IRRIGATED RICE CULTURE IN MONSOON ASIA - THE SEARCH FOR AN EFFECTIVE WATER CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

In areas with monsoon rainfall rice is planted in the wet season with the assumption that the rainfall is generally adequate. Sporadic wet-season drought generates sporadic demand for irrigation - demand that cannot always be met - leading to farmer destruction of their own irrigation systems in a desperate attempt to extract water from the system and save standing crops. Desert irrigation systems are easier to design and less troublesome to operate because the irrigated area is well defined by the amount of water available, rainfall-dependent standing crops are absent and all farmers are acutely aware of their water allocation and rights. Structuring the monsoon systems to formalize the allocation of sporadic wet season scarcity, while protecting the civil works from farmer damage, is an unpleasant but necessary task. Unless the resulting high-quality core systems of the large public schemes of monsoon Asia are run as regulated and monitored public utilities, the rent-seeking activities of system designers, operators and individual farmers will continue to insure that actual system performance bears little resemblance to design intentions.