Managing the Main System- Canal Irrigation s Blind Spot

Canal Irrigation's Blind Spot Robert Wade Robert Chambers Irrigation will continue to get very high priority in strategies to increase food production and labour absorption in agriculture. But plans for irrigation investment in South and Southeast Asia are be- ing made with too little attention to diagnosing the causes of the generally disappointing performance of large, publicly-operated canal systems. One set of causes, which the authors argue here are very important, are simply not considered; they are 'screened out' from consideration from the very beginning. The remedies are hence unlikely to have the effects expected of them.