Question

What are some of the Organizing Activities within a Project?

Answer 1

Once a call has been reached on the foremost applicable variety of horizontal organization at the project level, there area unit additional inquiries to be thought of concerning the pattern on that specialist units ought to be got wind of at intervals the organization. specially, there area unit 2 vital queries regarding the division of responsibilities for water management. the primary is whether or not water distribution and maintenance work ought to be undertaken by constant unit or 2 completely different ones; and therefore the second is whether or not there ought to be a further unit with specific responsibilities for aiding farmers in matters associated with the water management at the watercourse or little cluster level, that is mentioned additional on within the text.

With relevance the primary question, there area unit sturdy grounds for argument that, except on terribly little comes wherever the 2 functions might ought to be combined, there ought to be separate units for water distribution and maintenance, every with its own specialist cadre. the explanation for this is often that the talents needed in every case area unit terribly completely different. Water distribution needs careful information of agricultural processes, whereas maintenance work is best administered by civil engineers within the case of canal and evacuation systems and by mechanical engineers within the case of wells and low-lift pumps. If functions area unit to be differentiated on the idea of specialization of skills, this may imply that canal systems ought to have 2 units - one for operation and one for maintenance - and systems with further groundwater or wired provides 3 units: (i) canal and well operation (for conjunctive use of surface and groundwater); (ii) canal and evacuation maintenance; and (iii) well and pump maintenance. This pattern, that is employed by the Irrigation Associations in Taiwan Province (Republic of China), has obvious deserves over the subsequent division of responsibilities that isn't uncommon elsewhere: (i) canal operation and maintenance; (ii) well/pump operation and maintenance; and (iii) evacuation operation and maintenance.

An alternative resolution would be to provide water distribution specialists responsibility for maintenance also. The practicableness of such an answer would rely upon the scope and quality of the upkeep operate of the project involved. On some comes, for instance, mechanical maintenance could be a advanced and long activity and needs the undivided attention of a specialist cadre; on others, maintenance work might embrace a considerable quantity of minor style and construction work, within which case the full-time attention of a separate cadre is once more needed. all told cases, the vital principle to be discovered is that water distribution must always be done by individuals with applicable specialist coaching, and therefore the quality of their work mustn't be impaired by overloading them with too significant maintenance responsibilities.

Organizational structure at the little cluster level:

There is a selected have to be compelled to establish farmer teams at the native level wherever the quantity of little farm units is therefore high that it's not possible for every one to be supplied with services like agricultural extension. On giant and medium-sized irrigation comes, this usually results in the necessity for water users' teams to be fashioned for the aim of organizing water distribution and maintenance work below the watercourse outlet. The project's organizers will seldom afford the employees which might be needed for the direct management of diverse little channels and field retailers. Moreover, if well-trained, water users' teams area unit probably to be the simplest doable agencies for the aim as a result of their members' intimate information of native conditions.The need for a special unit at intervals the project organization to coach farmers concerning watercourse operation and maintenance depends on the extent of the farmers' previous expertise of irrigated agriculture and therefore the degree of social cohesion at intervals the farming community. In small-farmer agriculture, there'll nearly always be a necessity for intensive extension work on watercourse management within the early stages of AN irrigation project. this could have the twin purpose of training farmers concerning the technical aspects of excellent operation and maintenance at intervals the watercourse space {for that|that} they're communally accountable and additionally of fostering the event of little cluster establishments to which increasing responsibilities will be delegated over time. Initially, a separate cadre of field employees is probably going to be needed for the aim, however as time passes and therefore the farmers' capability to manage their own watercourse affairs will increase, it ought to be doable to transfer these extension and superior responsibilites to the water distribution employees.

