Why Promote Water-saving Irrigation Technology Difficulties?

Basing on a case study on White Village of Tongliao in the Inner Mongolia, the article descripts and analysis the development of the regional irrigation technology in historical continuity, and discusses the Horqin Mongolian farmers’technical characteristics of the selected mechanisms, strategies and their consequences under the structural conditions constraints in the experience level. The paper is trying to achieve the interaction and dialogue between macro-political structures and micro social life, and explore the relevance between the modern agricultural technology and traditional knowledge systems, and finally concluded the reasons for difficulty of water-saving irrigation technology promotion in the Post-taxes era. Under the resources and environmental constraints, and based on the livelihood patterns and local knowledge, the Horqin Mongolian farmers make a rational choice of water-saving irrigation technology in the dual constraints of institutional policy and rural social structure.The historical experiences indicate that the raised of the Horqin farming civilization and irrigation technology development didn’t occurred in the local community, and didn’t active choice which based on resources and environmental pressures, but for the instability of nomadic economic and the demand economic life of the Mongolian, and for the results of inter action of external factors, such as institutional policy change and Han Chinese immigrants. Since the late Qing Dynasty, the accelerated of Horqin farming civilization and the development of irrigation technology, can be seen as a complementary demand between the agricultural and nomadic economy. And to a greater extent, it also can be seen that as the result of institutional factors, which is the state government continued penetrating to Horqin region and allocated its resources, and digested the surplus population to the northern frontier of new land.After the reform of taxation, in order to achieve the expansion of the functions in the national social management and public service in rural communities, the state government used the agricultural technology to the countryside, which is in the process of providing funds for supporting agriculture and technical services for farmers, and finally made the national forces to penetrate into the daily life of farmers. In the promotion of agricultural technology the process of the top-down, the water-saving irrigation technology promotion has become a tools of the state power to the countryside, the logic of power has slowly become the typical characteristics of the water-saving irrigation technology promotion. The original intention of the water-saving irrigation technology is not take to reflect of the farmers’technology needing, so that its promotion also not get recognized by the farmers. In addition, due to the lacking of the other rural organizations, the private and marketization of water conservancy facilities, in-arrangements of the agricultural land, and other unreasonable institutional policy, the funds for supporting agriculture to the countryside and technical services promotion has made the gap between the rich and the poor villagers more larger, thus affected the promotion of water irrigation.In the process of water-saving irrigation technology promotion, the Horqin Mongolian’s rural society has its own unique coping strategies. In the process of nomadic to Agricultural Conversion in the Horqin Mongolian rural society, due to the different natural and social resources and the socio-cultural traditions, and form a unique mode of livelihood and irrigation technology needs. In the process of the technology promotion, the sense of relative deprivation and increasing insecurity of farmers resulted it the difficulty of the water-saving irrigation technology promotion and destruction of the groundwater resources exploitation. Therefore, in inner Mongolian area, where has a not long irrigation history, we need to find the best combination between the modern agricultural technology and the indigenous knowledge systems.