Review of Improving Irrigation Governance and Management in Nepal by G. P. Shivakoti and E. Ostrom, Eds.

Abstract

Improving Irrigation Governance and Management in Nepal presents a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of external ~farmer/stakeholder-based! management of irrigation in the country of Nepal. The book begins with chapters that sketch an overview of the history of irrigation and farming in Nepal, a small (141,000 km) country positioned between China and India. The country’s irrigated lands reflect an incredible variety of topography, ranging from the foothills of the Himalayas to the more fertile plains of the Terai, located just above sea level. The chapters that follow contrast the efficiency of farmer-based irrigation management with externally managed systems. This information is placed in the context of developing mechanisms for maintaining the strengths of the farmer-based systems in light of recent efforts of intervention to improve efficiency of Nepal’s irrigation and thus production of food. Although in the past, farmer-based systems were often managed in stable and equitable ways, these low-technology systems were often vulnerable to continual destruction of headwater structures and silting of channels during the rainy season and leakage of irrigation waters that resulted in low transport to farmers at the tail-end of the system. Attempts at improving the efficiency of irrigation systems through intervention and external management often resulted in less equitable distribution as farmers at the head of the system were no longer dependent on contributions of labor from farmers at the tail-end of the system.