The ways in which irrigation affects rural livelihoods will be identified so positive effects can be enhanced and negative effects reduced. The SL framework will be applied to concepts and principles in policy and appraisal. Water use, production, impact on resource & environment will be determined. Outcomes will be compared with regional norms for irrigated and non-irrigated production. Economic/financial, environmental and institutional sustainability will be evaluated.

Research will be undertaken in Nepal and Bangladesh at scheme and household level (grass roots). The national socio-economic experts will have an essential role in helping to identify the interlinkages between grass roots and policy levels. The outputs from the project should help in national planning strategies and policy implemetation to the benefit of all levels - individual, scheme, national and international.

The intended outputs are as follows:

Team members visited Nepal and Bangladesh in December 2000 and April 2001. These initial visits were undertaken to initiate the process for government approval of the project, to discuss project objectives, programming and working methodologies, to identify and visit potential study schemes, to identify consultants to undertake the survey work and to pilot test the structured questionnaire.

In Nepal, scheme selection for data collection was finalised during the visit in April 2001: Yampaphant (Tanahu District), Gadkar (Nuwakot District) and Jana Kalyan (Chitawan District). (Maoist activity in Nuwakot District has since necessitated selection of an alternative scheme in pace of Gadkar). Structured questionnaires for data collection were also finalised during this visit.

An Inception Report was prepared and submitted to DFID in August 2001 (OD/TN 107) and a literature review highlighting the impact of irrigation in developing countries, with particular emphasis on Nepal and Bangladesh, was submitted in September 2001 (OD/TN 109).

A two-day training session was held in Kathmandu in September 2001, prior to the fieldwork in Nepal. The main objectives were for principal researchers, consultants and process investigators to develop a common understanding of the concepts and methodology for the socio-economic survey of selected systems and to refine the planned field methodology.

Structured questionnaires were then carried out whilst process investigators resided at the study schemes in Nepal during September and October 2001. The process investigators' studies complimented the statistical data collected in the questionnaires through investigation of the underlying processes and linkages within the irrigation schemes, using various PRA techniques.

A visit to Bangladesh has been organised to finalise site selection. It is envisaged that fieldwork will begin in Bangladesh in June 2002.

Imperial College at Wye, Ashford, Kent.

Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Local Development Training Academy (LDTA), Jawalkhel, Nepal

Tel: +44 (0) 1491 835381
Fax: +44 (0) 1491 832233
Email: dfid-kar-water@hrwallingford.co.uk