Can Locally Developed Institutions Promote the Management of Farmer Led Irrigation Development? Lessons from Nyando Sub County, Western Kenya
Abstract
Institutions are considered crucial for any irrigation enterprise to thrive, this is because they enable ordered thought and provide a framework for how irrigation will be carried out. The past decade has shown an intensification in irrigation development in Kenya with the government seeking to expand the area under irrigation. However, this expansion is expected to take place in the mainstream irrigation forms recognized by the government. Farmer Led Irrigation Development (FLID) is an alternative form of irrigation that is growing significantly and is already contributing to the area under irrigation and yet remains unacknowledged by policymakers. In FLID, farmers oversee their irrigation enterprise making decisions on the how, the what, the where, and the when. Its growth is spontaneous and to a larger extent seems unplanned. There is a lack of understanding of the institutions within which FLID operates and how the use of water and the attendant infrastructure is managed. In this paper, the theory of institutional bricolage is adopted to analyze whether locally developed institutions can promote the management of FLID. Using household interviews, KIIs, and FGDs data, the study identifies the institutions operating in the study area, their functions, and how farmers have adapted to the vacuum left by these institutions. The study finds that despite the existence of irrigation schemes in the area that have formal structures in place, their scope does not cover FLID and farmers have thus been forced to come up with their institutions in a patchwork of the old and new. These have been formed through institutional bricolage, which shapes and reshapes both bureaucratic and socially embedded institutions to develop hybrid institutions. The study concludes that there are different categories of institutions in the area; bureaucratic which have failed to acknowledge FLID, socially embedded in which the farmers are involved daily, and hybrid institutions which is a combination of both
Downloads
References
Beekman, W., & Veldwisch, G. J. (2016). Supporting Farmer-Led Irrigation in Mozambique: Reflections on Field-Testing a New Design Approach. 11–13.
Bosma, L. (2015). “You’ ve got to pump it up” Analysis of the appropriation and utilization of petrol pumps for small scale horticulture in West-Uyoma, Kenya.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Cleaver, F. (2002). Reinventing institutions: Bricolage and the social embeddedness of natural resource management. The European Journal of Development Research, 14(2), 11–30.
Cleaver, F. (2012). Development Through Bricolage: Rethinking Institutions for Natural Resource Management.
Cleaver, F., & Toner, A. (2006). The evolution of community water governance in Uchira, Tanzania: The implications for equality of access, sustainability and effectiveness. Natural Resources Forum, 30(3), 207–218. Wiley Online Library.
Cochran, W. G. (1977). Sampling Techniques Third Edition.pdf. 428.
Fraiture, C. De, & Giordano, M. (2013). Small private irrigation: A thriving but overlooked sector. Agricultural Water Management, 131, 167–174.
Giordano, M., & de Fraiture, C. (2013). Small private irrigation: Enhancing benefits and managing trade-offs. Agricultural Water Management, 131, 175–182.
GoK. (2018). Kenya Gazette Supplement. Finance Act, 2018, 59(59), 165. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/dyn/travail/docs/505/Employment Act 2007.pdf
Hassenforder, E., & Barone, S. (2018). Institutional arrangements for water governance. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 0627, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2018.1431526
Hillbom, E. (2012). When water is from God: Formation of property rights governing communal irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania, c. 1890-2011. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 6(3), 423– 443. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2012.696891
Hodgson, G. M. (2006). What are institutions? Journal of Economic Issues, 40(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2006.11506879
Hollingsworth, J. R. (2000). Doing institutional analysis: Implications for the study of innovations. Review of International Political Economy, 7(4), 595– 644. https://doi.org/10.1080/096922900750034563
Irrigation, M. of W. and. National Irrigation Policy, Republic of Kenya § (2017).
Kenya, G. of. Constitution of Kenya, 2010, Kenya Law Reports § (2010).
Kenya, G. of. (2015). Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries: NationaL Irrigation Policy.
Koning, J. De. (2011). Reshaping Institutions: Bricolage Process in Smallholder Forestry in the Amazon.
