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The Cambodian part of the Mekong Delta, is characterized by specific irrigation infrastructures, namely Prek channels. These trapezoidal earthen channels traditionally connect the Mekong’s mainstream to low-lying floodplains by breaching the elevated river banks. They act as vectors for both flooding and drainage during the annual Monsoon inundations. Furthermore, they fulfil a diverse set of ecosystem services for local communities, from providing dry season irrigation water to channelling nutrient-laden sediments to increase the fertility of agricultural plots. Given the recent shifts in the hydrological regime of the Mekong River - mainly due to climate change, hydropower construction, and land use changes - the role of Preks in the sustainable management of the floodplain agroecosystems becomes a crucial issue. For this reason, various initiatives by local stakeholders as well as national ministries and international development agencies have aimed to rehabilitate Prek channels in recent years and restore functionalities that have become impeded due to erosion and sediment clogging. However, there are different ways in which to rehabilitate Preks, and numerous potential project sites to choose from. The aim of this study is to build a method to assess the impact of different Prek rehabilitation scenarios on the local agroecosystem, under different hydrological framework conditions. In order to do so, an eco-hydrological model has been constructed in Python. It depicts a case study area of 43 km², comprising 10 Preks, located approximately 70 km South of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The model is based on the results of remote sensing analyses combining Sentinel-1 and -2 images to determine land use and land cover (LULC) evolution, as well as the spatial and temporal distribution of seasonal inundations. It also takes into account the results of field surveys and interviews with local stakeholders to make explicit the link between the hydrological processes catalysed by Preks and the ecosystem services from which local communities benefit, especially the provision of irrigation water during the dry season. Subsequently, this model was used to compare different rehabilitation scenarios - different canal excavation depths (called shallow and deep calibration), and the rehabilitation of different numbers of Preks in the case study area. In addition, the simulations were carried out for three different hydrological scenarios, based on past observations - one in which the annual Monsoon flood peak is lower than average, one in which it corresponds to the long-term mean, and one in which it is higher than average. This helps account for the likely long-term impact of delta- and basin-wide developments like LULC change, climate change, and hydropower construction, on local hydrological conditions such as the timing and duration of inundations. Initial results indicate that Prek rehabilitation, especially using deep calibration, has a significant impact on agricultural production through irrigation water provision. For instance, simulations show that, even in below-average hydrological years, blanket deep calibration of Preks in the study area could increase agricultural production by 33% in comparison to the reference year.

CONTEXT: Worldwide farmer managed irrigation systems have provided crops for food, feed and the market for centuries. From high mountain environments to river valleys and deltas, in all continents people have organized to construct, use, maintain, transform and sustain irrigated agro-ecosystems. In this context it is important to better understand how these systems are sustained. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this contribution is to explore and theorize through which strategies and mechanisms irrigators are able to sustain these systems in a constantly changing socio-environmental context. METHODS: The study is based on ethnographic qualitative research in four areas where farmer managed irrigation systems are sustained by irrigators (Valencia region, Spain; Ecuadorian highlands; Cambodian Mekong delta; and Tsangano district, Mozambique). Research consisted of interviews and observations in these areas and was supported by a literature review of what has been published about these systems. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results show that farmer managed irrigation systems are dynamic systems that constantly transform but that are sustained in these changes through what we term ‘communality’. We introduce this term to point out three interrelated elements that stand at the basis of farmer managed irrigation systems sustenance, namely: commons, community and polity. Analysis of the four case studies points out that these three elements are mobilized differently by farmers depending on their socio-environmental context. We show that the mobilization of these different elements amidst internal and external challenges and conflicts, forms the basis for the longevity and sustainability of collectively managed irrigation systems. SIGNIFICANCE: In the literature on farmer managed irrigation systems collective action has been portrayed as the main pillar that sustains these systems. This contribution challenges this notion by showing that irrigation systems are sustained by a combination of individual actions, collective practices, normative frameworks and organizational forms; a sense of community; and the development of political agency (polity). Recognizing that these elements come together as site specific hybrids opens new avenues of inquiry to better understand the sustainability of farmer managed irrigation systems.

