Institutional transformation in irrigation: Linking irrigation development with the wider agrarian context

Diana SuhardimanSenior Researcher-Policy and InstitutionsInternational Water Management InstituteVientiane, Lao PDRd.suhardiman@cgiar.org

Structure of the presentation

• Centrality of poor system performance in irrigation development debates

• Policy interventions to address the problem

• Discussion of policy gaps

• Potential ways forward

Policy interventions to cope with poor system performance in the past 4 decades include:

• The shift from construction and rehabilitation to O&M

• Formation of WUAs

• Introduction of ISFs for system cost recovery

• Irrigation Management Transfer

Why past and current efforts to improve system performance have largely been unsuccessful?

• Policy interventions are often formulated in isolation from the existing agrarian reality

• Messy field realities are not the starting point of policy formulation

• Focus on development targets (e.g. food production, cost recovery)

Linking irrigation development with the wider agrarian context

Irrigation Systems

Technical Hierarch

y

Irrigation Agency &

WUA Agriculture /

Irrigation Policy

Wider Agrarian Context

Markets & Value Chains

Village Hierarch

y

Agriculture Modes

of Productio

n

Irrigation Systems

Broadening our understanding of institutions in irrigation development

• Understanding the role of local institutions (beyond WUAs)

• Focusing on how various actors make and remake ‘institutions’ on daily basis

• The heterogeneity of agents within a single institution

Building block 1: Bring back farmer-agency interface into the central stage of irrigation development

• Capturing the notion of institutional emergence

• Understanding of the ‘new’ agrarian terrain and processes of agrarian transformation

• Moving beyond dichotomy

• Messy field realities as starting point for policy reform formulation

Building block 2: Focus on farming system analysis

Building block 3: Farmers’ farming practices and adaptation strategies as starting point for policy

reform formulation

Identifying potential ways forward for the required institutional transformation through central

positioning of:

• Farmer-agency interface

• Farming system analysis

• Farmers’ farming practices

“A better understanding of the impact of development policies on the rural poor can be achieved largely by having a clearer perspective on the class structure of a particular society”

(Bernstein, 2007)

Thank You for Your Attention

Diana Suhardimand.suhardiman@cgiar.org