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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of social capital with bonding and bridging distinction in promoting higher participation in collective action in participatory irrigation management.

A sample of 304 farmers was surveyed using a structured questionnaire. A focus group discussion was also carried out with randomly selected water users, leaders and irrigation officers. A confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to test the hypothesised relationship of bonding and bridging social capital towards collective action.

The findings show that social capital has a significant direct effect on collective action and an indirect effect on joint irrigation management's perceived performance through collective action (mediator). It implies the need to complement the participatory irrigation management programme with an understanding of the social aspects for a higher farmer's participation over the shared resource.

The paper emphasises social capital's role in facilitating a real participatory engagement in shared resource management. Also, it is the first scholarly work linking social capital with bonding and bridging distinction towards collective action in a joint resource management context.

An understanding of the social entrepreneurial behavior of key stakeholders in Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) is of vital importance to the socioeconomic growth of a country. The term social entrepreneurship or social enterprise is relatively new to Sri Lanka just as it is with many other developing countries. Social entrepreneurs are those who solve social and environmental problems that hinder social inclusion, economic integration, and sustainable development. Though many entrepreneurs are operating across the different agricultural sectors for many years, the exact nature of social entrepreneurial behavior among them is still unknown. As an agricultural economy-based country, PIM policy encompassing many strategies has been implemented in Sri Lanka to eradicate poverty and hunger in society. Therefore, this chapter aims to focus on the socioentrepreneurship of five key stakeholders in PIM and to provide empirical evidence of their activities in the area of the Bata-atha branch canal in the Walawe irrigation scheme, Sri Lanka, where PIM has been implemented. This chapter finds that the establishment of the Bata-atha farm by the Ministry of Agricultural Development and the irrigation management of Bata-atha tail-end branch canal under the organizational efforts of the Agunukolapelessa block office of Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka presents a good example of an innovative and supportive farm management system that contributes to significant improvements in the socioeconomic situation of the vulnerable farming community. Moreover, this chapter shows that the collective action of active farmer organizations and successful sole proprietors in the area constitute social entrepreneurial behavior that contributes to the social transformation. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications this has for the irrigated agricultural sector and the need for further research to identify the potential for continued development by fostering the practices of socioentrepreneurship in the country.

Water resources development plays a central role in reducing poverty and achieving sustainable economic growth in Laos. The development of irrigation is vital for the rural population dependent on agricultural production, but irrigation projects have suffered from low levels of maintenance, as farmers have felt little ownership for the government projects. At the moment, a process of Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) is undertaken in Laos with the aim of transferring the management and operation of schemes to farmers. This article aims at evaluating, how IMT has been implemented in Laos and how it is affecting the sustainability of agriculture.

Heavily subsidised irrigation systems have been the government’s measure to improve the farmer’s lives. However, evaluation of the performance of these systems was often overlooked. Thus, this study aims to assess the efficiency of irrigation systems in Davao del Sur, Philippines, according to agricultural, social and economic aspects, namely cropping intensity, functionality and production and monthly average income per hectare, respectively. More than half of the national irrigation schemes exhibited outstanding functionality based on organisation, system and operation and maintenance areas, while almost 75% of the communal schemes have exhibited the same. On the other hand, communal systems have higher cropping intensities (wet – 106% and dry – 116%) than those of the national schemes (wet – 89.8% and dry – 89.1%). Results show that communal systems perform better than those managed by Irrigation Administration. The former have been given the full control over their farm areas, where it is expected that members of the association are able to fully articulate in the decision-making and participate in their activities. Although irrigation managers of the said agency have key roles in the capacity building and management of the irrigation systems, performances of such systems largely depended on how well farmers manage the irrigation association.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of four components of social capital on farmers’ participative behaviour in collective actions for constructing and operating small-scale groundwater irrigation systems on the Guanzhong Plain, Shaanxi Province, China.

The four components (social networks, social trust, social reciprocity and social participation) were derived by employing exploratory factor analysis. Logistic model was used to estimate the influence of these components on farmers’ participative behaviour. Information was obtained from a field survey covering six counties in 2011 of Shaanxi Province, China.

The findings indicate that considering different components of social capital allows for a better understanding of farmers’ participative behaviour. The authors find that higher levels of social trust and social participation lead to a higher propensity for collective action, while social reciprocity reduces the probability of participation. Other socio-economic factors and farming characteristics such as education levels, cultivated area, cropping patterns and grain subsidies also have a significant impact.

The findings suggest creating favourable conditions for communication and information exchanges between households, which enhance their trust of each other, and encourage farmers to participate in collective affairs. Moreover, supportive rules are necessary for the future development of collective action. The results of this study also have implications for national irrigation plans for small-scale irrigation facilities in other developing countries.

A consideration of the different components of social capital allows for a more precise understanding of farmers’ participative behaviour.

The quantity and quality of available water resources have been recognized limiting factors in development of most of the arid and semi arid regions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency, for water users' associations (WUA), of irrigation project Samrat Ashok Sagar (Halali) in India, using benchmarking by data envelopment analysis as the performance evaluation tool and to integrate the outcome of the benchmarking process for planning, design and effective management of available water resources.