As can be inferred from its title, this paper is inspired by the work on multiplicity conducted by two scholars in science studies. We turn towards these scholars as calls for interdisciplinary research practices to support decision making are increasingly pervasive in the field of sociohydrology and, more broadly, in the field of Sustainability Science. We find these calls are grounded in the assumption that the raison d’être of interdisciplinarity is to provide an “integrated understanding” on the basis of which decisions to solve ‘wicked problems’ -such as the search for sustainability- can then be made, granted adequate involvement of decision makers in the processes.We argue that the search for a “better understanding” of sociohydrological processes through integration is unlikely to yield the much hoped-for changes in water management in the real world and offer an alternative, the ‘cloud of representations’. More specifically, we describe activities conducted by a small collective of researchers and practitioners on the Cambodian preks. These are earthen channels dating back almost two centuries that can be found in the Cambodian Upper Mekong delta south of Phnom Penh. They connect rivers to their adjacent floodplains through breaches in the river levees. In this paper, we further describe the making of a multi-level case study area from the deltaic floodplain to the banks of specific preks. We recount how the preks have been conceptualized as key outcomes of negotiations between foreign development agents and ministerial staff, as channels conveying water and contaminants, or as key to agricultural practices. We further describe how these different conceptualizations informed each other yet yielded independent research results. We argue that highlighting the co-existence of these results, including in handling their respective uncertainty and contradictions, increased their respective legitimacy beyond the ‘research realm’, ultimately leading to changes in the ways rehabilitation of preks was envisioned in the context of specific development projects.More generically, we argue that learning to accommodate differences in approaches and representations of a given “object” may be a more conducive approach to strengthening the water science-policy interface through incremental changes in practice and policy.

We consider socio-hydrological systems (SHS) as complex sets of interacting and organized social and biophysical constituents, embedded in locally grounded pathways. As interdependencies among constituents increase and global changes challenge the modus vivendi within SHS, there is an urgent need to understand their evolutions more comprehensively, and support their transition towards sustainable pathways. We build here on a pragmatist [1] approach of socio-hydrology to handle these needs. This approach is best developed when addressing environmental management situations as it relies on the active involvement of academics with multiple stakeholders communities within SHS. With dedicated socio-technical boundary objects (e.g. simulation models, serious games, photographs, narratives…), we provide the conditions for an in depth dialogue on the processes at stake within the SHS. The main purpose is to enhance contextual information to uncover chains of consequences following changes in water or land uses. This approach starts with the collaborative identification of key dynamics of the investigated SHS and thorough shared explanation of the multiple perspectives to identify interactions among constituents of the SHS. As an engaged way of doing research, pragmatism requires to adjunct reflexivity on the collaborative research process to govern evolutions of interactions, and formalize learning for researchers and communities alike stemming out of their collaborative investigation.The communication builds on few examples across the world related (i) to the use of serious games to understand and foster possibilities of collective action to decrease non-point source agricultural pollution, (ii) the historical and socio-technical analysis of existing infrastructures to support the design of water regulations, and (iii) the consequences of modernization of irrigation networks on water resource at SHS level. Collaborative elaboration of representations leads to uncover and connect processes discussed in separated arenas, such as the benefits of development of soil protection infrastructures in vineyard to decrease the use of pesticides. These experiments indicate that a clear mandate from an operational actor considered legitimate by most (if not all) stakeholders helps to achieve transformative outcomes, while a mandate rooted in academic concerns provides key insights on potential constraints for changes.[1] Dewey, J. (1916) Education and Democracy. The Free Press

In Khmer, the word prek designates a connection between things. In Kandal province in Cambodia, preks crisscross the landscape, connecting rivers with floodplains, supporting rich ecologies and a variety of livelihoods. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS) and critical water research, this paper explores prek(s) as a multiplicity. Rather than taking the prek as a passive object around which various practices occur, we examine how prek(s) are enacted as ontologically different: as irrigation infrastructure, as pathway to rice intensification, as device for Cambodian state-making, and as climate-friendly agricultural development. After analyzing interference patterns between enactments and their scale-making effects in- and outside the Mekong floodplains, we make explicit our own ontological politics. Focused on sustaining multiple uses and ecosystems, “our” prek is a socionatural mosaic landscape where many human and more-than-human actors and practices can coexist. This ontological politics, we suggest, has implications for planetary environmental knowledges and delta management far beyond Kandal’s landscape.

