A Participatory Approach To Improve Network Maintenance And Water Management In An Irrigated Perimeter In Mali

Lack of maintenance is a recurrent problem in most irrigated schemes. The Office du Niger, in Mali, is not an exception. To address this problem, we implemented a 2-year-long participatory approach at the secondary and tertiary irrigation canal levels with farmers from two villages. Farmers were actively involved in the co-construction of solutions and in their implementation. This approach required repeated meetings and discussions among stakeholders through two bodies: a Community of Practice (CoP) at local level, and a Learning and Practice Alliance (LPA) at regional and national levels.It brought significant improvement in canal maintenance and use of water. According to the farmers, 'this approach, although it has more constraints since it does not conform to our usual way of meeting and knowledge sharing, is without any doubt very useful because it places us at the centre of the decision process'. Copyright (C) 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.