Role of the Participatory Management in Improvement of Water Use in Agriculture

Abstract

Engagement of the stakeholders, fairness, and transparency are among the basic rules of the governance. Egypt started in 1986 to develop its irrigation systems via the so-called irrigation development project to apply the governance rules on the level of small irrigation called mesqa and on the level of branch canal too. To engage all stakeholders in the irrigation and agriculture system in Egypt, several water user associations were developed, and the farmers were trained. Demonstration irrigation canals owning to WUAs is being used to apply the activities of on-farm water management to demonstrate the benefits of good agriculture practices (GAP) to them. The final aim is to apply the best irrigation and agricultural practices to improve the productivity, incomes, and livelihood of WUAs that accomplished as a result of participatory management which increases agricultural production, water saving, and water productivity that reflects on national domestic production improvement performance. Different important aspects including legal status of water user associations on the branch canal, operation and maintenance of the sub-branch in partnership with water user associations, organizing (roles, responsibilities, and authorities) of water user associations to the branch canal, and training/technology transfer/communications and financial aspects are considered while applying the participatory irrigation management system. This participatory management model as an active cooperation between citizens and the governmental department is better achieved with close engagement of various agencies of Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) and Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) with the farmers. This chapter presents the success story of the participatory management system which was achieved through the implements of the irrigation development project and beyond.