Farmers Organisation in Large Irrigation Projects

Farmers' Organisation in Large Irrigation Projects Niranjan Pant The paper advocates the necessity of farmers' organisation at the watercourse level in large irrigation projects in India. The Utility of such an organisation is evidenced in the findings of the scholars all over the world. Despite various government pronouncements about the necessity of farmers' organisation, they are in a state of infancy in India. The relevant issues concerning farmers1 organisation which are required to be resolved before such organisations are built in to the irrigation projects are as follows: I) The Role of the Government/the Agency 2) Farmers' participation: before or after OFD Works 3) Single versus multi functions 4) One tier versus multi tier 5) Village based versus channel based 6) Lesions from indigenous systems. The paper outlines the factors contributing to the success of such an organisation. The factors deduced from a successful case of farmers' organisation studied by us earlier are: i) Good leadership; ii) Adequate and reliable water supply; iii) Greater interaction between the officials and the farmers; iv) Easy unanimity among group members; v) Inducement from the government/the agency; and vi) Legitimacy of the organisation.