Assessment of Farmer's Attitude towards Participatory Irrigation Management in Punjab-Pakistan

Abstract Water is very essential for agriculture and it is being provided to the farmers through canal irrigation system. The designed cropping density in Pakistan was 60-70% while at present it is about 120%. The canal irrigation system of Pakistan is one of the best and largest irrigation systems in the world. This system is very old and needs major improvement to make it efficient and to meet the present demand of the irrigation. This system can be managed well if the farmers are involved in its operation and maintenance. After all, the managers, planners and administrators in Pakistan have realized that the farmers' participation is very necessary and many projects of such nature are at different stages of implementation in different irrigation zones in Pakistan. Moreover, the Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities (PIDA) have been established under formal acts in each province and these authorities have formally initiated a policy of Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) in the country. In anticipation of these more participatory institutional changes in the irrigation sector, several pilot projects to organize farmers at the minor or distributary or canal level already have been initiated by the Government departments, Non Government Organization (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in the country. The present paper is about assessing the farmers' attitude towards this envisaged package of roles and responsibilities of farmers for operation and maintenance of irrigation system in Punjab. The results of the research revealed that farmers are ready to accept the responsibility of operation and maintenance of irrigation system up to minor and distributory level. They will be happier to undertake the responsibility of collecting the abiana (agriculture revenue). Some suggestions for effective and efficient participatory canal irrigation system are also presented at the end of the paper