Your search found 12 records
1 Bastakoti, Ram C.; Gupta, J.; Babel, M. S.; van Dijk, M. P. 2014. Climate risks and adaptation strategies in the Lower Mekong River Basin. Regional Environmental Change, 14(1):207-219. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0485-8]
Climate change ; Risks ; Drought ; Flooding ; Salinity ; Adaptation ; River basins ; Institutions ; Government agencies ; Farmers ; Policy ; Households ; Surveys / Thailand / Vietnam / Lower Mekong River Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H045914)
(0.43 MB)
This paper examines perceived climate risks, their impacts, and existing adaptation practices at the local level, including the role of local institutions. The analysis focuses on two selected areas in Vietnam and Thailand. The paper is based on the information collected through key informant interviews at provincial and district level, focus group discussions at village level, and household survey. Several adaptation practices exist at local level to deal with the perceived risks of drought, floods, and salinity intrusion. Most of the adaptation practices were autonomous focusing on coping with short-term risks rather than structural longterm climate risks. Some adaptation practices, such as crop insurance and regulatory measures included in the literature and practiced in other places, did not exist at local level in the case study countries, but some local practices such as farmers’ annual fair could be an important addition to the inventory of potential adaptation measures. Local institutions have facilitated adaptation in different ways. They (1) lead and support unique adaptation practices suitable to the local context; (2) act as a catalyst to help people to adapt some practices by providing technical and material support; and (3) act as the bridge between local people and the governmental and non-governmental agencies. But several factors constrain the effectiveness of locally practiced adaptation measures. Thus, to enhance the adaptive capacity of households and the local community, it is necessary to: (1) improve the technical capacity of farmers; (2) create effective mechanisms for strengthening, promoting, and disseminating locally initiated efforts; (3) subsidize and improve access to credit services; (4) improve links between production and markets; and (5) establish effective mechanisms for coordination.
2 Lebel, L.; Lebel, P.; Sriyasak, P.; Ratanawilailak, S.; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Bastakoti, G. B. 2015. Gender relations and water management in different eco-cultural contexts in northern Thailand. International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 11(3/4):228-246. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJARGE.2015.074096]
Water management ; Water governance ; Water use ; Water users ; Water shortage ; Gender ; Women's participation ; Men ; Agrarian reform ; Urbanization ; Ethnic groups ; Households ; River basins ; Farmers ; Decision making ; Economic aspects ; Culture
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047364)
(0.83 MB)
This paper assessed water management by households from three ethnic groups in two contrasting ecological settings (upland and lowland) in the Upper Ping River Basin in Northern Thailand. Important gender differences in the use and management of water were identified. Women are major users of water for agriculture in the uplands, but less so in the lowlands. In the lowlands irrigation is viewed as a masculine activity. In the uplands the role of women is more widely accepted, with women frequently being members of water user groups. Men, however, dominate ‘decision-making’ positions in communitybased and state-led water organisations in both upland and lowland areas. Perceptions of contributions to daily tasks, and behavioural traits important to governance roles, differed between men and women, and sometimes also across eco-cultural contexts, underlining the complexity of factors influencing gender relations in water governance.
3 Bastakoti, Ram C.; Prathapar, S. A.; Okwany, Romulus O. 2016. Community pond rehabilitation to deal with climate variability: a case study in Nepal Terai. Water Resources and Rural Development, 7:20-35. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wrr.2016.01.001]
Climate change ; Monsoon climate ; Ponds ; Community involvement ; Collective action ; Multiple use ; Rehabilitation ; Surface irrigation ; Irrigation canals ; Irrigation water ; Water availability ; Water resources ; Water productivity ; Water allocation ; Agricultural production ; Crops ; Households ; Income ; Case studies / Nepal / Terai Region / Rupandehi District
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047566)
(1.81 MB)
A large number of small- to medium-sized community ponds exist in most parts of the Terai region in Nepal. Such ponds could be a viable alternative for other forms of surface irrigation. But, with the lack of efficient management, many of these ponds remain underutilized. An effort was made to facilitate the rehabilitation of such a pond in a selected village of Rupandehi District in Western Terai region of Nepal. This paper aims to evaluate the changed water availability situation in post-monsoon seasons after the pond rehabilitation. The paper also evaluates the feasibility of such interventions especially focusing on the potential to provide additional water and improve agricultural productivity. Results showed small increases in quantifiable indicators such as water availability, cropping intensity, productivity and income. The new institutional setup improved water allocation, improved operation and maintenance, and increased social awareness among the people about the importance of underutilized water resources. The intervention has the potential to be replicated in similar contexts.
