ABSTRACT
The components of an effective middle-level organization have been specified. The problem is less one of farmer capability and more one of recognizing need and providing the required balance of constraint and autonomy, incentive and direction. Farmers seek predictability and control over a vital resource, and they are, given what they believe to be a credible arrangement, willing to organize to get water control and keep it. Meaningful farmer participation requires that an organizational vehicle be designed to focus participation on performing specified responsibilities in particular reaches of the system. Design without participation is a dead exercise. The issue of linking a local water users' organization to main system management is less an Issue of centralization versus de-centralization and more an issue regarding how to "devolve" responsibilities to the local organizational unit within parameters acceptable to higher authority and subject to specified oversight by main system management.
