Transcript Country Report

Presented by
Mr. Phouthone SIRIPHANTHONG
Deputy Director of O&M Division
Department of Irrigation, MAF.
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I.
II.
III.
IV.
Irrigation Sector Overview
Irrigation Development
Lessons learnt
National Strategy and Policy direction
in Irrigated Agriculture Sector
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Irrigation sector has been given an important mandate
to achieve national food security and commodity
production.
The Irrigation Development Program is aimed at
increasing rural incomes and stabilizing rice
availability by expanding irrigated areas for both wet
season and dry season production and to improve the
operation and maintenance of existing irrigation
systems.
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Some of the water resource issues identified under the
Irrigation Development Plan are the:
(i) need for participation of farmers and communities for
effective and sustainable use of all resources;
(ii) need for efficient use of water for increased agricultural
system performance;
(iii) concern for watershed degradation; and
(iv) insufficient funds to provide timely and adequate GOL
support to the sector, at all levels.
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The Irrigation Strategy recognizes the need for:
(i) A participatory approach to ensure the participation of
farmers, as well as district and provincial officials;
(ii) Training in technical matters related to irrigation;
(iii) Decentralization of responsibility for decision making to the
provincial level with related administrative change; and
(iv) High levels of capital investment.
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Irrigation sector went through a radical transformation
in the 90’s with the boom in pumped irrigation,
promoted to attain rice self-sufficiency, at that time, the
main objective of national policy.
Through the National Pump Installation and
Management Project, GoL installed, between 1996 and
2000, more than 7,000 diesel or electric pumps in
villages along the Mekong and its main tributaries. In
most of the cases, government technical services
constructed the headworks but, as funds were
insufficient, the distribution network was left to village
community.
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Dry season irrigated areas increased from a 50.000
hectares in 1997, to 120.000 hectares in 2007.
Although concentrated mainly in the southern part of
the country, including some Mekong River District
These efforts (along with agricultural research
successes on rice varieties improvements) significantly
contributed to increase rice production.
In 2000, GoL declared rice self sufficiency nation
wide.
The Mekong River Provinces have contributed most to
this increase in productivity
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Irrigated areas in the past 10 years (1997-2007)
600.000
Ha
500.000
400.000
Wet Season Irrigation
300.000
Dry Season Irrigation
200.000
Annual Irrigated Area
100.000
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
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Irrigation development has focused on food security with
a small window for agricultural commodity production.
Government has largely invested in the construction of
irrigation systems especially under Pump Irrigation
Priority Projects. There was large participation from the
local communities, so, an irrigation management transfer
(IMT) policy and regulations was developed and applied.
Water user groups and associations were established in
almost all irrigation systems; hence, new water
management mechanisms such as the collection of water
fees, the development of O&M and Village Development
Funds were made.
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Yet, the production in irrigated areas has largely decreased.
Problems with efficiency in operation and maintenance.
(is IMT the right approach?)
Changing role of irrigation sector in agriculture
development - should go further than the design and
construction of irrigation systems.
There many critical related activities, which have not been
properly addressed by our sub-sector for example;
◦ crops extension considered as the task of the Agriculture SubSector;
◦ planning for operation and maintenance of irrigation
considered as the task of the provinces and water user
organizations
Mekong River districts have more access to water, transport of
goods to markets and have increased production. They have
more resources to purchase spare parts and maintain equipment.
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Irrigated Agriculture is an important contributor to
the achievement of the goals of NSEDP 2001-2020
New strategy would need to be more holistic than in
the past
Irrigation development initiatives need to consider
many factor, not only those related to the
infrastructure
New strategy should refer to irrigation as “irrigated
agriculture” rather than “irrigation engineering”
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The wider environment
The irrigated agriculture sub-sector
Political
factors
Economic
factors
Inputs:
-Land & water
Outputs:
-Labor
Market
-Technology
-Seed
Irrigated
Agriculture: crop
production
-Fertilizer,
pesticides and
herbicides
-Main products
-by-products
Market
Waste
-Others
-others
Technology
factors
Socio-cultural
factors
Legal factors
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THANK YOU
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