The annual monsoon inundations are vital in maintaining the fertility and productivity of the delta of the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s largest river. During the inundations, which traditionally last from July until November, nutrient-rich sediments are deposited on the floodplains, groundwater is recharged, and fish populations regenerate in the shallow waters. Consequently, local agriculture and fisheries are keyed to the timing of flood arrival and recession and reliant on overall flood duration. However, in recent years, the hydrological dynamics of the region have shifted. The Mekong’s hydrological regime has been impacted by shifts in land cover, the construction of hydropower infrastructure, and climate change. Yet the effects of these changes on the spatio-temporal patterns of inundations in the Mekong Delta remain largely unstudied, especially at local scales. Part of the reason for this is data sparsity: there is a lack of consistent long-term data on spatial inundation dynamics. No concerted in-situ monitoring efforts of flood extents existed until recently, while optical earth observation satellite missions such as Landsat often fail to provide data during the wet season due to cloud cover. Hydrological modelling approaches struggle with insufficiently precise elevation data - due to the flat topography of the Mekong Delta, even high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) fail to capture small-scale dykes that determine whether large swaths of land become flooded. To cope with this data-scarce environment, we propose an innovative methodology harnessing recent satellite missions and long-term in-situ river water level measurements. This approach uses remote sensing data from the Sentinel-1 and 2 missions operated by the European Space Agency. Since 2017, these satellites provide optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data at a spatial resolution of 10 m and a return frequency of 5-6 days. Furthermore, SAR provides data independent of cloud cover, which makes it particularly well-suited for operational flood monitoring purposes. After deriving inundation maps from available Sentinel images, we link these maps to water levels measured at a local hydrological station through a correlative approach to create a water-level flood link (WAFL). Using this link, we can describe the evolution of inundation patterns in the Mekong Delta since the 1990s. To quantify uncertainties, comparisons with historical inundation maps derived from available Landsat images, and with a high- resolution DEM were carried out. The approach was tested in two study areas in the Cambodian Mekong Delta. The results indicate that the accuracy of the WAFL for quantifying inundations on a per-pixel basis lies at 87%, reaching up to 93%. The spatio-temporal analysis shows that inundation incidence in the early wet season has declined by 21% since 1991 and that the average duration of inundations has decreased by 19 days. This illustrates that annual monsoon inundations have become an increasingly volatile resource, with significant impacts on agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystems.

International audience

International audience; As in many tropical deltas globally, annual floods shape the livelihoods of the largely rural population in the Cambodian Mekong delta. Agricultural cycles are keyed to the flood arrival, peak, and recession, and fish populations depend on inundated floodplains for their regeneration. However, as factors like climate change and hydropower infrastructure development are altering the Mekong's hydrology, the inundation dynamics of its deltaic floodplains are shifting as well. Several studies have assessed the general changes of river discharge and flood extent on a basin-or delta-wide scale. Yet the sustainable development of this region is relying on dynamics at more local and specific scales, which have not been addressed so far. This paper presents a methodology to track the evolution of hydrological regimes and associated inundations in tropical deltas such as the upper Mekong delta in Cambodia, where it is applied over the past 30 years. Data scarcity and heterogeneity of the environment in this region necessitated the use of combined approaches. We established a link between water levels measured in situ and flood maps derived from optical and radar satellite images (Sentinel-1 and -2).The robustness of the link was assessed using Sentinel, Landsat imagery and the TanDEM-X (12 m) elevation model. This water level-flood link (WAFL) was then used to reconstruct a daily time series of inundation extents reaching back to the beginning of hydrological measurements in 1991 (30 years). On this basis, changes in the incidence, duration, and spatial distribution of floods were analysed. The results indicated that WAFL can be used to reconstruct inundation maps with an overall robustness of 87% in comparison to historical inundation maps derived from remote sensing imagery. Comparisons of WAFLderived flood extents with Landsat images further underscored the significant role of local infrastructure, sedimentation dynamics, and land cover to explain changes in inundation dynamics. WAFL-based analyses revealed that inundation durations have decreased by an average of 19 days when comparing the periods before and after 2008, which was identified as a break point in the hydrological time series. Furthermore, a drastic decrease in inundation the annual frequency with which individual pixels are flooded can be detected during the first half of the traditional flood season, with an average of-21% in early August, negatively impacting water-based livelihoods, from agriculture to fisheries.

