PARTICIPATORY EXPERIENCES FOR ENHANCING LAND AND WATER PRODUCTIVITY

This paper shares the experiences of a project having measures to facilitate the formation of land and water management strategies and institutions that are socially acceptable and broadly replicable. The paper describes the participatory process developed and adopted for exploring options for better use of water with focus on a single distributary RPC-V (Right Parallel Channel – V) of Patna Main Canal system under Sone Command through cost effective participatory mechanism, involving poor farmers, landless and share croppers. A key difference in our approach has been the identification and elaboration of possibilities of bringing improvement through dialogue with poor and marginal stakeholders empowered in relation to the larger-scale farmers who traditionally dominate the on-farm water management (OFWM) through self-help groups (SHGs). Dialogues were initiated between experts, local communities, and other key stakeholders such as the Irrigation Department. Emergence and role of Outlet Management Groups (OMGs) and Self Help Groups (SHGs) during the project period provided an interface to explore opportunities for efficient land and water management. The overwhelming response from the community has clearly demonstrated that the involvement of wider constituency of stakeholders provided good opportunities for the adoption of need based OFWM technologies, leading to more effective participatory irrigation management (PIM). Adoption of need based, low cost interventions such as raising of bund height for rainwater conservation, optimization of Rice transplanting time, multiple water use and productive utilization of seasonally waterlogged areas, and selection of pumps for lifting ground water by the farmers using their own resources was a testimony for the success of the participatory process. Recognizing the need for establishing linkages between the OFWM and main canal system management, a broader framework between water users and canal managers is suggested. Strategies for scaling up are also discussed in the paper.