4 Apgar, J. M.; Cohen, P. J.; Ratner, B. D.; de Silva, Sanjiv; Buisson, Marie-Charlotte; Longley, C.; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Mapedza, Everisto. 2017. Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research. Ecology and Society, 22(1):1-13. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08929-220109]
Aquatic environment ; Agricultural systems ; Equity ; Participatory approaches ; Collective action ; Research ; Governance ; Authorities ; Resource management ; Floodplains ; Living standards ; Ownership ; Stakeholders ; Accountability ; Ecological factors / Zambia / Solomon Islands / Bangladesh / Cambodia
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047980)
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss1/art9/ES-2016-8929.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H047980.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H047980.pdf
(156 KB)
Challenges of governance often constitute critical obstacles to efforts to equitably improve livelihoods in social-ecological systems. Yet, just as often, these challenges go unspoken, or are viewed as fixed parts of the context, beyond the scope of influence of agricultural, development, or natural resource management initiatives. What does it take to get governance obstacles and opportunities out in the open, creating the space for constructive dialogue and collective action that can help to address them? We respond to this question by comparing experiences of participatory action research (PAR) in coastal and floodplain systems in four countries (Zambia, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, and Cambodia) with a focus on understanding how to build more equitable governance arrangements. We found that governance improvement was often an implicit or secondary objective of initiatives that initially sought to address more technical natural resource or livelihood-related development challenges. We argue that using PAR principles of ownership, equity, shared analysis, and feedback built trust and helped to identify and act upon opportunities to address more difficult-to-shift dimensions of governance particularly in terms of stakeholder representation, distribution of authority, and accountability. Our findings suggest that the engaged and embedded approach of researcher-facilitators can help move from identifying opportunities for governance change to supporting stakeholders as they build more equitable governance arrangements.
5 Okwany, Romulus O.; Prathapar, Sanmugam; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Mondal, M. K. 2016. Shallow subsurface drainage for managing seasonal flooding in Ganges floodplain, Bangladesh. Irrigation and Drainage, 65(5):712-723. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ird.1990]
Subsurface drainage ; Flood control ; Water management ; Groundwater table ; Water levels ; Surface water ; Ponds ; Canals ; Monsoon climate ; Seasonal cropping ; Rice ; Winter crops ; Sunflowers ; Harvesting ; Soil moisture ; Precipitation ; Evaporation ; Monitoring ; Farmers ; Community involvement ; Floodplains / Bangladesh / Ganges Floodplain / Khulna / Batiaghata
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047979)
(2.02 MB) (2.02 MB)
The impact of shallow subsurface drainage was investigated as a pilot study on a 0.13 ha plot of a farmer’s field located in Batiaghata, Khulna District, Bangladesh, in the floodplain of the Bay of Bengal. The drainage design differed from traditional subsurface tile drains in two respects: (i) the depth of drains was shallow (30 cm); and (ii) the design did not include a sump and accessories such as pumps (drainage outlets were tidal).
A monsoonal paddy rice crop followed by a winter sunflower crop was evaluated. The experimental treatment was a shallow subsurface drainage system with a drain depth of 0.3 m and drain spacing of 8 m. Measurements of surface flooding depth and groundwater table depth were made weekly and subsurface drainage discharge during managed drainage of the field was measured to determine system responsiveness. The managed subsurface drainage enabled the establishment of the winter sunflower crop 1.5 months earlier than the usual local practice, increased the yield and facilitated safe harvest, avoiding pre-monsoonal rainfall damage. Farmers expressed increased interest in managed subsurface drainage for its potential for early establishment of rabi crops and increased yields in the study area. This study outlines the potential benefits resulting from subsurface drainage in Khulna District.
A monsoonal paddy rice crop followed by a winter sunflower crop was evaluated. The experimental treatment was a shallow subsurface drainage system with a drain depth of 0.3 m and drain spacing of 8 m. Measurements of surface flooding depth and groundwater table depth were made weekly and subsurface drainage discharge during managed drainage of the field was measured to determine system responsiveness. The managed subsurface drainage enabled the establishment of the winter sunflower crop 1.5 months earlier than the usual local practice, increased the yield and facilitated safe harvest, avoiding pre-monsoonal rainfall damage. Farmers expressed increased interest in managed subsurface drainage for its potential for early establishment of rabi crops and increased yields in the study area. This study outlines the potential benefits resulting from subsurface drainage in Khulna District.
