Institutional structures for productive use of agricultural water

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Water for a food-secure world

Sanjiv de SIlva

19th March, 2013, Cambodiana Hotel, Phnom Penh

Session 2: Directions for agricultural water management in

Cambodia: a discussion

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Objectives & Key Questions

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Objectives of the Session

• Recognize issues constraining the PIMT approach to irrigation management

• Generate discussion and debate on options• Less about seeking consensus; more about

a dialogue with in-country experts • Acknowledge the significant in-country

research that underpins these dialogues.

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Key Questions• Try to fix the present system?

– What would it take to do this?

– Is it really worth fixing?

• Consider other models?

– What models are working now? Where are they working best?

– What models should we invest in or explore further?

– What do we do with the existing systems?

• What do we need to do to add value to water?

– What’s done best by the public sector / by the private sector? / by public-private partnerships?

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PIMT & the Current Sittuation

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PIMT not working: Do we have a consensus?

• Apparent consensus in many evaluations

• ISF collection nowhere near O&M costs

• Poor leadership in water governance (allocation planning, conflict resolution, etc.)

• Failed to deliver the needed flexibility in water delivery to make irrigation efficient.

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Many Reasons for Status Quo

• Biophysical and geographic restrictions on water availability and delivery

• Inappropriate system design and poor construction impeding equitable water delivery and intensifying O&M burden

• Absence of hydrological data and coordination structures exacerbates conflict over water in dry season

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Many Reasons for Status Quo (2)

• Mandate limited to water: not empowered to address other factors that constrain irrigated agriculture

• Vague linkages in legal framework with more powerful local institutions (e.g. Commune Councils)

• Low farmer technical and organizational capacities and insufficient extension services

• Constraints often mutually re-enforcing

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So What are the Options?

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Should we…

• Try to fix the present system?

– What would it take to do this?

– Is it really worth fixing?

• Consider other models?

– What models are working now? Where are they working best?

– What models should we invest in or explore further?

– What do we do with the existing irrigation systems?

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Context is important here

• Session 1: need to investigate irrigation options (groundwater, more surface pumping) for conjunctive use– Substitutes to gravity in some areas and

supplementary in others

• Implies spatial variability and institutional forms will need to respond to different irrigation strategies

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Some implications of conjunctive use

• Not a one-size-fits-all approach

• GW will be especially challenging:– Many individual users/groups– Attributing pollution/over-extraction to particular polluters

or pumpers is difficult

• Regulatory options– Command-and-control approaches (e.g. licensing and

metering) is impractical– Indirect approaches like financial disincentives (e.g.

energy pricing) or incentives (e.g. subsidies)– Voluntary compliance involving a wide network of actors,

ranging from the private to the public sector

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Intermediate institutions: A missing link?

• Need for co-ordination at an appropriate hydrological scale is frequently acknowledged

– Especially if irrigation strategies become more diverse

• What should be the appropriate scale?

• Functions and structure?

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Successful Irrigation Management is Not Only About Water

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Value Addition Beyond Water• Success of AWM: access to water + enabling

farmers to make productive use of that water

• Farmers unable to do this individually. Institutions to support collective smallholder action can

• A range of modes for doing this are being tested: private sector entrepreneurs; public-private partnerships; farmer cooperatives

• Can these support AWM by leveraging private entrepreneurship and brokering public-private partnerships?

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Renewed Interest in Farmer Cooperatives (FCs)?

• Promoted as an integrated approach to agricultural development: production and post-harvest processes

• Gaining support with government and donors? • An alternative to FWUCs or another layer?• A private sector model (shareholding) for public

objectives? • Can FCs address some FWUC constraints to

benefit smallholders?

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Small-scale private sector service providers

• Provide a range of rural services: well drillers, pump installers, rainwater jars and water filter suppliers, individuals who collect and deliver water, small companies supplying pipe water to households.

• Creating rapidly expanding water markets with little public sector assistance. Able to leverage funds, offer good quality services and products, and maintain accountability for any problems that arise.

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Small-scale private sector service providers

• IDE’s Farm Business Advisors (FBAs)– Trains independent private micro-

entrepreneurs to provide high-quality agricultural products; in-kind credit; technical advice and market information to small-scale farmers

– Helps low-income households improve, intensify, or expand market-oriented agriculture production.

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Small-scale private sector service providers

• The Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain Program (CAVAC)– Linking suppliers to farmers and farmers to

consumers – Identifies innovations to overcome constraints (e.g.

distance and disconnectedness; poor infrastructure, and scarce resources and information

– Low-cost irrigation; progressive farmers as change agents; using input supplier networks to provide advice to farmers; networks between model farmers, government agencies and private sector.

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Building synergies?

• So several independent initiatives, some structured and managed; others more spontaneous and random, driven by opportunity and initiative

• Each offers potential to ease one or more farmer constraints

• Are there opportunities to enhance their impacts, or will intervention stifle them?

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Thank you