International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 SJIF (2019): 7.583 Efficiency of Water Users’ Association of Lepcha Community in Construction of Irrigation Canal: Evidence from Rong Rural Municipality of Nepal Sadiksha Katwal Engineer, Small Irrigation Programme, Ilam, Nepal E-mail: sadikshakatwal11[at]gmail.com Senior Technical Officer, Small Irrigation Programme (SIP), Fikkal Cluster, Ilam (March 2020 to March 2021) Abstract: Lepcha tribe belongs to a minority and socially discriminated group in our society. The Government of Nepal as well as the local government has made various efforts to boost their socio-economic condition. However, despite the government's input, the Lepcha tribe hasn't fully been able to raise their economic status. Thus, this study is carried out to assess the efficiency of Water Users’ Association of Lepcha Community in Construction of Irrigation Canal. The objectives of the study is to assess the socio-economic condition of the Lepchas and to analyse the factors influencing the efficiency of Water Users' Association of Lepcha community as a case study in Rong Rural Municipality of Ilam district, Nepal. This study is based on primary as well as secondary data obtained from field survey of 16 households in 2020. The Lepcha community of the particular study area are not economically stable however, they are hopeful that the canal they constructed will now raise their household income through agriculture. The efficiency of the WUA depended on a number of factors like their family income, their occupation, the technical assistance and support from Small Irrigation Programme and Rong Rural Municipality. It is recommended that the local government provide as many agricultural extension services to the communityto boost their crop productivity as just the construction of canal alone is not the only necessary tool for development of the study area. Keywords: Efficiency, Ilam, Lepcha Community, Water Users' Association, Rong 1. Introduction Lepchas are a part of a minority group which is socially excluded and discriminated. There have been multiple Nepal is an agricultural country where most of the livelihood studies regarding the Lepcha tribe. I conducted this study depends on agriculture. However, the topography, after seeing their work ethic and quality of work despite vegetation, rainfall pattern etc differs from place to place. belonging to a socially discriminated minority group. I have The desired crops cannot be grown at times due to worked closely with them during my work in Small inconsistent pattern of rainfall. Inadequacy in rainfall, Irrigation Programme for the construction of "Jurekhola unevenness in the distribution of rainfall, growing of crops Hudai Lapchagaun Irrigation Project". I was the site throughout the year etc are the factors hindering in supervisor and focal person for this project. agricultural development. Hence, in the context of Nepal, irrigation is very important for agriculture. This paper tries to search the answer to the question of what the socio-economic conditions of the lepcha community is The difficult terrain and topography of Nepal is also a like. It also discusses the role of Lepchas in the construction challenge in the sector of irrigation. In hilly regions, more of rehabilitation works of Jurekhola Hudai Lapchagaun water head is available but the command area is less and in Irrigation Project. Terai region (plain land), more command area is available but water head is less. Floods and landslides occurs in large The general objective of this paper is to study the Efficiency number in Nepal which in turn causes damages to the of Water Users’ Association of Lepcha Community in existing irrigation structures. Construction of Irrigation Canal in Nepal. The specific objective of this paper is to study socio-economic as well as The Lepchas, are the tribes of the Himalayas and are subjects cultural condition of Lepcha Community and to assess WUA of three countries - India, Nepal, and Bhutan. The Lepchas Efficiency in construction of their own public Irrigation refer to themselves as “Rong”, which means “the son of the Canal. The efficiency of this WUA was determined by socio- snowy peak, the son of God” (Ghatak, 2005). Their language economic factors of that community such as gender, age, is an admixture of Nepali and Sikkims languages, which is family income, ethnicity. So, the socio-economic factors and very familiar with Indo-Chinese language. The Lepchas call WUA's efficiency has been the major area of this research. their land “Nye Mayel Lyang” which according to their historical records was said to have spread over a large area 2. Literature Review of land starting from Arun, Tamor, and Koshi river(now in Nepal, in the west up to the Tagong La, Thong La, and Definition of irrigation from www.dictionary.com defines Rudok river (now in Bhutan) in the East. In the north, the irrigation as the artificial process of supplying controlled land included the Kanchanjunga, Gopmochi peaks and amounts of water to land to assist in