6 Bastakoti, Ram C.; Bharati, Luna; Bhattarai, U.; Wahid, S. M. 2017. Agriculture under changing climate conditions and adaptation options in the Koshi Basin. Climate and Development, 9(7):634-648. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2016.1223594]
Climate change adaptation ; Water availability ; Water scarcity ; Agricultural practices ; Agricultural production ; Cultivated land ; Highlands ; Households ; Floodplains ; Drought ; Crop yield ; Land use ; Living standards ; Risk management ; Diversification ; Communities ; Upstream ; Downstream ; River basins ; Temperature / Nepal / Koshi Basin / Himalayas
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048038)
Using biophysical and social analysis methods, this paper evaluated agricultural practices under changing climate in the Koshi Basin and assessed adaptation options. Agricultural trend analysis showed that in the recent three to four decades, the total cultivated area had declined in all parts of the basin except in the Nepal Mountain Region. Household survey results also confirmed such decline and further revealed shifts towards non-agricultural activities. Climate trend analysis showed changes in the frequency of wet and dry days in study districts, implying an increasing chance of flood and drought events. Household surveys further revealed that, in general, people perceived a decline in agricultural water availability and an increase in drought and flood events. The direct impacts of these changes were reduced crop yield, increased fallow lands, displacement of people from settlement areas, sedimentation of cultivable land and damage to properties. Household surveys showed that despite the perceived impacts on agriculture and livelihoods, only limited adaptation options are currently practised. Adaptation efforts are constrained by several factors, including: finance; technical knowledge; lack of awareness about adaptation options; lack of collective action; unclear property rights; and ineffective role of state agencies.
7 Timsina, K. P.; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Shivakoti, G. P. 2016. Achieving strategic fit in onion seed supply chain. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 6(2):127-149. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-03-2014-0012]
Supply chain ; Onions ; Seed production ; Marketing ; Retail marketing ; Production costs ; Rural economics ; Cooperative marketing ; Vegetables ; Farmers ; Postharvest control ; Economic development / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048039)
Findings: Result revealed that the market actors of supply chain are taking significant benefit of value addition due to more investment in value creation. Vertical coordination is completely absent and the existence of horizontal coordination is in fragile form. The functional strategies in the upstream as well as the market side are not properly matching with the preference of the downstream actors of supply chain. It is suggested that the supply chain activities should work with different functional strategies such as proper drying and storage of seed and production of preferred varieties to satisfy the need of end consumers.
8 Bastakoti, Ram C.; Sugden, Fraser; Raut, M.; Shrestha, S. 2017. Key constraints and collective action challenges for groundwater governance in the eastern Gangetic Plains. In Suhardiman, Diana; Nicol, Alan; Mapedza, Everisto (Eds.). Water governance and collective action: multi-scale challenges. Oxon, UK: Routledge - Earthscan. pp.131-142. (Earthscan Water Text)
Collective action ; Groundwater ; Water governance ; Water management ; Water policy ; Water availability ; Shallow tube wells ; Deep tube wells ; River basins ; Groundwater irrigation ; Water use ; Farmers ; Land ownership ; Pumps / India / Pakistan / Bangladesh / Nepal / Bihar / West Bengal / Gangetic Plains / Indus-Ganges Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H048354)
(180 KB)
9 de Silva, Sanjiv; Miratori, K.; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Ratner, B. D. 2017. Collective action and governance challenges in the Tonle Sap Great Lake, Cambodia. In Suhardiman, Diana; Nicol, Alan; Mapedza, Everisto (Eds.). Water governance and collective action: multi-scale challenges. Oxon, UK: Routledge - Earthscan. pp.108-119. (Earthscan Water Text)
Collective action ; Governance ; Lakes ; Democracy ; Natural resources management ; Fisheries ; Community management ; Local organizations / Cambodia / Tonle Sap Lake
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H048352)
(124 KB)
10 Suhardiman, Diana; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Karki, Emma; Bharati, Luna. 2018. The politics of river basin planning and state transformation processes in Nepal. Geoforum, 89: 70-76. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.07.019]
River basin management ; Political aspects ; Bureaucracy ; Transformation ; Water resources ; Water management ; Water policy ; Water institutions ; Sectoral planning ; Federalism ; Decision making ; State intervention ; Government agencies / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048868)
Since the late 1990s, river basin planning has become a central idea in water resources management and a mainstream approach supported by international donors through their water programs globally. This article presents river basin planning as a function of power and contested arena of power struggles, where state actors create, sustain, and reproduce their bureaucratic power through the overall shaping of (imagined) bureaucratic territory. It argues that river basin planning is not an antidote to current ‘dysfunction’ in water resources management, rooted in overlapping jurisdictions, fragmented decision making, and bureaucratic competitions between various government agencies. On the contrary, it illustrates how river basin planning becomes a new ‘territorial frontier’, created and depicted by different government agencies as their envisioned operational boundary and as a means to sustain and increase their bureaucratic power and sectoral decision-making authority, amidst ongoing processes of federalism in Nepal.