Mdemu, M. V., Mziray, N., Bjornlund, H., & Kashaigili, J. J. (2017). Barriers to and opportunities for improving productivity and profitability of the Kiwere and Magozi irrigation schemes in Tanzania. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 33(5), 725– 739. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2016.1188267
Méndez-Barrientos, L. E., Kemerink, J. S., Wester, P., & Molle, F. (2018). Commercial farmers’ strategies to control water resources in South Africa: an empirical view of reform. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 34(2), 245– 258. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2016.1253544
Moon, N. N., Hossain, M. E., Khan, M. A., Rahman, M. A., & Saha, S. M. (2020). Land tenure system and its effect on productivity, profitability and efficiency of Boro rice production in northern part of Bangladesh. Turkish Journal of Agriculture-Food Science and Technology, 8(11), 2433–2440.
Mutua, F. (2012). A Comparison of Spatial Rainfall Estimation Techniques: A Case Study of Nyando River Basin Kenya. 14(1), 95–112.
Mziray, N., & Mdemu, M. V. (2015). Baseline data survey report: Kiwere and Magozi irrigation schemes in Tanzania. Increasing irrigation water productivity in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe through on-farm monitoring, adaptive management and agricultural innovation platforms. Dar es Salaam: Arhdi University.
Namara, R. E., Gebregziabher, G., Giordano, M., & De Fraiture, C. (2013). Small pumps and poor farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa: An assessment of current extent of use and poverty outreach. Water International.
Nkoka, F., Veldwisch, G. J., & Bolding, A. (2014). Organisational Modalities of Farmer-led Irrigation Development in Tsangano District , Mozambique. 7(2), 414–433.
Noij, F., & Niemeijer, R. (1988). Resident tenants at the Ahero Irrigation Scheme: household economics and nutrition. Nairobi: Ministry of Planning and National Development, Food and Nutrition Planning Unit.
Olang, L. O., Kundu, P. M., Ouma, G., & Fürst, J. (2012). Impacts of Land Cover Change Scenarios on Storm Runoff Generation: A Basis for Management of the Nyando River Basin, Kenya. Land Degradation & Development, 277(January), 267–277.
Ostrom, E. (2003). How Types Of Goods And Property Rights Jointly Affect Collective Action. 15(3), 239–270.
Patel, S., Vedeld, P., & Tarimo, A. (2014). Irrigation Management, Institutions and Local Livelihood Adaptation on Usangu Plains , Tanzania. (49).
Peloso, M. M., & Harris, L. M. (2017). Pathways for Participatory Water Governance in Ashaiman, Ghana: Learning from Institutional Bricolage and Hydrosocial Perspectives. Society & Natural Resources, 30(12), 1491–1506.
Rahman, A. A., & Othman, P. F. (2012). The agricultural land tenancy contract from the Islamic perspective and its practice among farmers: A study in Selangor, Malaysia. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 7(10), 1584–1594.
Rejekiningrum, P., & Kartiwa, B. (2018). Institutional Development of Irrigation Management. 1(1), 52–62.
REPUBLIC OF KENYA Ministry of Water and Irrigation The National Water Services Strategy (NWSS). (2015). (June 2007).
Sakketa, T. G. (2018). Institutional bricolage as a new perspective to analyse institutions of communal irrigation: Implications towards meeting the water needs of the poor communities. World Development Perspectives, 9, 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2017.11.003
van Koppen, B., & Schreiner, B. (2019). A hybrid approach to Statutory water law to support smallholder Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLID) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Water Alternatives, 12(1), 146–155.
Veldwisch, G. J., Beekman, W., & Bolding, A. (2013). Smallholder irrigators, water rights and investments in agriculture: Three cases from rural Mozambique. Water Alternatives, 6(1), 125.
Woodhouse, P., Veldwisch, G. J., Venot, J., Komakech, H., Manjichi, Â., Woodhouse, P., … Brockington, D. (2017). African Farmer-Led Irrigation Development : Re-Framing Agricultural Policy and Investment ? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 44(1), 213–233.
Yahuza, B. S., & Idris, M. (2015). An Assessment of the Shari’ah Compliant Muzara’ah and Local Sharecropping Practice in Kano State, Nigeria. International Conference on Islamic Banking and Finance Organized by International Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance.
Copyright (c) 2024 Elizabeth Achieng Aduma, George Mark Onyango, PhD, Mathews Dida, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
