Evaluation of irrigation-service utility from the perspective of farmers

This paper highlights an alternative approach for the partial evaluation of an irrigation system considering irrigation as a service to farmers. It avoids the need of quantitative data on water delivery and concentrates on performance evaluation from the perspective of farmers. The concept of fuzzy set theory was applied to analyse the linguistic responses of farmers with respect to irrigation service provided to them. The present study was carried out in Nimapara Branch Canal under Puri Main Canal irrigation system of Mahanadi Delta Irrigation Project in the State of Orissa, India. The utility of irrigation water supply schedule was assessed on the basis of three factors i.e. tractability, convenience and predictability, and 10 sub-factors under three factors. The analyses revealed that farmers' level of satisfaction with the factors in an increasing order was predictability, convenience and tractability. Head reach of the system recorded relatively higher utility values as compared to middle and tail reach of irrigation command. The most important factor is found to be predictability followed by tractability and convenience. There are differences in the opinions of the farmers about the water delivery system. These opinions are, however, closer in the importance attached by them to the individual sub-factors and factors.