FARMERS IRRIGATION PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS: THE CASE OF DA XA LOCAL IRRIGATION SCHEME

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1 i FARMERS IRRIGATION PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS 19 4 FARMERS IRRIGATION PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS: THE CASE OF DA XA LOCAL IRRIGATION SCHEME Da Xa local scheme was created in 1993 when it was separated off from the An Binh system. It embraces 100 hectares and two villages, Dao Xa (brigade 1) and Da Dinh (brigades 2 and 3) (see map 3). Da Xa pumping station is equipped with two pumps of 1,000 m3/hour each, which is equivalent to a total discharge capacity of 5.56 Wha. Through water balance experiments done in brigade 1, we can say that the rice water needs of this scheme are satisfied (Dang The Phong and Fontenelle, 1995). Before describing the irrigation practices of Da Xa irrigation system, we must first understand the overall communal irrigation organization. 4. I An Binh current irrigation system Irrigation in An Binh commune cooperative comes under the responsibility of the cooperative s water control group. This group draws up a contract every year, covering water supplies and drainage with the hydraulic company. The water control group manages local pumping stations, plans maintenance and looks after repair work. It oversees and supervises the work done by each of its members, and organizes the collection of the hydraulic tax together with the cooperative s accountant. An Binh territory is divided.into three water control sectors (khu) based on brigade and village divisions, except for khu 7 which embraces Dao Xa and Da Dinh villages (see table 5). Table 5 Water control sectors of An Binh Khu Khu 1 Khu 2 Khu 3 Production Brigades Villages 1,2 and 3 Dao Xa and Da Dinh 4,5 and 6 An Doai 7,8,9 and 10 An Dong Each khu is independent from other khu s. It is managed by an official helped by some assistants (6 in khu 7, 3 in khu 2, and 4 in khu 3). Each khu official is responsible for supplying water in time to farmers paddy fields. Assistants guide water into primary, secondary and tertiary canals and on to the planned irrigated unit. In practice, khu officials are also helped by the chiefs of each production brigade, who also collect hydraulic tax from farmers. Each pumping station also has one caretaker and one or two workers in charge of activating the pumps (see below figure 3).

2 20 RESPONSE TO POLITICAL CHANGE u Brigade 1 Brigade 2 North I Brigade - 3 Brigade6 o (metett, 2oo Brigade 7 Village ponds and drainage canals (arroyo) primary irrigation canal 0 Da Xa pumping station Map 3 Da Xa local irrigation scheme

3 FARMERS' IRRIGATION PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS 21 Decrease in An Binh area as supplied by Ly Van ha O0 50 O year Figure 3 Organizational structure of An Binh commune cooperative for water management 4.2 Da Xa pumping organization There is no fixed pumping schedule. Pumping is started on the basis of the effective demand of each brigade chief who is in charge of agricultural production. In theory, cooperative authorities decide the transplanting date for each rice season. In practice, we observed some adaptations based on individual farmer's agricultural practices. Each khu official organizes a meeting twice a year with his assistants. In these meetings they decide the different dates for pumping for land preparation, based on observed cropping patterns. For example, due to favourable topographical conditions, farmers of brigade 1 can grow a dry winter crop early in the season, which is promising good yields. Under tight crop calendar conditions, the spring rice land preparation moment is the only time of year when farmers have some flexibility to choose their date of transplanting. The pumping station takes this reality into account by supplying brigade 1 paddy fields earlier than brigades 2 and 3 (Mai Van Hai, forthcoming). Due to the station's high discharge capacity, it takes only six days to supply water to the three brigades. In the rice season, irrigation assistants have to supervise water levels in the fields in order to plan and organize the next pumping time. They also have to monitor weather forecasts, in order to avoid water excess and drought. Every day one of the assistants goes to the fields in order to check water levels. All the assistants from Da Xa scheme stated that they ask for irrigation when more or less 70% of the area is dry and when the water level in tertiary canals is below 20 to 30 centimetres (Do Thi The Vân, 1995). They take into account that farmers are lifting water to supply their plots16). 16) Lifting water with a basket (cai gdu giaq needs at least 35 centimeters of water depth (Dumont, 1935).

