Farmer willingness towards micro irrigation facilities management during irrigation canal reconstruction

Abstract

The devolution of responsibility and control over common-pool resources from government agencies to user groups has become a widespread policy trend that cuts across countries. Irrigation canals are a typical common-pool resource. Each irrigation canal provides water to several different users, and the management of local common property is one of the most important issues in rural development. Management of the irrigation canal requires local communities to effectively pool efforts to perform various tasks such as removing silt, weeding, and repair and maintenance. How this collective action is performed can determine the usefulness of the irrigation canal. Based on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, we used rice farmer household survey data from eastern coastal China to analyze farmer willingness towards micro irrigation facilities management and influencing factors. We found that the proportion of respondents willing for micro irrigation facilities management is only 40%, most of the respondents do not have any form of willingness to participate in this collective action. A high degree of water scarcity, large irrigated area, community with homogeneous clan structure and access to irrigation services can improve farmer involvement in the supply of micro irrigation facilities. A high proportion of household payrolls groups, lower sales prices of grain, and a high proportion of non-farming income will not be conducive to farmer involvement in the supply of micro irrigation facilities. These conclusions have important policy implications, such as accelerating land transfer to promote the development of large-scale farmers, actively developing rural irrigation services teams to ensure the quality of irrigation services, strict implementation of the minimum grain purchase policy to reduce adverse acquisitions establishing a special support mechanisms for professional farmers, and creating favorable conditions.