Suggests ways and means of sustainable development of community-managed irrigation schemes in Nigeria.

1. Sustainability of Community
Managed Irrigation Projects in
Nigeria
Presentation at the Workshop on
O & M of Irrigation and Drainage Facilities
Organised by NWRI at SRRBDA, Sokoto
on 4th
-15th
Dec., 2006
Dogara Bashir
National Water Resources Institute,
Kaduna

2. 2
Outline of Presentation
• Introduction
• What is Sustainability?
• Why Sustainable Development?
• Benefits of Sustainable Facilities
• Participation
• Concept of Participatory Method
• Why Participatory Method in Irrigation
Projects?
• Modes of Irrigation Management

3. 3
Introduction
• Agricultural development has received
high priority in Nigeria’s general
development programs
• Irrigation has been recognized as an
extremely important component of the
economic agricultural development
• Tremendous investments in the
development of irrigation projects from
the 1970s to date
• most of the projects are large and public
managed schemes

4. 4
Introduction …
• The performances of these large and
capital intensive projects have been
rather disappointing leading to
increasing emphasis toward
development of small scale, farmer
managed irrigation projects
• Factors advanced for this situation
include:
– wrong planning concepts,
– policy inconsistency,
– poor management of the schemes,
– inadequate stakeholder participation in the
• planning,

5. 5
Introduction…
• Nigeria has immense potential for
irrigated agriculture
– 1.4 million ha - formal irrigation
– 2 to 3 million ha - informal irrigation
• Considerable potentials within existing
irrigation systems with:
– the employment of appropriate management
strategies for their sustainable utilization
– appropriate changes in the perceptions of
the various stakeholders towards
development and management of irrigations
schemes

6. 6
Introduction…
• Effective management of irrigation
schemes must take into account that the
farmers have their own:
– ideas,
– local knowledge,
– management skills,
– organizational competence
• Farmers should be regarded as credible
partners rather than mere beneficiaries,
target groups or subordinates
• These are pre-requisites for sustainable
management of irrigation schemes

7. 7
What is Sustainability?
• Is a term that is being used in recent
years in a greater number of sectors of
the economic dev. It is variously
expressed as:
– the need to improve the life of the people
within the capacity of their immediate
environment.
– Meeting both short term needs and at the
same time establishing structures and
conditions for the future in order not to
loose what has been gained.
– Identifying and recognizing the main
challenges for the present and future
generations
– Meeting the needs of the present generation

8. 8
Why Sustainable Development?
• Large investments have been made in the
agricultural and irrigation development sector,
but majority have not yielded the desired
dividends and are dysfunctional.
• The well-being and standard of living of
concerned population and communities are in
jeopardy and the credibility of the investments
is questioned.
• There is the need for a new approach to
implementation of development projects
aiming at facilities which keep generating
benefits over time.
• There is the need to be part of global change
which found that sustainability should be the

9. 9
Benefits of Sustainable Facilities
• The more the benefits derived from
improved facilities, the higher is its
sustainability level
• Obtaining benefit is important for
development and extension workers,
who must justify public investments in
the agricultural sector.
• Users of development facilities will only
be interested in owning them if they
have something to gain.
• Sustainable facilities are sources of
income that are necessary conditions

10. 10
Participation
Participation is defined as a total
commitment of both the initiators
and beneficiaries in carrying out a
mutually planned project to its
completion through the
involvement of participating
agencies and recipients using
multi-sectoral approach in which
the rural people take part in the
decision making (PAID, 1977)

11. 11
Concept of Participatory Method
• A process of working in partnership with
beneficiaries to develop feasible,
desirable and sustainable development
(irrigation) programmes or projects
• Encourages the participation of
individuals in a group process, no
matter their age, sex, social class or
educational background
• Useful for encouraging the participation
of the educationally and socially
disadvantaged people in the community.
• Makes the process of decision-making

12. 12
Concept of Participatory Method
• Designed for planning at community or
beneficiary level
• Enables participants to learn from each
other and develop respect for each
others knowledge and skill
• Serve as a first step in understanding
the project and level of services to be
delivered
• Enables the beneficiaries to assess the
situation, identify areas for change and
take collective action

13. 13
Why Participatory Method in
Irrigation Project?
• Participation is about empowerment to
–
– make one’s decisions and
– organise the level of one’s control
over resources and facilities
• Participatory processes promote sense
of ownership of projects and
commitment to agreed actions
• Participatory activities are a learning
process for the beneficiaries and the
institutions responsible for
implementing irrigation projects.

14. 14
Why Participatory Method in
Irrigation Project?
• Participatory methods yield more
information in a short time
• Open discussions in focus groups
provide credible and relevant
information
• Participatory method allows the
– beneficiaries,
– project agencies,
– Managers, and
– policy makers
to know what the conditions of the
facilities are and how to improve the

15. 15
Why Participatory Method in
Irrigation Project?
• They are based on the principle of adult
education and learning
• The use of participatory techniques
allows the mainstreaming of gender and
poverty analysis
• Participatory methods have succeeded
where other methods have failed

16. 16
Modes of Irrigation
Management
• Modes of management of irrigation
schemes range from:
– agency-managed system to
– farmer-managed systems with
– various modes of participatory
management systems in between

17. 17
Modes of Irrigation
Management
• Agency-managed irrigation schemes:
– management responsibility is solely by
government or its agency
– The role of the farmers is minimal and
mostly limited to receiving and paying for
services rendered by the Agency
– This system portrays
• the Government as a benevolent institution,
• the farmers as just beneficiaries, and
• the project just as a social service
– Most of the irrigation projects in Nigeria
began with this management system which
is clearly unsustainable

18. 18
Modes of Irrigation
Management
• Farmer-managed irrigation schemes:
– management responsibilities are vested on
the farmers through their organizations
such as Water Users Association, etc.
– Major management decisions are taken by
the farmers who are also involved in:
• the operations and maintenance of the scheme,
• resource mobilization, and
• conflict resolution
– The agency’s roles are advisory, provision
of assistance when needed and regulatory
functions when necessary
– There is not a single irrigation project with
this management system yet in the country

19. 19
Modes of Irrigation
Management
• Participatory-managed irrigation
schemes:
– also known as joint-managed system
– shares the responsibilities between the
agency and the farmers through their
organizations
– The level and the weight of the
responsibilities of each partner depend on:
• the commitment of the partners,
• the prevailing policy framework, and
• the capacity of the farmers, among others
– This is the prevailing mode in virtually all
the irrigation projects in Nigeria with
varying degree of farmer involvement

20. 20