Research on institutions for agricultural water management under the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 126

Institutions therefore play crucial roles in water allocation, coordination of
action, risk management, conflict resolution and overall water governance.
There are many different types of institutions, both formal and informal,
that can serve these functions. These can be broadly classified as state, market
and collective action (or “customary”) institutions (Uphoff, 1993). This
classification focuses on the agencies involved in implementation. For example,
flood risk may be managed by state intervention, by private-sector markets for
flood insurance or by neighborhood assistance—or a combination of these.
Figure 6.1 illustrates the importance of two types of key institutions for
agricultural water management. The vertical axis shows the spatial scale of a
technology, from an individual plot, through a whole farm, to a community,
region and even global scale. All approaches that are above the scale of the
individual farm require some form of coordination—either by local orga-
nizations, the state or the market. For example, a homestead fish pond or well
may be owned by an individual small farmer. But where holdings are small
and tubewells have large capacity, farmers may join together to buy and operate
a tubewell, or the state may install and operate it, or one farmer can install it

PROPERTY RIGHTS

International
River Basins

Region

Nation

C
O
O
R
D
I
N
A
T
I
O
N

Aquifer
management

S
P
A
C
E

Watershed
management

Small
reservoirs

Village

Community
aquaculture

Information
sharing

Check
dams

Terracing

Group

Well
Homestead
Annual crop fishpond

Plot Agroforestry

Short Long

TIME

Figure 6.1 Coordination and property rights institutions for agricultural water
management.
Source: adapted from Knox et al., 1998.