Your search found 79 records
1 Chambers, R.; Ghildyal, B. P. 1984. Agricultural research for resource-poor farmers: The farmer-first-and last model. New Delhi, India: Ford Foundation. [6], 31, v p. (Ford Foundation discussion paper no.16)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631 G635 CHA Record No: H0235)
2 Chambers, R.. 1984. Improving canal irrigation management: No need to wait. New Delhi, India: Ford Foundation. 16, ii p. (Ford Foundation discussion paper no.15)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.6.2 G635 CHA Record No: H0234)
This paper suggests actions which irrigation system managers can take to improve performance without additional resources. Managers can use methods of rapid appraisal and a straightforward set of questions to identify feasible improvements. These can be found in three spheres of activity: (1) scheduling water distribution, especially to save or better use water at night; (2) communications; and (3) farmer participation. Improvements can be identified and introduced at once. There is no need for managers to wait.
3 Chambers, R.. 1984. To the hands of the poor: Water, trees and land. New Delhi, India: Ford Foundation. 22, v p. (Ford Foundation discussion paper no. 14)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.6.2 G635 CHA Record No: H0233)
Paper presented at the Institute of Economic Growth Silver Jubilee. National seminar programme, Delhi 27-30 April 1984. This paper argues for a shift in rural development strategy in India to place more water, trees and land securely in the hands of the poor. Practical percepts, including political feasibility, are used to identify and assess major potential thrusts. These include water reform on canal irrigation, equitable access to groundwater, tree holdings on forest and common land, agroforestry for resources-poor farmers, and land purchase to settle the landless.
4 Chambers, R.. 1984. Irrigation management: Ends, means and opportunities. In N. Pant (Ed.), Productivity and equity in irrigation systems . New Delhi, India: Ashish Publishing House. pp.13-50.
Irrigation management ; Equity ; Seepage loss ; Groundwater ; Training ; Canals / South Asia / India
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7 G635 PAN Record No: H0560)
Based on paper prepared for the workshop on productivity and equity in irrigation systems in India, Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, 21-23 September 1982.
5 Chambers, R.. 1978. Water management and paddy production in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Colombo, Sri Lanka: ARTI. x, 71p. (ARTI occasional publication no.8)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.2 G744 CHA Record No: H0638)
6 Chambers, R.. 1979. Social science research on irrigation: Some priorities and challenges for the next decade. Paper presented at Irrigation Management Workshop, Los Banos, Philippines, 26-30 March 1979. 19p.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 707 Record No: H0971)
7 Chambers, R.. 1983. Rapid appraisal for improving existing canal irrigation systems. New Delhi, India: Ford Foundation. 31, viii p. (Ford Foundation discussion paper no. 8)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.8 G000 CHA Record No: H0464)
This exploratory paper outlines some types of action to improve the performance of existing canal irrigation systems, and asks how to identify the best choice, mix and sequence of actions for a particular system. Current disciplinary orientations and appraisal practices are examined, and their tendency to overlook the full range of options. Proposals are presented for using techniques of rapid rural appraisal, and those who conduct appraisals are urged to write about and share their experience.
8 Chambers, R.. 1983. Rural development: Putting the last first. London, UK: Longman. x, 246 p.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 307.72 G000 CHA Record No: H01224)
9 Chambers, R.. 1980. Rural poverty unperceived: Problems and remedies. Washington, DC, USA: World Bank. 51 p. (World Bank staff working paper no. 400)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 339.46 G000 CHA Record No: H01241)
10 Chambers, R.; Lenton, R. 1981. Action research on irrigation: Traps, tactics and a code. Paper presented at International Seminar on Field Research Methodologies for Improved Irrigation Systems Management, Coimbatore, 15-18 September 1981. 23p.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 1089 Record No: H01432)
11 Chambers, R.. 1984. Farmers above the outlet: Irrigators and canal management in south Asia. Draft manuscript. 30p.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 590 Record No: H01545)
12 Chambers, R.. 1981. In search of a water revolution: Priorities for irrigation management in the 1980's. Water Supply & Management, 5(1):5-19.
Rural development ; Irrigation management ; Research ; Equity ; Water supply ; Flow ; Project appraisal ; Political aspects
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 1213 Record No: H01624)
13 Chambers, R.; Carruthers, I. 1985. Diagnostic analysis to improve canal irrigation performance: Problems and approaches. v.p.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 705 Record No: H01627)
(1.07 MB)
Paper presented to the Review and Development Seminar on Selected Issues in Irrigation Management, IIMI, Digana Village, Sri Lanka, 15-19 July 1985.
14 Chambers, R.. 1986. Canal irrigation at night: Another blind spot. Irrigation and Drainage Systems, 1(1):45-74.
Canals ; Irrigation practices ; Irrigation efficiency ; Water distribution ; Costs / Asia / South East Asia
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 1422 Record No: H01651)
Most canal irrigation water in South and Southeast Asia and elsewhere continues to flow at night and much is badly used or wasted. Yet what happens to water at night is a neglected subject. Darkness, cold, fear, normal working hours, and desire for sleep deter irrigation staff, farmers and labourers from activities at night. At the farm level, irrigation at night entails extra labour and costs. It requires smaller streamflows and well shaped fields. Paddy and trees are the easiest crops to irrigate, and younger, lower and more thinly spread crops are usually easier than those which are older, taller and denser. On the lower parts of the main systems, control at night often passes informally from irrigation staff to irrigators. Productivity of water at night is raised by lower evaporation losses, but this gain is more than offset by losses from inefficient water application, breaks in channels, and wasted water flowing into drains. Reuse of night drainage water lower down sometimes makes waste less wasteful than it appears. Equity effects at night are mixed: Some farmers poach at the expense of the others, but some get water at night who are denied it during the day. Night irrigation increases costs and inconvenience to small farmers, but raises labourers' incomes. Flooding and waterlogging can result from uncontrolled water flows at night. Practical implications are of two types: a. Reducing irrigation at night - through regulating sluice releases or run-of-the-river diversion flows; intermediate storage; diversion to travelling; redistributing daytime water; and passing water to drains and escapes; and b. Improving irrigation at night - by predictable, constant and manageable streamflows; convenient field shaping and application methods; choices of crop; zoning for night flows; and phasing for short nights, warmth and visibility. The potential for improved performance on canal irrigation systems from reducing and improving irrigation at night is hard to assess but appears large. This paper tries to provoke system managers, designers and researchers to explore this potential and to publish and circulate their findings. Canal irrigation at night is too important to remain a blind spot any longer.
