Evaluation of farmers participation under Command Area Development Programme in Kerala

Abstract

Farmers' participation through Water Users' Associations (WUAs) under Command Area Development Programme (CADA) in Malampuzha Irrigation Project, Kerala State has been quantified. The study has shown that only about 30 per cent of participatory activities envisaged for WUAs are being undertaken by farmers and hence participation is low. Most of the activities undertaken are related to irrigation water management. Activities such as consolidation of landholdings, group farming, adoption of suitable cropping pattern etc are not carried out by most of the WUAs. Farmers were found to contribute money / labour for maintenance of concrete field channels constructed by CADA in order to ensure water availability. However, a system of farm channels for carrying out scientific on-farm water management through channel to field irrigation and Rotational Water Supply (RWS) does not exist for majority of the WUAs. Location (reach) of WUAs on the canal network was not found to influence farmer participation since water scarcity was not a problem in the different reaches. However, landholding size was found to influence participation.