Updated July 2005

The Community Groundwater Irrigation Sector Project (CGISP) has been designed within the framework of the Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) of Nepal (1996-2015) which situates groundwater-based irrigation the heart of the Terai irrigation strategy. It is aimed at increasing agricultural productivity through the expansion of groundwater irrigated agriculture by way of community-managed shallow tubewells (STWs) in the Central and Eastern Development Regions. Building on experience gained under the previous groundwater irrigation projects, the Project will support the establishment of sustainable, private sector based arrangements for expansion of STWs and the adoption of improved agriculture techniques. The Project is expected to have a direct and positive impact on crop production and farm incomes, and will increase rural employment opportunities.

The main objectives of the CGISP are to increase agricultural productivity on a sustainable basis and to improve incomes of small farmers in Nepal through participatory, demand driven, and integrated group Shallow Tubewell (STW) development.

These objectives will contribute towards government's goals of reducing poverty and enhancing the living standard of the rural population. The total number of beneficiaries is estimated at 657,000 in about 110,000 households, 50 percent of whom live below the poverty line.

To achieve these objectives, the Project consists of four parts: Part A: community STW development including (i) establishment of sustainable Water Users Groups (WUGs) and Water Users Associations (WUAs), (ii) provision of NGO services, and (iii) provision of consulting services; Part B: improvement of farm-to-market roads; Part C: provision of credit for STW investments and crop production; and Part D: implementation assistance and institutional strengthening, including activities on effective Project administration and management; establishment of a STW follow-up support system; staff training; procurement of service vehicles and equipment; and provision of incremental operating costs.

Project Targets	Planned
Shallow Tubewells	15,000
Water Users Associations	300
Irrigated Hectares	64,000
Beneficiaries	657,000

The Project employs a Demand Responsive Approach (DRA). The idea behind DRA is to make farmer's groups self-reliant in all aspects of implementation For this to be effective service delivery organizations will be assisted to meet farmers' demands in a timely and efficient (responsive) manner.

Capacity development of the service providers is a key input of the Project. A Capacity Development Strategy (CDS) has been developed. Farmer's groups are central to all capacity development activities. The capacity to deliver services as needed by farmers is at the heart of CDS activities.

Project Highlights:

The physical achievement of the project broken down annually is given in the following table.

CGISP's Impact on agriculture production

The project so far has provided year-round irrigation in approximately 15,000 hectares of agriculture land owned by CGISP households. The total irrigated area would be around 20,000 ha if the land irrigated by renting out CGISP STWs to non-CGISP farmers is included. Improved technology and extension services have been provided to the farmers in coordination with DADOs and private sector organizations. Agricultural support services are provided on a pocket area approach. Currently, full package program is under implementation in 46 sub-projects and partial in 87 sub-projects. As a result of intensive agricultural support services, crop yields and cropping intensity have increased significantly. A preliminary sample survey has revealed 27 percent increase in rice yields, 80 percent in wheat and over 60 percent increase in maize. The finding also showed that the cropping intensity went up by more than 225 percent from the baseline figure of 145.

The assessment has further shown that cropping patterns have changed dramatically with farmers planting up to three crops, including vegetables (like cucumber, tomato, eggplant, cauliflower, cabbage etc), hybrids of corn, early paddy, wheat, mung bean in addition to the main rain-fed paddy crop. Farmers have also started cultivating fruit crops like banana and papaya. The field data were collected from four districts: Jhapa, Morang, Rautahat and Bara. The results are based on a sample size of 133 for cropping intensity and paddy yields, 114 for wheat and 92 for maize. As a result of increased cropping intensity and crop yields, the average income of CGISP households has increased significatly (about 27% compared to before STW irrigation situation).

Farmers' Institutional development

One of the key achievements of the project has been the formation & development of farmers' institutions at local level. So far, a total of 125 Water Users Association have been formed. District level federations are also registered in two districts - Jhapa and Morang. The WUAs have already started providing basic services (e.g. agri-technicians, pump operation and maintenance, bringing-in required services from line agencies) to their members. As a part of their capacity strengthening, the DWUAs have been assigned the responsibility of social mobilization in Jhapa and Morang districts.