4 22 RESPONSE TO POLITICAL CHANGE The khu official who is managing Da Xa station is supposed to provide water to the first area which needs it. The pumpings are launched within two days after the brigade chief has made the demand to the stations official. In fact, we observed a strong homogeneity of pumpings among brigades as well as villages. Irrigation is mainly defined to an area included within a single brigade. When there is a combination, it is restricted to fields from brigades 2 and 3, from the village of Da Dinh (see table 6). Brigade 1 is supplied alone, especially after brigades 2 and 3 in order to avoid water diversion by farmers from brigades 2 and 3. This suggests that not only irrigation units but also village social units are taken into account during pumpings when irrigation is managed by the locality. Table 6 Pumpings of Da Xa scheme during spring season 1993 (Collective Gestation Social de I'Eau, 1994) Pumpings restricted to the Combined pumpings Sum of pumpings brigade (entirely or in part) between brigades* Brigade 1 10 O 10 Brigade Brigade * Combinations link brigade 2 with brigade Field level irrigation practices There is no organized procedure to inform farmers about a coming irrigation. They can be informed if they ask the assistants, the brigade chief, their relatives, or their neighbours. Farmers stated that they do not feel any damage by not being informed, because they go to their fields at least once every three days. If they missed the day of pumping, they can lift remaining water from the tertiary canal in front of their plot17). Some are saying that it would be better to get informed but it does not matter because they have got used to working under these circumstances. In order to know more about farmers irrigation strategies, we conducted a survey on water supply of all individual plots of one water control unit of the brigade 1, during the spring rice season of I 99518). Results shown in table 7 illustrate that farmers do not specifically use pumping days to supply water to their fields. The percentage of irrigated plots on the pumping day is very low, which implies that farmers are coming on another day to lift water. Out of the six surveyed consecutive pumpings, the average percentage of irrigated plots on pumping days is equal to only 25 per cent19). Moreover, out of these 25 per cent, higher elevation plots required a lift irrigation anyway. They can not be supplied by gravity and need farmers to come and lift water. '1 Almost every individual paddy field has direct access to a tertiary canal. 18) Our protocol was to follow fields water levels around each pumping date. We asked the brigade chief 1 to inform us of each pumping demand so that we could start our measurements the day before the scheduled pumping. Then, during a period of five days, we took measurements of water levels twice a day, in each of the 385 individual plots of the area. 19) The sum of percentages can exceed 100 if some plots are irrigated more than once within the four monitored days.

