Building Blocks and Strategies for Agriculture Water Management Policy. Lessons from Modernization Programmes in Asia.

Abstract

In many instances the management of irrigation systems is notoriously performing at lower level than what was expected. At the same time irrigation management is increasingly complex: more diversified service to users (including other than crops) – raising competition for water – and the need to be more cost effective are the main drivers of the complexity. Modern and highly performing management requires not only applying adapted techniques but also a conducive institutional and political environment for which capacity building programs are required. One of the challenge is to balance flexibility to adjust for project specificities and high consistency at national level. Another challenge is to ensure that policy decisions are enough practical and can be implemented or followed by local operators. At all levels the capacity of the actors need to be increased. A consistent approach mixing project and state level is thus required to develop management modernization strate gies and programs. FAO-NRLW has developed approaches combining field project assessment and modernization planning (RAP-MASSCOTE) with the establishment of a typology of irrigation systems allowing then to upscale the issues and solutions at national level for better policy decisions.