On the floodplains of the Cambodian Mekong Delta, rainfed and irrigated dry-season agriculture is a crucial source of revenue for the local population. Traditional rice production is being progressively complemented by the cultivation of higher-value crops like maize, fruit trees and vegetables. Fundamentally, the annual monsoon regime and the resulting flood dynamics determine the framework for these agricultural practices, with a wet season lasting from June to November and a peak high flow reached in September. Rice is cultivated after flood recession in lower-lying areas. On higher terrain, fruit trees and vegetables are widely irrigated by farmers using individual pumps to lift water from large-scale communal channels.However, in recent years, various drivers of change have impacted these long-established dynamics. Climate change is causing shifting precipitation patterns and a modification of annual flow regimes in the Mekong river and its deltaic distributaries. In addition, the irrigation channel infrastructure is being largely rehabilitated by both local initiatives and international development agencies. These measures are rapidly changing the conveyance network for inundation, drainage, and irrigation on the floodplains, with proportions and consequences which are yet unknown. Finally, land use changes driven by market forces - such as the shift to cash crops like mango trees - are modifying the crop water demand in the area. In this context, the present study aims to provide a thorough understanding and quantification of the effects of these changes with regard to crop water requirements, irrigation efficiency, and agricultural productivity. Extensive fieldwork was carried out on a 44-km² area to gather knowledge of agricultural practices (especially irrigation) and to identify the main local hydrological objects and drivers. The land use and seasonal inundation extents were characterized through remote sensing analyses, using optical Sentinel-2 and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Sentinel-1 images. On that basis, an eco-hydrological model is being developed on the generic software platform OpenFLUID, explicitly representing the hydraulic connections and irrigation decisions. This tool will be used to highlight possible salient control factors for hydrological processes, and to simulate the direct and indirect effects of climate change scenarios, irrigation and water power infrastructure development, and land use changes on local hydrology, irrigation, and agricultural productivity.

In Myanmar, since the transition to a quasi-civilian government in 2011, resolving land disputes has been high on the political agenda. Grounded in Political Ecology and inspired by Science and Technology Studies, this article investigates the critical geography of the strategies through which alluvial (is)lands in the Ayeyarwady Delta are made into disputed resources. This interdisciplinary research brings together an historical analysis of publicly available satellite imagery, geomorphological studies, qualitative interviews with villagers and officials, and participatory observation over three years. More specifically,and empirically, the article sheds light on the socio-material dynamics of three alluvial sites in the Ayeyarwady Delta, along the main river stream. Based on an in-depth understanding of the river dynamics and of legal and administrative considerations, (is)lands' inhabitants devise multiple resource-making strategies that are underpinned by different, overlapping, and often conflicting discursive justifications and principles. Dependency on the (is)lands,vulnerability to far- reaching environmental changes, and multiple forms of prior appropriation are commonly used to justify claims and practices. Theoretically, these resource making strategies lead us to interrogate what makes the materiality of ever-shifting socio-environments such as alluvial (is)lands. There is a materiality that consists not only of the ever-changing shape and position of alluvial (is)lands, but also comes into being through competing practices and claims that may exist before and long after sediments and grass actually materialize. This volatile materiality takes an oral and written dimension in multiple inscription devices such as fences, landmarks, land titles, maps, or even stories.

An effective placement of irrigation efficiency in water management will contribute towards meeting the pre-eminent global water challenges of our time such as addressing water scarcity, boosting crop water productivity and reconciling competing water needs between sectors. However, although irrigation efficiency may appear to be a simple measure of performance and imply dramatic positive benefits, it is not straightforward to understand, measure or apply. For example, hydrological understanding that irrigation losses recycle back to surface and groundwater in river basins attempts to account for scale, but this generalisation cannot be readily translated from one location to another or be considered neutral for farmers sharing local irrigation networks. Because irrigation efficiency (IE) motives, measures, effects and technologies play out at different scales for different people, organisations and purposes, and losses differ from place to place and over time, IE is a contested term, highly changeable and subjective. This makes generalisations for science, management and policy difficult. Accordingly, we propose new definitions for IE and irrigation hydrology and introduce a framework, termed an ‘irrigation efficiency matrix’, comprising five spatial scales and ten dimensions to understand and critique the promises, pitfalls and paradoxes of IE and to unlock its utility for addressing contemporary water challenges.

This paper presents an analytical framework to identify and understand grassroots water governance practices, which we call ‘rooted water collectives’ (RWC). RWCs can be multi-scalar organizations that engage in common property resources management or multi-scalar social movements that advocate for common property resources governance. The framework, which we open for discussion, scrutinizes (1) the extent to which ‘rooted water collectives’ are ‘grounded’ in the sense they address locally perceived water control problems and resort to water-context embedded meaning, values, identities, belonging and vernacular knowledge; (2) their internal decision-making dynamics; and (3) their effectiveness in achieving impact at multiple scales. It also considers five contextual factors that enable and constrain RWC development. RWC can be deployed as a conceptual lens, but also as an empirical manifestation constituting the object and subject of research. It differs from wide-spread top-down-implemented participatory water management approaches and common property resources management research, in the importance it gives to politics, advocacy and multi-scale social movements. The framework is illustrated with a cursory analysis of four cases: irrigators' federations in Peru; the ‘new water culture’ movement in Spain; collective irrigation in oases in North Africa; and loosely structured networks of irrigation water users in Cambodia.

