Water Productivity in a Rigid Irrigation Delivery System

Abstract

The rotational irrigation water delivery (warabandi) system practiced in the Indus river basin of Pakistan has continued for 100 years. Irrigation water allocated to the farmers under the warabandi system is proportional to farm size and is fixed. This rigid allocation system has been partly justified by its contribution to social equity though this may have been at the cost of economic gains. In order to assess the operation of warabandi's basic rules, a farmers' survey was completed from 124 farmers located on five watercourses. A questionnaire was administered to each farmer and farm management data were gathered. As fresh water resources are under stress and becoming scarce their efficient use in all applications should be assured in water allocations. It is shown from the survey results that water allocation based on very limited criteria does not maximize the socio-economic benefits gained from the use of scarce water. Thus, it is suggested that the existence or nonexistence of fresh groundwater resources along with other critical variables should be taken into consideration when making canal water allocation decisions. Missed water deliveries due to failure of the canal system appear to be the largest cause of losses. Water charges need to be increased to fund large improvements in canal maintenance programs. It is pointed out that a framework should be developed as a tool to improve water productivity for Pakistan. This should include: consideration of the gross area of a tertiary canal, sensitivity of crop growth stage to water shortage, crop value, bias of allocation towards most water use efficient areas and water use efficient crops, the potential losses from water deficiency.

Evaluation of the Water Allocation and Delivery Performance of Jiamakou Irrigation Scheme, Shanxi, China

“…Performance evaluation of the irrigation scheme has been carried out for different purposes, such as performing diagnostic analysis [5,6], understanding irrigation behavior and general irrigation trends [7], and comparing the performance of one irrigation scheme with another [8,9]. Evaluation indicators can be categorized into two main groups: external and internal performance.…”

Determining Irrigators Preferences for Water Allocation Criteria Using Conjoint Analysis

“…Previous studies conducted in Pakistan revealed that scarce irrigation water was being allocated to inefficient farmers under the warabandi 1 system, where value of a single unit of water was found very low [2,3].…”

“…The farmers, with the assistance of irrigation officials have rearranged the irrigation water delivery system (warabandi) rules. The influential farmers have set their own rules to get extra water for meeting the crop-water demand of their farms [2,3]. These practiced rules favor the owners of the larger farms and those whose farms are at the upstream ends of the distributary watercourses [3].…”

“…The influential farmers have set their own rules to get extra water for meeting the crop-water demand of their farms [2,3]. These practiced rules favor the owners of the larger farms and those whose farms are at the upstream ends of the distributary watercourses [3]. Thus there is a need to develop a decision support system that can incorporate the needs of all farmers regarding canal water supplies, and to provide reliability and certainty of water delivery to give farmers confidence to invest in efficient water use practices.…”

An Objective Multiattribute Analysis Approach for Allocation of Scarce Irrigation Water Resources1

“…However, because the farmers have almost no control over the amount or timing of their water deliveries they have little or no incentive to make efforts to improve productivity. Any efforts they make can be negated by the unreliability of supplies (Zardari and Cordery, 2009). As stated above, obstacles to initiative on the part of farmers are common in many irrigation regions throughout the world.…”