| dc.description.abstract | Government's decision to devolve irrigation management to farmers was partly influenced by
international policy imperatives, which were propounded mainly by institutions associated
with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the
inability by the government to continue funding operation and maintenance costs. The central
question of the study is to understand the effects of Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) on
productivity, operation and maintenance in the Mamina Irrigation Scheme. Interviews with
various primary and secondary stakeholders that included the irrigators, local political
leadership and locally-based agriculture extension officers were carried out. The interviews
were aimed at getting an insight on land tenure, participation and representation of women,
water and electricity supply system and pricing, effects of irrigation management
arrangements on equity and productivity, understanding the irrigators' food security status,
operation and maintenance arrangement after Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT).
Findings of this study suggest that the existing governance arrangements have partly led to
low crop productivity, increased water and electricity bill arrears, poor water distribution,
change to uneconomic plot sizes, unsustainable increase in the number of irrigators, failure to
organise for operation and maintenance. The key factors influencing the poor performance
include poor collaboration, pumping system that utilised more electricity, inability of the
irrigators to replace leaky pipes, failure of the irrigators to contribute towards electricity and
water bills, failure of the irrigators to contribute towards operation and maintenance.
The study identified nine challenges that affected the success of IMT. The challenges that lay
at the heart of Mamina irrigation scheme were mainly caused by the poor irrigation
technology design, pricing structure of electricity, water permit system, inequalities in water
distribution, low gender participation and representation, non-availability of formal markets
for certain crops, food insecurity, plot alloction and land disputes. Poverty analysis has shown
that the irrigators' ability to escape from poverty or food insecurity is critically dependent
upon their access to assets. Different assets are required to achieve different livelihood
outcomes. The cycle of accumulation of utility bill arrears continued even after devolution
because the same defective irrigation infrastructure was transferred to the irrigators. In the
case of Mamina irrigation scheme, modernisation of the scheme was required to achieve
different livelihood outcomes, but because this did not happen the recurrent utility bill
arrears, low productivity and food insecurity continued to be a very serious challenge even
after IMT. | en_US |
