landless people or poor
farmers by providing them with irrigated land and agricultural production means.
The greatest difficulty in managing an irrigation settlement project successfully arises from the fact that most
of the settlers have a low educational level, practically no financial resources and, occasionally, even no
experience in agriculture.
To upgrade them from their subsistence level to farmers living on commercial agriculture is a huge task, that
require a lot of effort and time, frequently 15 or 20 years The key to the success of a settlement project is that government officials must initially be responsible for
and perform many of the tasks, only giving the farmers simple and straightforward tasks which they can carry
out with their own means. As time goes by, it may be possible to transfer more and more of the tasks and
responsibility to the farmer.
In integrated management schemes, government retains control over a wide range of activities:
- land tenure (land is owned by the State; farmers' tenancies are renewable usually annually and subject to
termination if their performance is deemed unsatisfactory);
- timing of cultivation operations (official management organizes mechanized land preparation according to
pre-planned schedules; irrigations to each field are usually organized by project staff, not by farmers).
Experience worldwide has tended to show that on projects where the mechanisms for centralized control
are particularly powerful in the initial stages, there is a danger that their institutions fail to adapt to
circumstances changing during a period of time, with consequent social and economic stagnation.
Insecurity of land tenure becomes a particularly inhibiting factor, since farmers have no long-term interest in
investing in their own land.
A system common on many post land-reform projects, whereby farmers are allowed to purchase their land
over a 20 or 30-year period, provides for a similar degree of management control in the initial stages but has
the great advantage of allowing farmers to assume increasing responsibility for decisions at the farm and
local group levels.
Such a policy is followed in Spain, where new settlers are probationary tenants during the first 5 years of the
transitional stage but are subsequently allowed access to a permanent title to their land if they satisfy the
government authorities with regard to their standards of farming and irrigation.
Types of Irrigation Scheme
Management
• The degree of intervention by the government in undertaking irrigation
related functions indicates the main types of scheme, which are:
• i. Farmer managed:
• The farmer or irrigator has overall management control. These can be
commercial, communal , resettled schemes, individual small holder
schemes in communal areas, estates and plantations and irrigation
cooperatives.
• ii. Government Managed Schemes: The government has overall
management control. These are also very numerous and are found in
many countries (Zimbabwe, Spain, Turkey, Bolivia, Iraq, most of Ecuador
and Kenya). These include state farms and communal schemes.
• iii. Jointly managed Schemes: They is joint management control by
farmers and government officials. Usually the main irrigation system is
managed by government officials while the tertiary canals are controlled
by farmers' associations
• Although countries tend to adopt policies favouring either (i) or (ii), it is
not infrequent to find both types in the same country.
The Management function on
Irrigation schemes
• There are two main elements in the management of irrigation
projects.
• One is the overall management function, which has much in
common with the management of any other kind of
organization.
• It is concerned with the direction and coordination of the
decision-making processes within the project area and its
purpose is to get all those involved in the process (farmers,
staff, external government agencies) to work towards the
achievement of the project's objectives.
• The other element is the management of specialized
activities (water distribution, maintenance, irrigation
assistance services) which are peculiar to irrigation projects.
• These activities have certain characteristics calling for
particular kinds of management skills and styles of operation.
Overall direction and coordination
• The most important tasks of the project manager include:
- setting objectives and priorities (short-term, medium-term, long-term); - directing the
annual planning and budgeting processes;
- directing the formulation of detailed work programmes for staff members within each of
the project's units;
- monitoring and training staff and farmers to implement the programme;
- supervising the day-to-day implementation of the programme, identifying problems that
arise and finding solutions for them;
- monitoring project performance against objectives;
- monitoring staff performance against agreed work targets;
- seeking the opinion of the project's clients (the farmers) about the quality of the services
provided to them;
- identifying strengths and weaknesses and recommending appropriate remedies for the
weaknesses.
• For the last of these tasks - the diagnosis of causes for poor project performance the project manager will require a system of monitoring capable of identifying the
relative importance of the following factors as influences on performance:
– i. Resources (finance, manpower, equipment).
– ii. Skills (technical, management, communication).
– iii. Motivation (material incentives - salaries, bonuses, promotions; non-material
incentives - job satisfaction, recognition of good performance by senior officials).