Beneficiary coverage

The project has been successful to provide direct benefits to approximately18,000 poor households with a total population of over 100,000. Analysis of the available data clearly indicates that the project has been quite successful to reach its target population (i.e. farmers having less than 1 ha of farming land) who were excluded by the previous irrigation projects of similar nature. The project's database also indicates that the project has provided its services to a wide range of ethnic communities including Dalits, Janajatis, Muslims, and Brahmin/Chhetri. It is also noteworthy that more than 80% of the total STW members are women.

Farm-to-market road improvement

Rural road improvement program is being implemented in the sub-projects that meet the criteria of minimum number of STWs (i.e. 15 complete set). Survey and design of 128.8 kilometers road has been completed. Of this, 87.2 km has been constructed with the active participation of concerned WUAs. Road improvement work in 42 kilometers is currently in progress.

Description	Biratnagar GFO	Lahan GFO	Jaleshowr GFO	Birgunj GFO	Total
Survey completed (km)	98.0	5.6	8.4	16.8	128.8
Tender completed (km)	39.9	0.0	0.0	5.6	45.5
Road completed (km)	72.2	0.0	0.0	15.0	87.2
On-going (km)	36.4	0.0	0.0	5.6	42.0

Coordination among stakeholders

At the field level, coordination meetings at GFO level are held bi-monthly, Annual Review and Planning Workshops are held six-monthly and frequent formal/informal meetings among key stakeholders are held as and when deemed necessary. Such meetings/workshops are proved to be highly useful to discuss practical issues and come up with appropriate solutions. Therefore, such activities will be continued in future with full cooperation and commitments of all project stakeholders.

Environmental Monitoring

The project has been undertaking various measures to monitor water quality of STW irrigation. Considering the rising issue of arsenic, the project has started testing STW irrigation water from 2002/03. In the first year, arsenic test was done in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat. The results indicated that the arsenic levels in the tested samples were within the permissible limits (Nepalese standard of 50 ppb). Further, a comprehensive study was undertaken last year (2003/04) with a larger number of samples from Jhapa, Morang, Siraha, Bara, Parsa and Rautahat districts. This study was guided and supervised by the Arsenic Monitoring Committee comprising DOI, ADB, and CIDA/CCO. The result, which was presented in a National Level Workshop (participated by the representatives of ADB, CIDA and key project stakeholders), was similar to the previous study. The Project has initiated testing Arsenic in all the STWs promoted by it. In this process, the project has trained all NGO staff, and the trained staff have started As testing under the supervision and guidance of private institution called ENPHO.

CGISP performance compared to other projects

CGISP had a slow start during the first two years due to various constraints. One of the major reasons was delay in removal of capital cost subsidy in STWs by HMG. The project started to gain momentum after the subsidy policy was resolved and effective cooridnatin mechanoism was established among the project stakeholders. The performance of CGISP over the years is quite comparable to other similar projects (See Table below). The integration of agriculture package program and rural road component have helped in improving project performance significantly.

A Comparison of STW Installation Under Different Projects

5 April 2005

Project Name	Donor	Implementation period	Duration Years	STW Number	Command area (Ha)	Cost/Ha ('000 Rs)	Distribution system	Capital cost subsidy	Number of districts
1. ILC	WB	91/92 - 96/97	5	112	1,120	30	BL & PH	75-80%	8
2. NISP	WB	97/98-02/03	5	8	80	30	BL,BP&PH	60-80%
3. APP Special	ADB/APL	98/99-Ongoing		3,618	9,045	20		60%	20
4. CSTIP	IFAD	94/95 - 99/00	5	715	4,855	30-50	BL & PH	60-85%	5
5. ADB/N	Different	83/84-Ongoing		44,980	na	20-25		30-90%	20
6. CGISP	ADB/CIDA	99/00 - Ongoing	4	4,589	14,774	12		0	12

Note: One community STW of CGISP involves on average five households and is equivalent to four individual STWs promoted by other organizations.

BL = Brick lined
PH = Pump house
BP = Buried pipes