2022 Volume 32 Issue S Pages 89-93
Different water delivery performance indicators have been developed and widely used in irrigation districts over the world. Those indicators help users detect what the current water distribution problems are and where they are occurring. However, since these indicators are calculated only with water quantity, the relation between these indicators and farmers’ satisfaction with irrigation and yield is unclear. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the correlation between adequacy and farmers’ satisfaction with irrigation and yield in an irrigation district of the lower Nile Delta in Egypt. Adequacy was calculated with the amounts of water demand and supply. Using a questionnaire, 84 randomly selected farmers from upstream, midstream, and downstream of the branch canal were interviewed to collect data on farmers’ satisfaction with irrigation and yield. Then, to what extent adequacy of water supply can imply farmers’ satisfaction with irrigation water supply. The results showed that the adequacy was highly correlated with farmers’ satisfaction with water delivery in quantity and timing. Even though the adequacy in the upstream was evaluated as good, some upstream farmers were not satisfied with water delivery. This suggested inequity in water distribution within the upstream. In addition to the water quantity problem, one of the reasons for the low level of farmers’ satisfaction is that part of the irrigation was done at night. Farmers unanimously reported that the main reason for night irrigation was due to lack of water during the daytime. The lack of water during the daytime occurred in locations regardless of adequacy. Farmers’ satisfaction with yield was higher than water delivery. In the locations where the adequacy of water supply was poor, farmers’ satisfaction with yield was higher than water allocation. The water supply from the canal is not sufficient, but it is implied that groundwater and reuse of drainage water are used by farmers.
