Jr. Many of our supporters ask why we publish books like Professor Wai Fung Lam's Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal . I want to take this opportunity to address this question. Small landholders are still the primary producers of farm products.
Irrigation is the key to the production of rice, Nepal's primary staple and export item.
Today there are more than 16,000 farmer-governed systems in Nepal that irrigate approximately 714,000 hectares, or about 67 percent of all irrigated land. Yet below the surface we find they share similar characteristics. They are based on reciprocity among farms, the necessity of human artisanship in designing self organizing and self governing systems, the importance of local knowledge to productivity, and diversity in governing institutions. The government undertook the building of massive irrigation systems and created a national Department of Irrigation. If citizens and policy makers are to reflect and choose the institutions that will bring about good government, then they must have access to information about the capabilities and limitations of alternatives.