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Policy Impact Assessment of Irrigation Schemes

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Policy Impact Assessment of Irrigation Schemes CASE STUDIES : Policy Impact Assessment of Irrigation Schemes Volume II Policy and Planning Division, Ministry of Agriculture & Forests May 2017 CASE STUDIES : Policy Impact Assessment of Irrigation Schemes Volume II Policy and Planning Division, Ministry of Agriculture & Forests May 2017 CONTENT 1. Case Study of Menjabi Yuwa, Lhuentse ....................................................................................................... 1 2. Case Study of Irrigation impact, Yoseltse, Samtse ..................................................................................... 14 3. Case Study of Silsiley Kulo Irrigation Scheme, Sarpang ............................................................................. 26 4. Case Study of Radhi Irrigation, Trashigang ................................................................................................ 45 5. Case Study of Lachu Yuwa,Wangduephodrang ......................................................................................... 64 6. Case Study of Zila Irrigation, Zhemgang .................................................................................................... 85 Policy Impact Analysis National Irrigation Policy MENJABI YUWA, MENBI GEOG LHUENTSE DZONGkHAG Mr. Jigme Wangdi, Principal Livestock Health Officer, DoL & Mr. Sherab Wangdi, Legal Officer, PPD i Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................Table of Contents ...................................... iii 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 a. Economic context ............................................................................................................ 1 b. Administrative context .................................................................................................... 2 c. History of the irrigation scheme ..................................................................................... 2 2. Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Findings and Discussions ................................................................................................................. 4 a. Demography of the study sites ....................................................................................... 4 b. Most important changes perceived by local population ................................................ 4 4. Impact on Objectives Persuaded ..................................................................................................... 5 a. Food self-sufficiency ........................................................................................................ 5 b. Source of income ............................................................................................................. 5 c. Income share from different sources .............................................................................. 7 d. Enhanced food and nutrition security............................................................................. 8 e. Diversification and intensification ................................................................................... 9 f. Improved water management ...................................................................................... 10 g. Capacity development ................................................................................................... 11 5. Other impacts observed ................................................................................................................ 11 a. Agricultural inputs utilization ........................................................................................ 11 b. Gender engagement and enhanced time use ............................................................... 12 6. Conclusion and recommendations ................................................................................................ 13 Lists of Table Table 1 Percent household food self-sufficiency ratio for cereals ............................................. 5 Table 2 Mean household income (Nu), and % household respond to changing trend of income from different sources ................................................................................................... 6 Table 3 % Household income share from different income sources ......................................... 8 Table 4 % household food security situation and the coping mechanism adopted .................. 9 Table 5 % area cropped for different agriculture crops ............................................................. 9 Table 6 Mean agriculture inpus utilized per annum ................................................................ 12 Table 7 % household respond on the trend of agriculture inputs utilization .......................... 12 Table 8 Gender engagement in percentage for different household activities ...................... 13 ii Executive Summary The Menjabi yuwa under Menjabi village was selected for the study to assess the impact of irrigation on land use (crop diversification and intensification), household income and food security. Begang chu a perennial stream is the main source of Menjabi yuwa, about 4 km in length (open canal combined with piped type). The irrigation scheme caters service to about 36 household beneficiaries with total command area of 54.72 acres. Major renovation of the irrigation scheme was carried out in 2011 with financial support from the Royal Government of Bhutan. Field survey was carried out starting from first week of April 2016 for a period of about three weeks. Survey interview, unlike other interview was conducted using Samsung Android Tablets which contained an application called CSEntry developed by US Census Bureau. The data entry application was designed using CSPro 6.2. A total of thirty-nine households, the beneficiaries of Menjabi yuwa were interviewed to collect information at household level. Information was also collected from the RNR Extension Office in the gewog and the Geog Extension Officer, and through Key Informant interview, where the enumerators interacted with the elderly men and women from the villages to supplement the data collected at household level. Data gathered were processed using CSPro 6.2, Microsoft excel and analysed descriptively in SPSS 23. Initially, the study was designed to include control village for comparison; however, at the field level appropriate villages could not be identified. Therefore, the study resorted to comparison of changes observed between before and after the major renovation of the irrigation scheme in 2011, as the baseline. All farmers of Menjabi and Nuebi village have assured access to irrigation, and it is used for irrigating both wetland and dryland. However, the irrigation is mainly used for paddy cultivation in the area, despite having a huge potential for dryland agriculture farming. Interestingly, none of the farmers have adopted other available water harvesting or management technologies (sprinkle, reservoir, and drip irrigation) in the study area. Dryland agriculture farming is dependent on rain water. With improved irrigation scheme water losses along the irrigation canal have reduced, water management had improved, which ultimately had strengthened social cohesion in the villages. It had also reported to have saved lots of time for the household particularly with small household member size, enabling them for the allotment of time to other productive activities - mainly in engagement in off-farm activities. From the study, we could deduce that the present irrigation scheme was more inclined toward wetland farming. There is a huge potential for the crop intensification and diversification in the geog; thus, the government should support and advocate in adoption of cost effective dryland irrigation technologies such as reservoir, sprinkle, drip irrigation to maximize dryland area utilization for crop production. iii There was a large variations of food self-sufficiency ratio among the respondents; thus, the median value of the food SSR was estimated to deduce the overall food self-sufficiency status of the study site. With the median value estimated at 1.68, the study deduced that all respondents meet their annual household cereal requirements from the domestic cereals production. Also from this study finding we could bluntly say that the farmers from the study site do not face food shortage. Although, there was household that do not produce cereals at all; however, the cereals requirement of household is met through purchase from cash income earned from different sources. Both male and female were equally engaged in carrying out different tasks at household and community level with exceptions to household chores and guarding agricultural field at nights. The nature of works defines specific gender engagement, and it is expected to depend on household member size, its distribution by sex and age group. The gender involvement trend in different activities is expected to remain constant over time in general. In overall, although there was assured irrigation in the villages the impact of irrigation scheme as such cannot be ascertained objectively in enhancement of crop productivity, intensification and diversification with exceptions to paddy cultivation. As most of the farmers grow paddy, irrigation will remain as one of the inevitable
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