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In Bangladesh flood mitigation strategies have concentrated on embankments. However, due to a perceived lack of success with this strategy and high returns to irrigation development, the emphasis in water management switched towards small scale irrigation. Serious floods in 1987 and 1988 have renewed interest in flood mitigation. However, there is a lack of detailed evidence on the impacts of embankments. This study provides just such evidence. The study comprises a detailed post-evaluation of a major flood control, drainage and irrigation project, the Chandpur Irrigation Project. The results show that the project has been successful in reducing normal monsoon water levels, with consequent changes in cropping patterns to higher yielding varieties. However, a with-without comparison revealed that expected yields (allowing for risks of flooding and drainage problems) were less than predicted due to drainage problems within the project, whereas non-project expected yields are as predicted. Hence agricultural output has increased substantially, but output and its value are less than anticipated. Household incomes in the project are 25&37 higher (on average) than in control areas, but this is because larger landowners have gained from greater returns to agriculture (for example, from preferential access to irrigation), and diversifying into other occupations. Some households have gained by selling land and obtaining salaried jobs elsewhere or by becoming traders. By comparison small landowners may be slightly less prone to losses in flood years but have not moved into surplus. Landless labourers have similar incomes inside and outside the project; real wages are unchanged, and increased work has not compensated for population growth. Inside the project changes in landholding category have been fewer than outside. Open water fish populations have been reduced by the embankment, particularly affecting poor households. However, fish cultivation has expanded more than in flood prone areas, benefiting pond owners and enabling professional fishermen to maintain their incomes (at the cost of greater dependence on larger landowners). Improved methods of post-evaluation (which have implications for appraisal of new projects) are developed to incorporate flood risks and consequent yield reductions and non-agricultural damages, and to standardise economic valuation. Applying these methods revealed that the Chandpur Project has been, despite an uneven distribution of benefits, relatively successful (an economic rate of return of at least 5%). Although there are some project specific reasons for this success, this project has suffered many problems typical of embankment in Bangladesh. Hence embankments are potentially important for the future economic development of Bangladesh - by reducing damage and disruption and increasing agricultural output. The study concludes with recommendations for improved flood plain planning in Bangladesh, using detailed flood loss data and improved appraisal methods, to ensure that choice of flood mitigation strategies and investments are rational, and that all public investments take flood risks into account.

Thesis (M.Inst.Agrar.)(Agricultural Economics)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Title from opening screen (viewed March 27, 2006). Includes summary. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Inst.Agrar)(Rural Engineering Technology)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes summary. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Dev.)-- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The study was an attempt to evaluate the results of the revitalization of the smallholder irrigation schemes programme which was introduced by the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. The focus area was the Krokodilheuwel Irrigation Scheme in Makhuduthamaga Municipality which falls under the jurisdiction of Sekhukhune District. The nature of the study was qualitative and was conducted on farmers and technical staff as respondents within the irrigation scheme. The research findings indicated that the majority of the farmers noted some improvements, especially on the management of irrigation schemes by farmers, provision of technical support from staff of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and in terms of the frequency of training provided to smallholder irrigation schemes. On the other hand, a problem was also observed on the side of management of income and expenditure which was not transparent and inclusive. Farmers were not involved in the management of income and expenditure, but only the strategic partner. Farmers were only told that they did not make any profit as the produce failed to cover for the expenditure incurred for that season. Farmers suggested that the Limpopo Department of Agriculture should be represented on the management of the irrigation scheme to monitor the running of the scheme. The researcher also recommended that the Limpopo Department of Agriculture should put up measures to monitor and evaluate the activities within the irrigation scheme to ensure that the revitalization programme is implemented according to the plans so that intended goals are realized.

Implementation of a small-scale irrigation project in southern Mauritania is analyzed in this report. The main objective is to demonstrate that small-scale irrigation farming is the best suited solution for Mauritania's agriculture. To reach this objective different steps are taken in this study. The first step highlights the different aspects affecting the development of agriculture in the Senegal River basin such as climatic, environmental, and socio-economic constraints. The next step is the design of a small-scale irrigation system for a small region in the middle valley of the Senegal River called the Dirol plain. Finally, analysis and discussion of the design is made. This discussion centers on the problems faced during the design and the different assumptions made to implement it. The conclusion section addresses the feasibility of the design and gives recommendations that will help improve the design process for future work in the Senegal River basin. / Graduation date: 1996

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Kansas State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100).

A water use and availability study was conducted at the Dzindi Irrigation Scheme in Limpopo Province. The problems experienced at Dzindi Irrigation Scheme regarding water allocation, concern water availability at a field level. Although water is continuously being diverted into the main canal, farmers at the bottom end of the system claim not to receive adequate water supplies, forcing them to practice dry land irrigation (farming). Water losses occur between the source and the point of application, and the causes of loss need to be identified so that water availability can be improved. The study focused on water released to Block 2, and an analysis was made of all losses which occur from the weir where water is released to the point of application in the fields. An estimation of water supplies that return to the river as an unused delivery, and conveyance losses that occur along the distribution channels, were determined through a water balance drawn up from measured canal inflows, such as seepage and evaporation. A total volume of 371096 m3 was supplied to Block 2 during a 45 day monitoring period. For a planted area of 16.52 ha, this works out to 22463 m3 /ha supplied, or a relative irrigation supply of 14.2 times the irrigation requirement. Losses originate from a number of sources. Results indicated that losses that occurred in the main canal were very low, with a conveyance efficiency of 96% recorded. Knowledge of irrigation water management and practical irrigation scheduling at a scheme level is weak. The biggest immediate need is to improve the management of the infrastructure. The main system capacity is adequate, and losses due to seepage, evaporation and return flows are within acceptable limits. The return flows are mostly caused by the farmers’ lack of understanding that led to them removing the entire sluice gates at the head of the secondary canals of Block 2. This results in water running to the first two secondary canals only, and not reaching the rest of the Block. Based on the requirements identified by all the stakeholders, training should be provided to the water bailiffs and farmers to implement management practices that are both effective and sustainable. Together with prioritised infrastructure upgrading, more acceptable water delivery should be possible. The challenge lies in making the technical and the social aspects converge in such a way that the result is acceptable to both systems and can be sustained over time. The opportunities for capacity building by equipping thestakeholders with new skills are considerable, but the time and effort required to achieve this should not be underestimated. / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Rural Engineering Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Civil Engineering / unrestricted

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This thesis examines how the Narmada damming project in India is constituted and contested by the state, affected tribal peoples ( adivasis), and a transnational advocacy network led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement). Based on ethnographic fieldwork, and employing critical anthropological perspectives on development and globalization, the power relations underlying dominance and resistance are mapped out. The conflicting discourses, strategies and practices of Narmada proponents and opponents are conceptualized within local, regional, national, and transnational sites and modalities. Further, the negotiation of state dominance and adivasi resistance is analyzed through contradictory practice and shifting political alignments. Lastly, this thesis delineates how the Narmada conflict is permeated by complex symbolic and moral mechanisms activated by both state authorities and activist resistors.