Prominent Livelihood Asset Pentagon within the Analytical Framework of Irrigation System Performance Assessment

Abstract

Farming is at the core of rural livelihoods and irrigation is one of its important component. Multiple uses of and growing demand for water has made access to irrigation water increasingly competitive. The global concern now is to look into these competition and develop strategies that are socially, environmentally, economically and technically conducive to water resources development in general and irrigation development in particular. It necessitates the development of a framework that comprehensibly assesses the performance of an irrigation system. The research work presented in this paper is an effort towards this direction. The conventional approach that considers the factors borne within the command area is not sufficient. In a complex rural setting, livelihood factors cross such boundaries. This paper identifies grossly overlooked but crucial livelihood factors that influence the performance of an irrigation system, and develops a framework of analysis. In this context, livelihood asset pentagons and their elements are identified and statistically tested for their validity in comprehensively assessing an irrigation system. The empirical evidence (drawn from the experience of the Farmer Managed Irrigation System in Chitwan district, Nepal) shows that differences in farm households' access to these assets lead to varying performance of an irrigation system.