ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of the problem of irrigation organization breakdown in the middle level between main system central bureaucracies and farmers. It provides formulate strategic variables and relationships which can contribute to improved design of such local irrigation organization. At the farm level, control over water is fundamentally determined by the operation of organizational networks established to operate upstream physical structures. Effective organization at the middle level is essential to provide linkage between farm water demands and main system supply. Problems of water control will assume different forms, depending upon which combination of share distributional principles are employed to manage the resource from the main system to the middle level and, in turn, from the middle level organization to the farm gate. Local irrigation organizations are assemblies of joint agreements among farmers and main system managers which make possible the production of collective goods not available through individual effort.
