ABSTRACT
Many Less Developed Countries (LDCs), particularly those in the south and southeastern Asian regions, have invested enormous amounts of resources in irrigation development during the last three decades (Sampath, 1988e; Seckler and Sampath, 1985). So naturally there is a lot of interest among the developing countries' governments and donor agencies in seeing that the fruits of these investments will be fully realized. In particular, there is growing concern that irrigation projects, particularly the large surface irrigation systems, are not functioning up to the expected levels of overall performance, particularly in terms of the twin objectives of achieving equity and efficiency.
