Effectiveness of community participation in minor irrigation rehabilitation projects

Abstract

Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) is tlie concept ttiat farmers or irrigation water users participate with Irrigation Department or relevant irrigation management organization on decision making and conducting irrigation activities in aspects of construction and operation and maintenance as mutually agreed or determined. Farmers or farmer organization can participate with irrigation department in four stages such as project planning stage, pre-contract stage, construction stage and operation and maintenance stage. In this research the focus is on how effective farmer participation is in miner irrigation construction Literature Review in this research carried out according to the research objectives. Literature findings and discussion of direct involve officers in Provincial Irrigation Department, North Central Province, through developing a questionnaire. Here in data collection is aimed at three categories such as management staff, beneficiaries having successful projects and beneficiaries having unsuccessful projects. All beneficiaries covered six divisional secretaries. The research concludes that there were many factors should improve for the successfuiness of beneficiary participation projects in minor irrigation construction. The findings have emphasized on training programs for beneficiaries about construction principles. Farmer organization should be strengthening in financially and pay monthly bill. Communication should develop with farmers such as monthly site meetings, frequently site visits etc. Management staff should give continuous support to maintain the cash flow of FOs during the construction process and should be aware politician and policy makers