Water is one of the essential resources in agricultural production, which has several unique characteristics. Individual farmers, acting alone, can seldom acquire water for irrigation. Construction and maintenance of the physical structures to divert, convey, and distribute water usually require huge investments, which is beyond the capacity of a farmer Surface water cannot be easily stored and particularly by the individual farmer, as fertilisers, pesticides etc. can be. Water must be used whenever it is available. However, farmers generally cannot transport water economically over great distances and the locations. All irrigation systems require that certain essential tasks should be accomplished, if the system is to function productively, for which three sets of management activities become essential.
For an efficient management of irrigation projects, the role of organisation, channels of communications, patterns of influence, lines of authority and loyalty, which can ensure some sort of efficiency, equity and social justice, cannot be overemphasized. This necessitates that irrigation management must devote a large part of its attention to its organisation.
This noble objective can be achieved through an interdisciplinary approach to the management and organisation, water distribution, cropping pattern, complementary inputs, land reforms, fanners' participation, pricing of water and energy, economic and financial evaluation, institutional needs, command area development etc. This could be possible through the structuring of individuals and functions into productive relationships in an organisation. This book addresses to this crucial but neglected element in the equation of efficient irrigation management. It starts from the premise that irrigation management is best regarded as a socio-technical enterprise, where the human dimension interacts with the physical and technical ones. The book thus covers a series of organizational variables and human behaviour backed with critical inputs, institutional needs and services.
DR. C.S. RAGHUVANSHI is currently working as Professor (Water Management Economics) at Water Resources Development Training Centre, University of Roorkee, Roorkee. Earlier, he worked as Senior Economist in H.P.M.C. — A World Bank Project from 1976 to 1979 where he was responsible for preparing Techno-Economic Feasibility Reports for submission to International Development Agency, Agricultural Re-finance and Development Corporation (now NABARD), participating Commercial Banks and Govt. of Himachal Pradesh. He also supervised planning, training and research programmes in HPNC and also prepared Marketing Plans, coordinated production and marketing of UNDP Mushroom Project. He was also responsible for arranging in-service training in Fruits Marketing of the officers of H.P.M.C. He received training in Agricultural Business Management i.e. Programme for Management in Agriculture at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and taught Agri-Business Management to M.Sc. Agricultural Economics and M.B.A. students from 1974 to 1976. He received training in Agricultural Extension and Agricultural Meteorology. He has also more than 120 Research Papers to his credit, published in leading professional journals which are mostly concerned with Water Management Economics. He is also the coauthor of the Book Irrigation Management — A System Approach.
