23. An Economic and Institutional Review of Water User Associations (WUAs) in Odisha

The paper examines the nature and involvement of the participatory water institutions in the Central dry zone of Odisha, focusing on the assess the economic efficiency of irrigation and productivity of water use with the intervention of WUAs. Irrigation sources are mostly open or common property access resources in India which are subjected to the problem of free riding. Because of poor governance and ignorance, the groundwater is being overexploited in most parts of the country. Two types of tanks in Odisha, i.e. irrigation system managed by farmers and Minor Irrigation Department (MID) managed were considered for the research. The results revealed that, the net returns per ha cm of water used potato-based cropping systems were higher in farmers managed tank area than in MID managed tank area. It also has found that the difference in economic and physical water use efficiencies can be attributed to the low level of net returns and yield obtained by the tail end farmers in MID managed tank area. Among the irrigation-related problems, price fluctuation and labor scarcity during processing in both farmers managed and MID managed tank were the most serious ones, which requires the consideration of the policymakers on importance basis. Hence, the farmers’ participation in water user associations is critical in improving efficiency of farm water management and crop production in profitable and reasonable manner under the canal command area.