Depuis plus de trois décennies, le modèle de gestion participative de l’irrigation promu par gouvernements et bailleurs de fond rencontre de nombreuses difficultés. Partant du constat que la gestion de l’irrigation présente des dimensions tant techniques que sociales, nous mobilisons les champs de lapolitical ecologyet des études des sciences et techniques et montrons qu’une politique publique prend de multiples facettes à l’aune des conditions matérielles qu’elle rencontre. Une comparaison de quatre périmètres irrigués au Cambodge illustre le fait que l’émergence d’associations d’usagers de l’eau comme acteurs de la gestion des périmètres irrigués dépend de l’existence de « points d’ancrage », c’est-à-dire d’éléments d’infrastructures de distribution et de partage de l’eau sur lesquels ces associations peuvent exercer leur contrôle et ainsi « s’inscrire » dans le paysage sociotechnique de l’irrigation.

Participation in natural resources management is widely promoted in sub-Saharan Africa, but faces mounting criticism from social science scholars who rarely engage with it in practice. We use the notion of room for manoeuvre to reflect on a multi-level participatory approach designed to support the Burkinabe Integrated Water Resources Management policy and propose ways of engaging constructively with local users and policy-makers. Within an “invited space” of participation, water users' room for manoeuvre was enhanced through the acquisition of new knowledge on the legal Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) framework. This allowed them to interact with decision-makers and to extend their networks. Power imbalances were discussed, but this did not lead to modifying existing power structures that hinge on broader societal dynamics. (Resume d'auteur)

Cet article s’intéresse aux dynamiques sociales et environnementales liées au développement de l’irrigation en Afrique subsaharienne, à travers l’étude de cas de Bagré au Burkina Faso. Nous présentons les résultats d’un projet de recherche associant sciences sociales et démarches participatives et visant à renforcer le rôle que les populations affectées peuvent avoir dans les décisions concernant le développement des infrastructures irriguées. L’approche a permis d’identifier certains des principes de justice mobilisés par ces populations vis-à-vis du processus de compensation lors de la construction d’infrastructure hydroagricole. Nos recherches soulignent notamment que les personnes affectées par le projet (PAP) lient la légitimité d’obtenir des parcelles dans le nouveau système d’irrigation à la durée et à la nature des droits coutumiers que les individus ont sur la terre. Elles révèlent également l’importance de la concertation dans la définition de règles de compensation tenant compte des besoins des générations futures. Ces points de vue étaient insuffisamment pris en compte dans les projets de développement de l’irrigation de Bagré des années 1990 et 2000. Depuis, et conformément à la politique de sauvegarde sociale de la banque mondiale, l’agence chargée de superviser le développement de l’irrigation dans cette région a intégré certains de ces principes dans ses pratiques. Pourtant, dans le cadre d’un projet de « pôle de croissance », le choix délibéré d’attribuer une grande partie des futures superficies irriguées à des agro-entrepreneurs exerce une pression indue sur des ressources foncières déjà rares et constitue un risque d’aggravation des inégalités environnementales existantes et de création de nouvelles vulnérabilités. Cela est d’autant plus problématique que les projets de développement de l’agro-entreprenariat tardent à se concrétiser et pourraient bien ne pas constituer le déclencheur d’un développement économique régional comme l’espèrent la banque mondiale et le Gouvernement du Burkina Faso., This paper engages with the coupled social and environmental dynamics of irrigation development in sub-Saharan Africa through the case study of Bagré in Burkina Faso. A mix of traditional social science research and participatory methods meant at strengthening the role of local farmers in decision making over irrigation development allows identifying how people affected and sometimes displaced by the construction of irrigation infrastructure frame the idea of justice and identify related principles for their compensation. The research highlights that people affected by the project link the legitimacy to get plots in the newly build irrigation system to the duration and nature of customary rights that individuals have on the land. They also stress the importance of free choice when it comes to irrigation practices and of defining current compensation rules that account for the needs of future generations. While such views had not been considered in previous irrigation development projects implemented in the area in the 1990s and 2000s, the agency now in charge of overseeing irrigation development in the Bagré area has streamlined some of these in its procedures. Compensation practices follow the social safeguard policy of the World Bank whose aim is that none of the people affected by the project are worse after project implementation than before. However, the deliberate choice to attribute a large share of the future irrigated area to agro-entrepreneurs puts undue pressure on already scarce land resources and constitutes a risk to increase environmental inequalities and create new vulnerabilities. This happens even though agro-entrepreneurship is not yet observed in the area and may well fall short of the expectations of the World Bank and the Government of Burkina Faso that saw in agrobusiness the trigger for far reaching regional economic development.

