Farmers Participation In Irrigation Management System To Protect Research

Water is one of the essential elements of life. China is now facing water crisis. Water in China is nearly becoming a free-access resource with low prices and no clearly defined property rights, which result in low efficiency in water resources development. Irrigation system in China now runs into a vicious circle. Traditionally, theory analyses for water resources management always suggested that fully nationalization or privatization is the ideal mode to improve management performance in water sector. However, this paper pointed out that irrigation system has all the characteristics of typical common-pool-resources. Thus, common property right is the best mode for irrigation system and collective action is the main governance structure in irrigation districts. This institutional arrangement is also based on the land tenure and other institutional environment in China's rural area.Irrigation projects played a very important role in China's food security and social stability. But the government has also undertaken a heavy financial burden for the water infrastructure construction in the pasts. Because of the organizational and institutional failure, most of the water facilities in rural areas does not work well, and some of them had seriously destroyed. After the implementation of economic reform in China's rural areas, the production units were scattered into individual household, and this has led to the insufficient provide for public goods. Seldom collective actions occurred in water resources and water facilities management in rural communities. At the mean time, as more and more farmers leaving for cities to find other job opportunities, the human resources, financial ability and relative social capital now in rural area is not conductive to farmer's cooperation in public affairs. One of this paper's goal is to point out the importance for establishing the rural community organization for water resources management and the necessary institutional arrangement for it.Water user association (WUA) has achieved great success in water resources management in developed countries. Since 1980s this experiences has been introduced to some developing country. However, due to the different institutional environment, the functions of WUA were not fully presented in developing countries. This paper discussed the general characteristics and forming processes of water user associations in China. Fanner's participatory management in irrigation system is not a completely new mode in China. Some irrigation system controlled by local community has even lasted for hundreds of years. However the social-economic system has changed today, and the way to organize farmers to take part in irrigation management should also be coordinated to the institutional environment.In 1995, China's first water user association was founded in Zhanghe irrigation district in Hubei province. From then on, this form of farmer's participatory irrigation management spread quickly in China. By the end of 2002, more than 2000 WUAs were established around China. Five typical cases were selected for theory analysis in this paper. They are located in central, eastern, northern and northwest China, with different social and economicdeveloping level and facing different enabling environments. Thus the reform practices in these irrigation system represented the general circumstances in China. The cases analysis shows that water user associations can generally improve the water using efficiency, reduce conflicts, adjust water fees collection process and upgrade water facilities in irrigation districts.Generally speaking, the water user associations has a positive role in irrigation system management. However, due to the natural resources property rights is absent in China, farmer's collective actions were hindered by these institutional factors and the WUA dose not give full play in water resource management practices. In order to further improve the management performance, a broaden set of property rights should be transferred to the WUA and farmer individually. Ope...