5 FARMERS' IRRIGATION PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS 23 Table 7 Comparison between numbers of irrigated plots for six pumpings of spring season 1995 Pumping 12/02/ /02/1995 5/03/ /04/1995 date number of %. irrigated plots Dayn Dayn+l 26 7 Dayn Dayn Sum number of '70 irrigated plots numberof % numberof % irrigated irrigated plots plots number of % number of % irrigated irrigated plots plots There are some difficulties to provide water by gravity irrigation by means of dug tertiary canals. On the other hand, clayey dug canals make up good reservoirs from which water can be drawn during a few days. It could explain why farmers do not choose to come specifically on the pumping day to get water. Unlike collectivization times, when water distribution was tight and centralized water supplies of collective plots fully done by gravity, farmers now have the technical possibility and institutional legitimacy to manage irrigation supplies by themselves. Besides, farmers opinion about the operation of this scheme, as well as farmers water supplies' organization, allow us to propose that they are fully satisfied with the situation that they have initiated (Fontenelle and Tessier, 1997). We can surmise that the old lift irrigation method is the main technique used on that former gravity irrigation scheme, whatever ricefield irrigation possibilitiesz0). This point shows that farmers prefer to lift water even when field elevation does not always compel them to do so, because it gives them the full control over water supply decision-making. From the viewpoint of the effectiveness of field-level irrigation, there is a good supply of water. This effectiveness is illustrated by the few drought days and the controlled water levels observed in the plots (Dang The Phong and Fontenelle, 1995). Actually, water storage in dug canals increased flexibility. Farmers are now independent from each other and can get available water any day they want. Irrigation practices show independence between pumpings and plot irrigation's frequencies. Farmers are now following their own rhythm based on among other things, manpower availability, and personal experience and cropping pattern diversity. They can provide a small or high water amount with different frequencies. The water lifting technology does not require strength and can be done by children. It is labour intensive, but it takes place in a context of high rural unemployment. Farmers can grow short or long-term rice. They can use transplantation or direct broadcasting techniques. Decision-making flexibility acquired by introducing water-lifting technology allows farmers to easily diversify their cropping patterns whereas centralized gravity irrigation failed and localized collective gravity irrigation struggled. 4.4 Tertiary canals maintenance The present scheme operations seem to fit in with farmer's aspirations without any visible active participation from their side. In order to get a better understanding of farmer's involvement in 'O) The last pumping gives a good example of lifting irrigation importance. Although 57% of farmers came to irrigate on the pumping day, 59% came again three days after to lift water.

6 24 RESPONSE TO POLITICAL CHANGE local irrigation schemes management, we shall describe the tertiary canal organization of maintenance in brigades 3 and 1. The responsibility of tertiary canal maintenance is left by the cooperative to the brigade. A proportion of hydraulic tax is kept by the chief of the brigade to finance this activity. Each year he is making a cost estimate of the work to be done. The modalities of maintenance organization depend on the specific brigade. In brigade 3, the whole quantity of planned work is divided among all households. As a first step, the brigade chief estimates the amount of work for each tertiary canal. Then, each farmer has to complete the work on the portion of canal in front of each of his paddy plots. Farmers will be paid after completion of the work on the basis of this estimate. This kind of management is based on the former collectivist organization. It is compulsory to come to work on the day chosen, decided in an unilateral way by the brigade chief. This system is not in use in brigade 1 any more, since the distribution of land in The brigade chief still makes an estimate of the planned work on each tertiary canal, but organization as well as completion of the. work is given to the village Women s Association 21). This association arranges for one adult, man or woman, from each household to come to do the work. The noticeable aspects of this organization are that the working day is chosen by farmers, and that the association does not pay farmers who come. The money is added to the association s fund in order to help organize social activities in the village. A comparison of the condition of tertiary canals in each of these two brigades shows a significant difference. The tertiary canals of brigade 3 are in a worse condition, which can be explained by the fact that the chief of this brigade did not succeed to get more than 40 peasant farmers out of the 216 brigade s households to contribute to the work. And yet farmer s low participation is surprising as each of them has a personal interest in maintaining tertiary canals. This job is not only a way to earn some extra money, but the frequency and the quality of the lift irrigation is closely related to the condition of the canals and lateral bunds along their sides. A badly maintained canal with mud in its bottom does not facilitate water lifting. It also increases water loss from paddy fields lateral bunds. Although irrigation practices appear to be based on individual decision-making, we can not assert that the Red River delta irrigation is evolving from a collective centralized system to a system based on individual organization. The maintenance example suggests that, some work can be well organized amongst farmers collectively, as long as they are really participating in the process of decision-making. From this point of view, brigade 3 must be considered as one of the remains of former centralized top-down irrigation organization, whereas brigade 1 maintenance organization seems to fit in with farmers collective approach of this activity. In brigade 3, maintenance difficulties are due to farmer s opposition directed against the brigade chiefs autocratic behaviour. They are not the result of an individualistic evolution of farmers overall attitude toward collective organization of water resources management. The brigade 1 example highlights farmers ability to organize themselves collectively in an effective manner. Moreover, it shows how local social control can be one of the necessary conditions of success. Although the Women s Association has an official status, it is led by villagers who want to organize pilgrimages, religious festivals, banquets and welfare to the poorest. The brigade chief is managing through an existing social association. If someone does not come to work the damage will be directly shared by villagers, through the Women s Association which will not then get the 21) This official association belongs to the Vietnamese Patriotic Front, as Youth Association, Veteran Association. Each woman joins it after her marriage.