One purpose that should be powerfully stressed is that agricultural extension employees ought to on no account be asked to require on this work. Not solely would this leave them less time for his or her principal work on the farm level that is of notably important importance within the early stage of irrigation development, however there area unit sure aspects of the work (involving the resolution of native conflicts over water and therefore the imposition of discipline) that area unit incompatible with the agricultural extensionists' effective performance of their central role because the farmers' counsellor and friend.However, the work of those special units is probably going to be a aloof from straightforward task. Not solely can individual farmers be unfamiliar smart water management practices however there is also very little natural social cohesion among those UN agencyse land happens to fall at intervals a selected watercourse command and who area unit thus expected to join forces with each other in a very reciprocally advantageous approach. Friction is especially probably to occur in societies with spiritual variations and important disparities in power between larger and smaller farmers, manifesting itself in refusals to share water equitably or to collaborate in watercourse maintenance. there's additionally nearly always a possible conflict between the interest of head-reach and tail-reach farmers at intervals the watercourse.

Under these circumstances cluster formation can typically need abundant patient effort, backed by a capability to use powerful sanctions against persistently uncooperative people or teams, and a necessary condition for fulfillment could be a reliable and predictable water distribution service to the watercourse outlet. However, once farmers are persuaded of the long-run personal advantages of cooperative action, a minimum of 2 different major benefits will follow from the existence of effective water users' teams besides the first one among improved watercourse management:

a. they'll facilitate to produce some extent of contact for different services - agricultural extension, credit, input provides - and will prove notably valuable for this purpose in societies wherever giantr village-level cooperative organizations have unsuccessful attributable to domination by large farmers.

b. they must additionally offer the simplest doable foundation on that to make a system of representative farmer participation in decision-making at the project level. Indeed, unless such native teams will be fashioned, it's unlikely in several societies that the farmers chosen to participate at the project level are going to be genuinely representative of the mass of farmer opinion. native cluster formation is so a key to a long-run method of social transformation at intervals the project space.Because of the nice potential contribution of watercourse teams to improved project performance, the style within which a project's watercourses area unit designed at the design stage takes on value-added importance. it's usually united from observation of ad lib fashioned farmer teams (including those fashioned for the aim of managing little "indigenous" irrigation systems), that there'll be the best probability of cooperative action and therefore the least probability of major conflict or giant farmer domination wherever the teams area unit terribly little - typically between ten and thirty farmers.1 This issue ought to thus be terribly rigorously thought of by project planners. choices primarily based entirely on topographic concerns and price of survey area unit unlikely to be satisfactory. queries additionally have to be compelled to be asked concerning the quantity of farm units at intervals every watercourse and therefore the cohesiveness of the native society.2 this is often another example of the importance of basing technological choices on science info and thence of the necessity to contemplate management problems early within the designing method.

Organization at the govt level

A few words additionally have to be compelled to be aforesaid concerning structure structure at the national and provincial government levels, since this can also typically have a really important influence on AN irrigation project's performance.As way as horizontal relationships between departments area unit involved, it's clearly fascinating that collaboration between irrigation and agriculture be terribly shut although they're not actually a part of constant Ministry. this is often notably vital for the needs of achieving a balanced and integrated approach to project designing. valuable support also can run to the advance of management practices at the project level through a central analysis agency with responsibilities for steering and coordinating field experiments on crop water necessities, optimum irrigation intervals, etc., in several agro-climatic regions of the country. The results of those experiments will then be tested on every irrigation project and tailored to its own specific circumstances.

The nature of the vertical relationship between the upper level of state administration and project management is of nice importance. If the project manager is to perform his operate well it's essential that goodbye as his appointment is within the hands of state, terribly substantial authority and autonomy of decision-making ought to be delegated to him. At the later stages of a project's development the manager might mechanically acquire bigger autonomy if a policy is followed (as in several Irrigation Associations) of holding the revenue from farmers' fees at intervals the project agency itself. This method might eventually result in the manager changing into AN appointee of the farmers themselves, with government providing solely a restricted quantity of supporting finance. within the absence of such a policy of devolution of powers to AN Association or a project authority, however, the govt should make sure that the project manager and his senior employees area unit in a very position to act as comparatively freelance managers, not merely as passive directors of policies ordered down for them at higher levels.