ADVANCES OF THE IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT TRANSFER IN THE LARGE-SCALE IRRIGATION SCHEMES IN MEXICO

Mexico is a world leading country in relation to Irrigation reform. An Irrigation Management Transfer of the large-scale irrigation schemes to Water Users Associations, locally known as Irrigation Districts, took place in Mexico since 1989. Until today, the IMT program has transferred irrigation infrastructure, below the main canal level, commanding 3.273 Mha to around 474,000 water users organized into 474 Civil Associations (or Modulos). Likewise, at main canal level 13 federations of water users associations known as Societies with limited Liability (or SRL) have been established so far. The main objectives of IMT were, among others: to ensure the sustainability of the irrigation districts, to reduce the financial burden on the government, to pass the responsibility for O&M to the users, to increase efficiency in the use of water, to improve and sustain system performance, and to reduce the number of public employees in the irrigation districts. In early 2001, FAO through its AGLW Service and the International Network on Participatory Irrigation Management (INPIM) joined forces to document on-going worldwide efforts on irrigation water reforms. An international e-conference event was held which, included the IMT Mexican case. In this document, is presented an updated version of the review of the IMT program in Mexico making especial emphasis on the actual advances and outcomes, impacts and lessons learned. Results show that the irrigation cost has increased for farmers and decreased for government, efficiency of fee collection has improved in most of the cases, and quality of maintenance has also improved. However equity of water delivery remains unchanged as well as productivity since the Gross Value per Production has a decreasing trend and improvements on irrigation efficiency and yields have a very narrow margin.