Seen as hotspots of vulnerability in the face of external pressures such as sea level rise, upstream water development, and extreme weather events but also of in situ dynamics such as increasing water use by local residents and demographic growth, deltas are high on the international science and development agenda. What emerges in the literature is the image of a 'global delta' that lends itself to global research and policy initiatives and their critique. We use the concept of 'boundary object' to critically reflect on the emergence of this global delta. We analyse the global delta in terms of its underpinning discourses, narratives, and knowledge generation dynamics, and through examining the politics of delta-oriented development and aid interventions. We elaborate this analytical argument on the basis of a 150-year historical analysis of water infrastructure development and policymaking in the Ayeyarwady Delta, paying specific attention to recent attempts at developing an Integrated Ayeyarwady Delta Strategy (IADS) and the role that the development of this strategy has played in the 'making' of the Ayeyarwady Delta as a global delta. This lays the groundwork for a broader critique of recent efforts to promote a 'Dutch Delta Approach' internationally, which we contend not only contributes to, but also aims at, making this global delta a boundary object. Such efforts play a key role in structuring an ever-expanding actor network supporting delta research and (sustainable/integrated) development. However, the making of a boundary object such as the global delta also hinges on depoliticising (delta) development. This, we consider to be problematic notably in the context of Myanmar where land and water politics have strongly shaped the changes the Ayeyarwady Delta has and will continue to witness.

This paper is a reflexive analysis of a three-year participatory water research project conducted in the Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana, whose explicit objective was to initiate a multi-level dialogue to support the national Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) policy framework. The transdisciplinary team adopted the Companion Modeling approach (ComMod), using role-playing games and a computerized agent-based model to support the identification of a problemshed centered on issues of river bank cultivation, erosion, and flooding, and initiate a multi-level dialogue on ways that this problemshed could be tackled. On the basis of this experience, we identify three key criteria for transdisciplinary research to support innovative water governance: (1) the iterative adaptation of tools and facilitation techniques based on feedback from participants, (2) a common understanding of the objectives pursued and the approach used among researchers, who need to explicit their posture, and crucially, (3) the co-identification of a problemshed that diverse stakeholders are interested in tackling. Finally, we argue that the context in which research is funded and conducted in the development sector constitutes a challenge for researchers to be &ldquo, participants like any other&rdquo, in the projects they coordinate, which constitutes a barrier to true transdisciplinarity.

In this chapter, we examine how farming technologies move between places and how they are unpacked and ‘grounded’ in particular spaces and contexts. We argue that a better understanding of how this process occurs helps to shed light on a source of contestation within agronomy. We discuss two farming technologies that have been at the centre of controversial debates among experts, policy makers and the wider public: the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and drip irrigation. We argue that these technologies have been contested partly because important social dimensions have been neglected, which have led to the technologies being configured and appreciated differently in different sites. Here, we use the term sites to include farmers’ fields, experimental stations and laboratories, research and training centres, as well as discursive spaces such as agricultural and natural resource policies and research publications.

Irrigated areas in the world are witnessing a transformation from open canal systems to more 'modern' irrigation methods such as drip irrigation that convey water through closed pipe systems. Initially associated with hi-tech irrigated agriculture, drip irrigation is now being used by a wide range of farmers including smallholders in Asia, North Africa and Latin America. Drip irrigation has left the technosphere in that it is no longer merely a pre-occupation of engineers. It frequently appears in popular media and wide audience publications, where it is referred to as 'arguably the world's most valued innovation in agriculture'. Indeed, the Hydra-Panda combination that characterizes drip irrigation makes it difficult to talk differently – less positively and more agnostically – about what it is supposed to do. As the debate on drip irrigation is dominated by overarching all-encompassing statements, there are many drip irrigation stories that remain untold.

This chapter focuses on the Sais area in Morocco, where drip irrigation use has boomed over the last 20 years. It describes how the extension of drip irrigation in the region was made possible by the emergence of a dynamic network of local irrigation equipment retailers who act as innovation intermediaries. It highlights how the place and role of these intermediaries has evolved with time, notably through changing patterns of relationships with other actors (farmers, public agencies, equipment importers) in the drip irrigation innovation system. (Resume d'auteur)

Introduction In the past few years, independently of each other, we encountered ferocious promoters of ‘technologies for development’, such as drip irrigation, conservation agriculture, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), or the better known Jatropha or Bt Cotton seeds. The missionary zeal with which these were promoted and defended (and sometimes attacked) struck us. Upon closer scrutiny these were not only technologies for development but rather ‘packages of sociotechnical practices’ ...