15 Chambers, R.. 1976. Criteria for evaluating and improving irrigation management. Paper presented at the ODI Workshop on Choices in Irrigation Management, 27 September to 1 October, 1976. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. 12p.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 706 Record No: H01703)
This paper seeks to identify objectives and criteria for use in evaluating and improving the operation and management of surface gravity irrigation systems, particularly those with a water control bureaucracy. Many different sorts of objective are attributed to irrigation projects and these generate many different criteria for evaluation. Evaluators should avoid either taking refuge in a single, simple measurable criterion (such as "efficiency" in one of its senses) or being swamped by overinclusive admission of too many criteria. Five generic criteria are proposed as a framework for the organization of evaluation - productivity, equity, convenience (to irrigators), environmental stability, and cost-effectiveness. The achievement of an optimal mix of these involves an analysis of complementaries, conflicts and trade-offs between them, convenience to irrigators emerging as important not only in its own right but because of its potential for reconciling conflicts between productivity and equity. To achieve optimal mixes of these objectives through a water control organization, good communications and good discipline are essential but these involve conflicting values which are difficult to reconcile. One implication is that management expertise is needed in any evaluation team. Finally a set of non-disciplinary questions are proposed as a possible framework for starting points for evaluation.
16 Chambers, R.. 1981. Canal irrigation management in India: Some areas for action, analysis and research. In Keller, J.; Lowdermilk, M. K. ; Levine, G. ; Chambers, R., General Asian overview of irrigation development options and investment strategies for the 1980's. Logan, UT, USA: Utah State University. pp.44-70.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.8 G570 KEL Record No: H01704)
17 Wade, R.; Chambers, R.. 1980. Managing the main system: Canal irrigation's blind spot. Economic and Political Weekly, 15(39):A107-A112.
Irrigation operation ; Primary level irrigation ; Performance evaluation ; Water use efficiency / South Asia / South East Asia
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 1294 Record No: H01706)
Irrigation will continue to get very high priority in strategies to increase food production and labor absorption in agriculture. But plans for irrigation investment in South and Southeast Asia are being made with too little attention to diagnosing the causes of the generally disappointing performance of large, publicly-operated canal systems. One set of causes, which the authors argue here are very important, are simply not considered; they are 'screened out' from consideration from the very beginning. The remedies are hence unlikely to have the effects expected of them.
18 Chambers, R.. 1978. Identifying research priorities in water development. Water Supply & Management, 2:389-398.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 1149 Record No: H01707)
This paper speculates on factors influencing priorities in water-related research, suggests complementary and corrective approaches, and presents examples of the sort of priorities which might emerge from using them. The values underlying judgement in the paper concern improving the levels of living of the people, especially the poorer people, in rural areas of the third world. Throughout "research" includes Research and Development (R and D), and the "natural sciences" are the physical and biological sciences.
19 Chambers, R.. 1987. Food and water as if poor people mattered: A professional revolution. In W. R. Jorden (Ed.), Water and water policy in world food supplies: Proceedings of the conference, 26-30 May 1985. Texas A & M University College Station, TX. USA: Texas A & M University Press. pp.15-21.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 587 Record No: H01708)
Hunger is an extreme sign of deprivation. Failures to eliminate hunger, and past errors of belief, are reason for humility and reappraisal. Hunger in the modern world is a problem not of production but of poverty, not of the total food available but of who produces it and who can command it. Normal professionalism is also part of the problem. To alleviate deprivation and hunger, professionals need to learn from and with those who are last - the poor - and to put their priorities first, including livelihoods and personal food security. Irrigation's benefits to the land-poor - the landless and those with little land - are easily underestimated. They can include higher production, employment on more days, higher daily wages, less need to migrate, and reduced risks. From canal irrigation, benefits to the land- poor can be realized through redistribution of canal water, sliding scales of water entitlements, increases in cropping intensities, more predictability and less hassle in water supply, and equitable land distribution. From groundwater, benefits to the land-poor can be sought with pumps of + to 3 HP, rights and access to water, public policy with power tariffs, spacing wells and tubewells, and trees as poor people's solar pumps. Last-first approaches can also be applied to drinking water, water for pastoralism, common-property land, watershed development, energy, and agricultural research. Normal professionalism points away from these opportunities; to realize them and enable the poor to overcome hunger and deprivation demands a new professionalism which puts the last first.
20 Chambers, R.. 1977. Men and water: The organization and operation of irrigation. In B. H. Farmer (Ed.), Green revolution? Technology and change in rice-growing areas of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka (pp. 340-363). London, UK: Macmillan.
Irrigation management ; Irrigation operation ; Water distribution ; Farmer-agency interactions ; Water user associations / India / Sri Lanka
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.3 G635 CHA Record No: H01709)
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