growth and production Chumbi valley (now in Tibet) and was extended up to of crops as per crop requirement in the absence, inadequacy Titiliya in the South in Bangladesh (Roy, 2005). or unevenness of rainfall. Small irrigation systems are defined as irrigation systems having less than 50 hectares of Volume 10 Issue 4, April 2021 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Paper ID: SR21401113303 DOI: 10.21275/SR21401113303 87 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 SJIF (2019): 7.583 irrigation area in the hills and mountains. Small irrigation present better performances in maintenance activities than in systems are a must in the case of hilly regions of Nepal as management. The inefficiency found can furthermore be the irrigation systems in hilly areas comprise of lesser mainly attributed to the number of years of experience in command area and higher water head. operating a WUA. The scale inefficiencies are mainly due to administrative and organizational variables. Efficiency can be defined, in a general sense, as a ratio to find the optimum level of work. Economic activities are 3. Method and Materials generally represented by functions. Hence, efficiency rate can be defined as the ratio of the observed level to the This study was based on descriptive as well as analytical optimum level in the functionally represented activities. research design. Similarly, this study tried to explore the When we take efficiency into the account as an economical motivational factors on construction. Basic agriculture and aspect, we need to address efficiency components, its socio-economic data of the project area have been collected relationships between the other economical concepts, its through household survey, focus group discussions and measuring and the approach methods to these issues interviews with key informants. Both primary and secondary (Katuwal, 2021). data were used in this research. Abebe (2016) was conducted the case study of Arba Minch The primary data was collected by interacting with different Zuria Woreda, Southern Ethiopia. The area lacks in-depth individuals from the selected respondents of lepcha studies to identify the determinant factors that influence the community who were water users of the irrigation canal. The use of irrigation water. In the study area it is also not well secondary data for this study were reviewing relevant known to what extent the households using irrigation water documents available on internet, provided by various were better than those who depend on rain-fed agriculture. agencies, like Bureau of statistics. The qualitative data was Therefore, the study was focused on finding the determinants analyzed qualitatively or descriptively and quantitative data of small-scale irrigation practice and its contribution on was analyzed by using Statistical tools. household agricultural income. The total population in the selected three villages were classified into two types as Data collection: The total population of Lepchas in Nepal irrigation user and non-user. The results show that sex of (Ilam District, Panchthar District and Taplejung District) is respondents’; household size engaged in the agricultural 3, 445 (2011 census) and the total population of Lepchas in labor force and number of contact of respondents with project site of Jurekhola hudai Lapchagaun IP is 56 residing agricultural development agents per month had significant in 16 number of beneficiary household. positive effect on the use of irrigation water at 1% significance level. While education level and attendance on A total of seven member of user group were interviewed. The irrigation related training had significant positive effect on interviews were semi-structured that addressed the the use of irrigation water at 10% significance level. On the challenges and opportunities of construction. A focused other hand, farm distance from the river and the main group discussion (FDG) was also conducted for data irrigation canal had significant negative effect on the use of collection in which 7 executive members (chairperson, irrigation water at 1% significance level. Out of the total secretary, treasurer and members) from user group were Irrigation user household have harvested perennial crops involved. For analyzing key characteristics of socio- more than two times and grown annual crops two times per economic factors and their efficiencies in construction year from the same farm. While out of the total irrigation simple descriptive statistics was used. non-users' household depended on only rain fed agriculture and have grown annual crops only one time per year from The core of the research took place in the Lapchagaun, Rong- the same farm. Consequently, the independent sample test 2 of Ilam district and included a collection of interviews with result showed that the irrigation user household obtained WUA members in this area as well as interviews with local significantly larger mean annual gross agricultural income authorities. than irrigation non-user household at 1% significance level.