Au cours d'un atelier, qui a eu lieu à Montpellier en décembre 2015, destiné à partager des expériences de recherche sur un objet hydroagricole, le petit barrage, une vingtaine de chercheurs d'horizons disciplinaires variés ont interrogé leurs pratiques et conceptions de l'interdisciplinarité entre sciences de la nature et sciences de la société. Cette expérience exploratoire a mis en lumière deux postures interdisciplinaires différentes. La première repose sur la recherche d'interfaces et de complémentarités entre les disciplines pour documenter ensemble des objets complexes. La seconde se construit plutôt dans l'exploration des limites des disciplines pour identifier de nouveaux fronts de recherche à l'intersection des approches en présence. Alors que l'interdisciplinarité est souvent déclinée au singulier, cet atelier nous invite à la penser au pluriel à travers les différentes pratiques qui nourrissent le processus de construction de l'interaction entre personnes.

Depuis plusieurs decennies, l?irrigation au goutte a goutte est presentee comme une solution possible aux problemes d'eau, d'alimentation et de pauvrete touchant la planete. La grande majorite des publications scientifiques ou des politiques abordant le sujet considerent le goutte a goutte comme une innovation technique qui auraient des caracteristiques intrinseques-l?efficience, la productivite et la modernite. Sur la base de recherches comparatives menees en Afrique du Nord et de l?Ouest et en Asie du Sud, nous demontrons que de nombreux acteurs contribuent a faconner cette representation positive partagee dont la legitimite est ancree dans une perspective d'ingenierie qui erige technologie et potentiel en 'realites' independantes du contexte d'utilisation. Nous n'attribuons pas le statut d'innovation a succes qu'a pu acquerir le goutte a goutte a de soi-disant caracteristiques techniques intrinseques mais plutot a sa capacite a faire echo a divers contextes et discours qui depeignent des futurs souhaitables et souhaites. Nous adoptons ainsi une autre perspective sur l?innovation et la technologie; dans cette derniere, le 'reel' (le materiel goutte a goutte) n'acquiert ses caracteristiques qu'au travers des institutions, discours et pratiques qui contribuent a lui donner une existence. Une telle perspective permet de mettre a jour les ajustements iteratifs entre materiel et contexte et les considere comme des elements a part entiere, et non des externalites, du processus d'innovation. (Resume d'auteur)

Since the 1990s, Indian farmers, supported by the government, have partially shifted from surface-water to groundwater irrigation in response to the uncertainty in surface-water availability. Water-management authorities only slowly began to consider sustainable use of groundwater resources as a prime concern. Now, a reliable integration of groundwater resources for water-allocation planning is needed to prevent aquifer overexploitation. Within the 11,000-km(2) Musi River sub-basin (South India), human interventions have dramatically impacted the hard-rock aquifers, with a water-table drop of 0.18 m/a over the period 1989-2004. A fully distributed numerical groundwater model was successfully implemented at catchment scale. The model allowed two distinct conceptualizations of groundwater availability to be quantified: one that was linked to easily quantified fluxes, and one that was more expressive of long-term sustainability by taking account of all sources and sinks. Simulations showed that the latter implied 13 % less available groundwater for exploitation than did the former. In turn, this has major implications for the existing water-allocation modelling framework used to guide decision makers and water-resources managers worldwide.

