Irrigation development against rural poverty: an overview of trends in research and development

摘要

Water is recognized as a key poverty alleviation resource, which is available through a myriad of sources, and has a host of functions and uses in human life. While there has been considerable literature assessing various linkages between water and poverty alleviation, most of the research in the past has tended to focus within the narrow confines of disciplines. This paper aims to review the past work from various disciplines in relation to water and its role in poverty alleviation. Through an extensive literature survey, this paper has attempted to identify the shifts and tendencies in research and development related to water and poverty. The paper takes the reader through the irrigation developments and research on irrigation and poverty duringthe past 50 years. The paper argues that poverty alleviation remained at the heart of water development agenda throughout the period, though indirectly. The major weakness of the research and development approaches was a lack of focus on people's incentives to make a real change in the way water is managed. The agendas of various stakeholders at different levels vary and need to be understood in order to develop smart incentives benefiting the poor and balancing competing demands over water These incentives are the main drivers for adopting new systems and encouraging people to cooperate. However, these incentives might help to set a pro-poor system, only through a good understanding of people's opportunities and constraints. Therefore, the use of analytical approaches and frameworks that can reveal more complicated links between water and poverty, should be deployed while conducting primary research in the water sector for the future.