Irrigation management

Irrigation is the artificial exploitation and distribution of water at project level aiming at application of water at field level to agricultural crops in dry areas or in periods of scarce rainfall to assure or improve crop production. This article discusses organizational forms and means of management of irrigation water at project (system) level. Scholars such as Julian H. Steward and Karl August Wittfogel have seen the management of irrigation as a crucial factor in the development of many early states (hydraulic empires). The most important physical elements of an irrigation project are land and water. In accordance with the propriety relations of these elements there may be different types of water management: the communal type the enterprise type the utility type From the point of view of water, the universal law of water balance must be obeyed for any Water Use System, including an irrigation system. Until the end of the 19th century the development of irrigation projects occurred at a mild pace, reaching a total area of some 50 million ha worldwide, which is about 1/5 of the present area (see Irrigation statistics). The land was often private ha "privates" property or assigned by the village authorities to male or female farmers, but the water resources were in the hands of clans or communities who managed the water resources cooperatively. The enterprise type of water management occurred under large landowners or agricultural corporations, but also in centrally controlled societies. Both the land and water resources are in one hand. Large plantations were found in colonised countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but also in countries employing slave labor. It concerned mostly the large scale cultivation of commercial crops such as bananas, sugarcane and cotton. As a result of land reforms, in many countries the estates were reformed into a cooperatives in which the previous employers became members and exercised a cooperative form of land and water management.