Small-holders and Water Resources: A Review Essay on the Economics of Locally-managed Irrigation

A vast literature on locally-managed irrigation systems provides important lessons regarding the experience of irrigators with community management. This review draws upon research in sociology, anthropology, political science, engineering and economic theory to suggest a framework for understanding institutions for governing irrigation systems. The review assesses measures of irrigation system performance, the importance of co-operation, the impact of heterogeneity among the water users on performance and co-operation, and the breadth of institutional forms observed in the field study literature. The review closes with a call for more structured qualitative measures of group performance and for more large-scale research of many irrigation systems to complement the case study focus of the existing literature