7 FARMERS IRRIGATION PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS 25 estimated amount of money for the job. Not coming is no longer a political statement. It has become an individualistic attitude, which is in turn penalizing the village as a whole. 4.5 Convergence between pre-collectivist and present irrigation systems Present local schemes show a number of characteristics in common with traditional irrigation described in the first section. The command area is always small -below 100 hectares- and local schemes are often restricted to village limits. When schemes are smaller than the total village rice fields area, their management is organized within irrigation management sectors (khu) which correspond to village units. Da Xa scheme constitutes an exception in Nam Thanh district because it combines two villages in one khu. However, it is not really accepted by farmers. Their present claim is to get a separate scheme for each of the two villages of Da Dinh and Dao Xa. Fortunately, this question is not harmful to Da Xa scheme operation because the official in charge of the station is taking farmers claims into account by managing his station in such a way as to avoid confrontation between villages. This is clear at land preparation time as well as during rice growing periods. Brigades 2 and 3 (Da Dinh) are often managed as a single unit, whereas brigade 1 (Dao Xa) is managed separately. We think that, like in the past, the scale of the village seems to be relevant as an irrigation management unit, as far as peasant farmer s social agreement is concerned. Speaking of farmers irrigation practices, there has been a transformation of the initial function of tertiary irrigation canals. Farmers have dug them in a way, which makes gravity irrigation difficult and led to the use of a water basket. Actually, we can not assert whether or not it has been a deliberate enlargement, based on collective farmers willingness, or done by default, in order to keep as much water as possible from each pumping. But tertiary irrigation canals have been transformed into ditches which are used as bail out stations were in the past. Digging tertiary canals led to the point that field level irrigation became an internal question again, involving each household. Under collective gravity irrigation systems, farmers had to set their supplies on the rhythms of collective pumpings. The manual scoop water basket method ensured them autonomy from the pumping station in their field level irrigation practices. However, some important differences exist between present and traditional irrigation. These are due to the management flexibility allowed by the use of modern technology. Farmers have direct access to water because of the established network of canals. They do not need to come to the bail out station, to negotiate, and to await their turn as before. There is no negotiation necessity because tertiary canals are village property unlike former bail out stations. Moreover, high capacity pumping stations ensure a good frequency and speed of water supply, based on paddy water needs rather than tied rhythms. As a matter of fact there is no longer any interaction between farmers, in contrast to the periods before and during collectivization. Concerning canal maintenance, village local society is willing to organize this activity as it was doing before collectivization. The man in charge of maintenance organization, the brigade chief, belongs to the cooperative. He reminds farmers of the State s former collectivization policy. He got higher social rank and local political power from his given position. Therefore, farmers do not accept his leadership when he does not build it on village social organization. The brigade 1 example shows how the brigade chief now has to organize maintenance activities with Dao Xa village as a whole. He can not manage each household personally anymore, and has to deal with village representatives. In the case of Dao Xa, the Women s Association seems to be leading, but the comparison with other village cases made us think that this situation is mainly

8 26 RESPONSE TO POLITICAL CHANGE due to the legitimacy of village association leaders, more than to the nature of the association itself. The evolution described is leading to an increasing participation of peasant farmers in irrigation management, through associations that represent the group. Associations owe their existence to official central recognition, but they also constitute socially meaningful units in Red River delta villages. They are acting as collective intermediaries between farmers and local authorities.