Allocative Efficiency And Equity In Charging For Irrigation Water

This book brings together current issues in and approaches to the development, utilization, and management of water resources in developing countries. It analyzes these irrigation issues and offers future strategies to help bridge the gap between potential and reality in Third World agriculture.

This policy guide is drawn from the results of the FAO Project “Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity at the African and Global Level” funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and cooperation (SDC). The long term vision of the project was that the in-country findings and processes which are of common nature can be synthesized and scaled up to other countries in a regional cooperation process and globally. This will eventually lead to the increase of investment in Agricultural Water Management (AWM) in the targeted countries – and beyond – that is socially equitable, profitable at the farm level, economically viable, environmentally neutral or positive, and sustainable. The Guide focuses on the specific component of Enhancing Water Use Efficiency at small scale irrigation as one of the major outputs of the project. While creating and implementing Water Use Efficiency (WUE) measures at field level, existing policy frameworks were mapped and analyzed, and recommendations were defined as scalable policy instruments with the aim to demonstrate case-specific experiences to the collectively agreed goal of using water resources efficiently.

This book reports on a study that assessed the effectiveness of irrigation technologies and management practices in the Third World. Using a management model, it offers new perspectives on the evaluation of investment priorities and the benefits of irrigation projects in developing countries.

The Book is divided into six sections which cover irrigation management and emerging issues, improvement of irrigation performance, alternative methods of irrigation, irrigation water rates, environmental impact of irrigation projects, and irrigation sector reforms. This volume is an important contribution on new trends and reforms in irrigation and will be of interest to social scientists, irrigation executives, irrigation planners, policy makers, general readers and all those who are engaged in management of water resources.

Combines and interprets results from a number of studies that were designed to help the Egyptian government formulate a rational approach to sharing the costs of water services among the beneficiaries-agriculture and other users-and government. Highlights lessons transferable to other countries.

This volume, number 15 in the Studies in Water Policy and Management Series and joins two other volumes (8 and 10) that collectively summarize a significant part of the post-World War II experience of Western experts and donors with the development and management of irrigation in Third World countries. The evolution of understanding of Third World irrigation issues has been toward a greater appreciation of the potential for augmenting traditional production and water allocation systems with improved institutional arrangements for achieving allocative efficiency and equity. The need for local inputs for planning, system operation, and system maintenance is now widely recognized, as is the need for providing proper motivation for system administrators. The authors of this volume offer improved conceptual frameworks and analytic techniques applied to specific country and regional problems in hopes of edifying future experts and donors.