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Global Review of Institutional Reforms in the Irrigation Sector for Sustainable Agricultural Water Management, Including Water Users’ Associations

This paper reviews institutional reforms in the irrigation sector for sustainable agricultural water management (AWM) undertaken in 14 countries and regions, including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, South Korea, Sudan, Chinese Taipei, Turkey and Ukraine. These regions represent a vast diversity of geography, climate, governance, socio‐economic conditions and level of development. In those countries with smaller land areas and high‐technology manufacturing, such as Japan and Korea, agriculture is now being viewed as technology‐driven food factories of the future. Meanwhile, for countries with a significant base population and increasing growth rates, such as China, India and Indonesia, agriculture seems to dominate the development debate. The comparative evaluation analyses the issues regarding institutional and organizational reforms focusing on the legal and organizational framework structure including water users' associations (WUAs) for water supply services, participatory irrigation management (PIM) and management transfer, and public–private partnership (PPP) towards sustainable irrigation and drainage (I&D) and agricultural water management (AWM). Despite the diverse geography and institutional frameworks, food security remains a major concern in all the countries and regions reviewed in this paper. The formation and functioning of WUAs, ageing I&D infrastructure and its operation and management (O&M) appear to be the major institutional and PPP challenges for sustainable AWM in the immediate future. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.