To collect information or data required to calculate indicators, there was personal interaction with water users and executive engineers in‐charge of the project, and competent authority for WUA (sub‐engineers), with other technical staff and with establishment staff and the purpose of the study explained. In the analysis, the performance gap was compared within the scheme. The causes of the performance gap and the action required for closing the performance gap were explored. Data envelopment analysis was done for different sets of input output by input‐oriented model through software. The data collected were real time and validated from Samrat Ashok Sagar Irrigation and Drainage Project Authority.

It was found that the majority of WUAs as per model I to model VI had efficiency below 70 per cent, which is a matter of serious concern. It is evident that considerable variations occur amongst the various WUAs in terms of the operational characteristics reflected by the independent variables.

The paper demonstrates that it is evident that considerable variations occur amongst the various WUAs in terms of the operational characteristics reflected by the independent variables.

A varied amalgamation of diverse people and ecosystems, India, since its traditions inherits a collective based governance concept, otherwise colloquially known as Panchayat. A Panchayat is fundamentally a group of few wise men in a village, who would periodically meet to take decisions on any issue of local concern or conflict. Although, similar collective decision-making mechanisms would exist in other forms in other parts of the globe too, but what make Panchayats unique in the country, or one can say the whole sub-continent here, is the avenue for a direct participation by the people. The individuals in a village would quintessentially elect five wise men within their community, thus in a way leading to their own responsibility towards the decisions affecting them. On similar lines of collectiveness transgresses the term Pani Panchayat. Pani is the commonly used Indian vernacular for “water.” With more than two-thirds of the country's population directly dependent on water for livelihoods through agriculture, and therefore in the economy, due emphasis has been given to water for agriculture in implementation of its policies. However, water's role in drinking and sanitation, industrial needs, and environment has been submitted to improvidence.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to estimate the water demand elasticities using a parametric linear programming (LP) model to provide an insight into the accurate and flexible pricing policy of irrigation water in the Jordan Valley; and second, to highlight key risk aspects, related to water demand, which are likely to impact the community.

A parametric LP model was used in this research. Primary and secondary data were collected.

Results revealed that the demand elasticity is high in Spring and Summer than in Fall and Winter, meaning that during Spring and Summer farmers are willing to forgo larger amounts of water than in other months. This is because of areas planted during Spring seasons are much less than those of Autumn and Winter.

The Jordan Valley suffers from water scarcity risk, and consequently the area to be planted is not fully utilized, leading to lower cropping intensities. Responsible authorities in Jordan need to address these issues and propose proper solutions in order to reduce further escalation of this risk and subsequent impact on local communities. Insight into the value of water demand elasticities is essential to support and mitigate policy decision making under risk conditions, concerning investments in water supply systems; investments in the water distribution and irrigation systems; efficient allocation of water with competing sectors; setting water pricing and tariffs; setting cost recovery mechanisms, and the risks encountered under lack of mitigated policy decision making.

This is one of few studies that addresses in detail using a parametric LP model the issue of water scarcity, related risks and subsequent impact on society in Jordan. It is expected to help policy and decision makers better formulate future estimates and demand which subsequently reduce related risks.

Water‐induced hazards and disasters are usually compounded by the mismanagement of local water resources. Since the community bears the burden of disaster and is the first responder to the event, it is imperative to build the capacity of the community to enhance their coping mechanism and resilience to prepare for and face the disaster. The best strategy for the immediate as well as the long term cost‐benefit and pro‐environmental implications that will ensure prevention, mitigation and rehabilitation of water‐induced disaster is to ensure strong community participation. This paper elucidates the different forms of community participation and their comparative advantages in a socio‐economic dimension, thereby poverty alleviation. Agencies’ roles are analyzed in response to community participation. It is hoped that these theoretical and practical tips will benefit both community and agencies to work out better performances in advance.

This study aims to investigate how transformative learning has been conceptualised and operationalised in education for sustainable development (ESD) and sustainability learning and to collect evidence on how to support transformative learning in formal and non-formal environments.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review to provide a structured and replicable search and analysis of the relevant literature to produce a bibliometric overview that combines a quantitative description of the body of literature and qualitative analysis of the learning processes, outcomes and conditions.

The convergence between transformative learning and sustainability has become an emerging field of inquiry, despite the superficial use of transformative learning theory in many studies. By examining the learning process, outcomes and conditions in the core sample of studies, this study demonstrates that transformative learning theory – if carefully studied – can contribute to the design and implementation of educational interventions and assessments of learning towards sustainability. Furthermore, the sustainability context provides an empirical grounding that highlights the fact that social learning, the role of experience and the development of sustainability competencies are inherently part of transformative learning.

To date, few attempts have been made to better understand how transformative learning theory has been used in sustainability learning and ESD research. This systematic review allows for a better comprehension of how concepts and mechanisms elucidated in transformative learning theory are operationalised in sustainability learning and ESD research and serves as a source of inspiration for those researchers and practitioners who aims to make sustainability education, teaching and learning more transformative.