11 Okwany, Romulus; Prathapar, Sanmugam; Bastakoti, Ram C.. 2017. Renovating open shallow dug wells for off-season home gardening in Nepal Terai. Irrigation and Drainage Systems Engineering, 6(3):1-7. [doi: https://doi.org/10.4172/2168-9768.1000191]
Groundwater irrigation ; Groundwater development ; Irrigation water ; Domestic water ; Water use ; Water levels ; Water requirements ; Well construction ; Tube wells ; Domestic gardens ; Hydraulic conductivity ; Agriculture ; Pumping ; Aquifers ; Farmers ; Cropping patterns / Nepal / Rupandehi District
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048910)
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/renovating-open-shallow-dug-wells-for-offseason-home-gardening-in-nepal-terai-2168-9768-1000190.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048910.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048910.pdf
(1.49 MB)
Groundwater has been noted as a major resource for irrigation water in Nepal Terai. The development of different methods of groundwater withdrawal has been promoted in Rupandehi District. Open dug wells were a major source for domestic water use in the 1980s due to cost and ease of construction. But in later years, the promotion of tube wells, access to diesel pump sets, low yield and the deterioration of water quality from the open dug wells have caused a decline in usage and their abandonment in favor of shallow tube wells. This study was conducted in Mahuwari Village, Rupandehi District to assess the feasibility for the rehabilitation of abandoned open dug wells by reassessing access to irrigation water during the dry season, in areas with limited conductivity of aquifer hydrogeology. The yields of the wells were observed to be too low for large-scale irrigation, especially with the rice paddy cropping system. An assessment of well storage and recharge patterns offer an opportunity for off-season supplementary irrigation of home gardens for establishing vegetables and seedlings, with good water management practices. The potential yield of the open dug wells at the peak of the dry season was 4 m3 day-1 (0.44 mm-ha), suficient to irrigate 0.12 ha of a tomato ield, satisfying 25% of a currently fallowed field for home gardening.
12 Suhardiman, Diana; Karki, Emma; Bastakoti, Ram C.. 2021. Putting power and politics central in Nepal’s water governance. Development Policy Review, 39(4):569-587. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12519]
Water governance ; Political systems ; Water resources ; Water management ; Development planning ; Bureaucracy ; Federalism ; Political parties ; Decision making ; Central government ; Stakeholders ; Government agencies ; Civil society organizations ; River basins ; Hydropower ; Development projects / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049871)
(0.59 MB)
Motivation: Power relations, and the politics shaping and reshaping them, are key to determining influence and outcomes in water governance. But current discourse on water governance tends to present decision-making as neutral and technical unaffected by political influences.
Purpose: Taking Nepal as a case, this article examines the close interlinkages between bureaucratic and political competition that indirectly influence decisions and outcomes on water governance, while placing this within the context of state transformation.
Approach and Methods: An in-depth case study examines the interactions of politicians and bureaucrats shaping decisions on water governance. It draws on semi-structured interviews and power-mapping to reveal insights from key stakeholders with decision-making power in national management of water resources.
Findings: Political competition drives the country’s development agenda and planning, resulting in fragmented development planning. It works in tandem with the prevailing bureaucratic competition in water resources management. It highlights the need to link the discourse and analysis water governance with processes of state transformation. The current fragmented development planning processes could serve as entry points for civil society groups and the wider society to convey their voice and exert their influence.
Policy implications: Following federalism, the political transfer of power and decision-making, to achieve political representation and social justice, rests with locally elected governing bodies. This coincides with the government’s push to manage water resources through river basin planning. There is a need for greater participation from the local governing bodies and understanding of politics and power shape water governance.
Purpose: Taking Nepal as a case, this article examines the close interlinkages between bureaucratic and political competition that indirectly influence decisions and outcomes on water governance, while placing this within the context of state transformation.
Approach and Methods: An in-depth case study examines the interactions of politicians and bureaucrats shaping decisions on water governance. It draws on semi-structured interviews and power-mapping to reveal insights from key stakeholders with decision-making power in national management of water resources.
Findings: Political competition drives the country’s development agenda and planning, resulting in fragmented development planning. It works in tandem with the prevailing bureaucratic competition in water resources management. It highlights the need to link the discourse and analysis water governance with processes of state transformation. The current fragmented development planning processes could serve as entry points for civil society groups and the wider society to convey their voice and exert their influence.
Policy implications: Following federalism, the political transfer of power and decision-making, to achieve political representation and social justice, rests with locally elected governing bodies. This coincides with the government’s push to manage water resources through river basin planning. There is a need for greater participation from the local governing bodies and understanding of politics and power shape water governance.
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