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Water conservation is essential to prevent salinity and land degradation in Central Asia. Therefore, field-testing and evaluation of water conservation methods, i.e. laser land leveling in new farming systems of Central Asia is important task. This in mind the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and its regional partner on IWRM FV (IWRM FV project -Integrated Water Resources Management in Ferghana Valley project is funded by Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and conducted jointly with IWMI and Scientific Information Center of Interstate Coordination Water Commission (SIC ICWC) in the Ferghana Valley of Central Asia) project SIC ICWC have conducted 3 year study of impacts of the Laser leveled land leveling on water use, productivity and crop yields in northern Tajikistan. The major research question was laser land leveling an effective water saving tool in the new context of land use and ownership on smaller private plots. Can farmers afford the costs of laser land leveling and how economically viable is it? These research questions were studied in 5 ha laser leveled and neighboring non-leveled (control) fields for 2004-2006. The results showed that laser land leveling can reduce the water application rate in 2004 by 593 M 3 /ha, in 2005 by 1509 M 3 /ha and in 2006 by 333 M 3 /ha in comparison with the unleveled field, located in the similar agro-ecological conditions. The deep percolation was 8% lower and run off 24% less than in non-leveled field. The average annual net income from the laser field was 22% higher than that from the control field. The gross margin from the laser-leveled field were 16. 88 and 171% higher compared to that from the control field for 2004, 2005 and 2006, and on average was 92% higher. In spite of these positive results, there are hindrances on wide application of laser land leveling in Tajikistan. These are absence of initial capital of farmers and scattered land location.

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The concepts of irrigation governance and management are often confused while reforming irrigation institutions. This paper distinguishes between irrigation governance and management and articulates the governance concept and its ingredients through a literature review. The governance performance of irrigation reforms from selected cases in Asia is analyzed using a conceptual model. The paper identifies five key concepts in analyzing governance reform as institutions, intentions, instruments, implementation and impact. The analysis reveals that poor governance results from poor design of representation and accountability in the reform. The interplay between institutions, their intentions, instruments and implementation arrangements used by reformers in the selected cases have tended to create information asymmetries amongst the users, which have led to poor awareness and participation by potential members for effective governance. When reforming irrigation governance attention needs to be paid to institutions, reform intentions, instruments, and implementation arrangements simultaneously. Design weaknesses of any one of these four components of governance can lead to suboptimal impacts. The studied management transfer programs remained unable to improve irrigation governance owing to weakness in one or more of these governance ingredients. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. RÉ SUMÉDans la réforme des institutions d'irrigation, les concepts de gouvernance et de gestion sont souvent confondus. Cet article distingue la gouvernance et la gestion de l'irrigation et documente le concept de gouvernance et ses composantes à travers une revue de la littérature. La performance des réformes de gouvernance de l'irrigation est analysée à l'aide d'un modèle conceptuel sur des cas sélectionnés en Asie. Cet article identifie cinq concepts clés dans l'analyse de la réforme de gouvernance: les institutions, les intentions, les instruments, la mise en oeuvre et le résultat. L'analyse révèle que la mauvaise gouvernance résulte d'une mauvaise conception de la représentation et de la responsabilité dans la réforme. L'interaction entre les institutions, leurs intentions, les instruments et modalités d'exécution utilisés par les réformateurs dans les cas choisis ont eu tendance à créer des asymétries d'information parmi les usagers, qui ont conduit à une faible sensibilisation et participation de la part des membres potentiels pour une gouvernance efficace. Dans la réforme de la gouvernance d'irrigation une attention simultanée doit être portée aux institutions, aux intentions de réforme, aux instruments et aux modalités de mise en oeuvre. Une faiblesse de conception de l'une quelconque de ces quatre composantes de la gouvernance peut conduire à un résultat sous-optimal. Les programmes de transfert de gestion étudiés n'ont pas été en mesure d'améliorer la gouvernance d'irrigation en raison de la faiblesse dans l'une ou plusieurs de ces composantes de la gouvernance.

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