Though India has the largest irrigation sector in the world, it has been confronting with a number of different problems over the last two decades or so. Poor water use efficiency under surface method of irrigation, subtantial increase in per hectare cost of creation of irrigation, stagnant growth in irrigated area, increased gap in irrigation potential created, and utilised and reduced financial recovery of State managed irrigation sector are some of the important problems of the sector. The experiences of different countries suggest that the problems relating to the irrigation sector can be reduced subtantially by transferring the operation and management of the system from State control to users group. Therefore, increased attention has been given to involve the participation of farmers in irrigation management since the late-eighties in India. In Maharashtra, a State where involving farmers in irrigation management has been taken-considerable progress has been made to handover the irrigation management to water users' associations (WUAs). Though a few studies have analysed the impact of WUAs on the water use efficiency and other parameters in different states in India, attempts have not been made to study as to how the heterogeneity in the physical characterists (location and source of water used) of WUAs impact on the agricultural development and water use. In this study, therefore, using both secondary and field data collected from a large number of sample farmers attached with different WUAs in Maharashtra State, an attempt is made to find out the impact of heterogeneity characteristics of WUAs on different developmental parameters including the participation of the farmers in water management.
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