Researcher(s):
Travis Meng
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2016 Completed: May 2017 Go to project site
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Irrigated agriculture has changed dramatically in the last 50 years and has in turn fostered change and economic development in rural communities. Numerous programs have been designed to encourage local farmer organizations to assume greater roles in finance, management, operation, and maintenance of their systems. Agricultural water is problematic to privatize because it is always in continuous flow. Under times of scarcity, these questions about management become more important for the livelihoods of agricultural communities. This capstone is an assessment of the case studies of participatory irrigation in the context of Southeast Asia. I argue that notions of farmer participation and robust infrastructure are the most important factors of participatory irrigation management in the situated context, they are integral components of community based natural resource management that should be promoted over centralized resource management.