Water When It Counts : Reducing Scarcity through Irrigation Monitoring in Central Mozambique

Christian, Paul ; Kondylis, Florence ; Mueller, Valerie ; Zwager, Astrid ; Siegfried, Tobias

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: WATER;    IRRIGATION;    WATER ALLOCATION;    WATER SUPPLY;    COMMON RESOURCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8345
RP-ID  :  WPS8345

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Management of common-pool resources inthe absence of individual pricing can lead to suboptimalallocation. In the context of irrigation schemes, this cancreate water scarcity even when there is sufficient water tomeet the total requirements. High-frequency data from threeirrigation schemes in Mozambique reveal patterns consistentwith inefficiency in allocations. A randomized control trialcompares two feedback tools: i) general information,charting the water requirements for common crops, and ii)individualized information, comparing water requirementswith each farmer's water use in the same season of theprevious year. Both types of feedback tools lead to higherreported and observed sufficiency of water relative torecommendations, and nearly eliminate reports of conflictsover water. The experiment fails to detect an additionaleffect of individualized comparative feedback relative to ageneral information treatment.