ASCOT Library Zabali Campus

Introduction. –
Objectives and methods. –
Institutional constraints to rural development. –
Investments in irrigation development. –
Organizational requirements in irrigation. –
The need for planning guidelines. –
Irrigation development in the Philippines. –
Large- or small -scale: parallel problems. –
The development of irrigated agriculture in the Ilocos: and introduction to the Zanjera. –
The regional environment. –
The emergence of irrigated agriculture in the Ilocos. –
The logic of irrigation development. –
The Zanjeras of Ilocos Norte. –
Traditions identified in previous studies. –
A brief interpretation of the process of Zanjera development. –
Land development and system operation. –
Irrigation responsibilities and Zanjera administration. –
Incentives for members' involvement and participation. –
Egalitarianism and participation. –
Technological and financial self-reliance. –
The Bacarra-Vintar Federation of Zanjeras : a case study. –
Present information on federation. –
Relevance to work on water users organizations. –
A federation of nine Zanjeras. –
History and development of the federation. –
The incorporation of the nine Zanjeras. –
Decision-making, technology and system maintenance. –
Changing social economic conditions. –
Labor and material contributions. –
The costs of operation and maintenance. –
An evaluation of system operation. –
Climate and crops. –
Soils and water requirements. –
System design and layout. –
Water distribution procedures. –
Water supply and allocation. –
Water use efficiencies. –
Cropping patterns and dry season efficiencies. –
Farmers' perceptions of water availability. –
Analysis of existing distribution pattern. –
Guidelines for system improvement. –
Conclusions and recommendations. –
The rationale for studies of indigenous organizations. –
Lessons for institutional development.

"Strategies for rural development which are now being applied are heavily reliant on the formation of effective local organizations. The belief among many observers is that rural organizations are the best, if not the only, instruments that the poor can create and use to voice their demands, enforce their claims, and manage community resources. The experience, however, of mobilizing communities for political or economically productive activities is characterized largely by failure. Over 800 million people are living today in absolute poverty and their numbers have steadily increased over the past two decades. In the midst of this dismal record of development intervention, there is a growing body of research which provides much optimism, hope and guidance for efforts at assisting rural communities through organ- izational development. This is the body of literature on the indigenous, participatory rural organizations which have emerged in diverse contexts, times and circumstances throughout rural Asia.
This book, which hopes to add to the growing literature on rural institutions, is an intensive study and multidisciplinary analysis of a fascinatingly intricate yet rationally structured rural organization-the zanjera, a type of water users' association found primarily in the northern Philippines. It is an organization that has demonstrated remark- able and sustained success in mobilizing local, low-opportunity cost human and material resources for the construction, operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. In this study, the author attempts to understand and explain the principles and elements of cooperative behavior and parti- cipation which set the zanjera apart from other rural organizations in the developing world.
This study demonstrates that there is much logic and pragmatism in the managerial and technical choices made by rural people, that the major factors behind the effective- ness, dynamism and adaptability of indigenous groups like the zanjera are organizational and technical principles which, unfortunately, are left out of many development plans and projects. The implications. for action and intervention, as elaborated in the study's conclusions, are manifold for the scholar as much as for the practitioner, the rural sociologist as much as the economist, the policy maker as much as the field technician, the irrigation specialist as much as the development generalist."