Le positionnement des chercheurs et des praticiens de la participation a fait l’objet de nombreuses analyses soulignant la pluralité et la complémentarité des postures adoptées notamment vis-à-vis des jeux de pouvoir. Cet article insiste sur l’aspect dynamique des postures de deux « chercheurs-engagés » ayant piloté un projet de recherche pour le développement, en appui à la politique de gestion intégrée des ressources en eau (GIRE) au Burkina Faso. Définissant l’engagement comme un positionnement à l’interface entre le politique et le scientifique, les chercheurs ont, dès la formulation du projet, explicité leur objectif de favoriser la participation dans l’application de la GIRE et d’utiliser une approche participative pour ce faire. Adoptant initialement une posture de « neutralité dialogique conditionnelle », à des fins de légitimation vis-à-vis des décideurs politiques burkinabè et de pérennisation de leurs résultats de recherche, les chercheurs ont construit le projet avec ces derniers dans le cadre d’une démarche de modélisation d’accompagnement. Face aux forts différentiels de pouvoir dans la situation d’action, bloquant toute contribution des acteurs locaux à la prise de décision sur l’eau, les chercheurs ont glissé vers une posture de « non-neutralité post-normale » : l’objectif premier a alors été de renforcer la place et le rôle des acteurs locaux dans les dispositifs participatifs afin qu’ils se réapproprient les arènes de concertation créées par le législateur. Les évolutions de postures s’expliquent à la fois par les changements observés dans la situation d’action, la compréhension que les chercheurs en ont et la volonté de préserver leur éthique d’intervention. Si, d’un point de vue heuristique, l’engagement du chercheur pour la participation dans la gestion des ressources naturelles permet de nourrir une réflexion critique sur l’action publique, il est difficile d’adopter cette posture dans le cadre de projets de recherche pour le développement et dans un contexte fortement structuré par l’aide publique au développement.

Smallholder drip irrigation is widely held as a promising technology for water saving, poverty reduction and food security, despite a dearth of evidence of benefits to farmers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In this article, we document three development programmes promoting drip irrigation in Burkina Faso. Using actor network theory and insights from critical development studies, we show that development brokers play a key role in aligning interests, shaping activities and interpreting project outcomes. They are accountable towards each other rather than to farmers. This means that success is interpreted through development agencies lenses and with the intention of continuing involvement in future projects. Small farmers' interests and uptake of the technology are of secondary importance.

Development agencies enthusiastically promote micro-drip irrigation as an affordable water and labor-saving device, yet most farmers stop using it as soon as development projects end. This article analyzes why farmers engage in projects promoting drip irrigation kits, even though they appear not to be interested in their water and labor-saving attributes. We combine practice-based theories of innovation with insights from the anthropology of development to explain that in development project arenas, micro-drip kits have different meanings for farmers than for the actors promoting the technology. Accepting the technology is just one element of more encompassing strategic efforts by farmers to obtain benefits from development projects. Hence, in the arena of the development project and for farmers, micro-drip kits are defined by the side benefits that accompany their introduction, such as motorized pumps, free inputs, the promise of credit, or the prospect of acquiring social prestige and forging new alliances.

Small reservoirs are a reality of rural sub-Saharan Africa. They trigger technical and institutional innovations, appear to be in high demand among local communities, and remain popular on the agendas of national policy-makers and international development partners in spite of recurrent analyses highlighting that these systems function well below the expectations of their promoters. This paper proposes an analytical framework to understand this apparent contradiction. Local communities do make use of small reservoirs in many ways but not always as implied by policy discourses and development strategies. Social, eco-technical and managerial analyses would then not disclose the real use-value of these innovations at either the local or the regional (watershed) scales. Understanding the opportunities and risks linked to an intensification of the multiple uses of small reservoirs requires considering them as rural development and planning interventions. They induce changes in the relations that societies nurture with their environment and catalyze new and multiple claims and uses that sometimes appear conflictual and irreconcilable.

Continuous upstream water development in the South Indian Krishna Basin has resulted in declining water availability downstream. Upstream water use is not adjusted to reflect rainfall fluctuations, and downstream farmers of the Nagarjuna Sagar irrigation project in the state of Andhra Pradesh are increasingly vulnerable to water supply shocks. Understanding the adaptive capacity of irrigated command areas to fluctuating water conditions is critical. This paper documents the wide range of adjustments adopted by managers and farmers in Nagarjuna Sagar during a period of fluctuating water availability (2000–2007). Primary and secondary data indicate managerial adjustments such as rotational and timely water supplies to meet critical water demands of standing crops. Farmers responded to changing conditions through: (a) crop diversification, (b) shifting calendars, (c) conjunctive use, (d) suspending cultivation, (e) sale of livestock, (f) out-migration, and (g) tampering with the irrigation system. Adaptive strategies are more diverse in the tail-end than in the head-end of the canal network and local adjustments are often uncoordinated and may degrade the resource base. A better understanding of the practices induced by changes in water availability is needed to refine current water allocation and management in large surface irrigation projects. Crop diversification, deficit irrigation in low-flow years, and conjunctive use are some of the practices to be promoted in a conducive agricultural environment.

As demand and competition for water resources increase, the river basin has become the primary unit for water management and planning. While appealing in principle, practical implementation of river basin management and allocation has often been problematic. This paper examines the case of the Krishna basin in South India. It highlights that conflicts over basin water are embedded in a broad reality of planning and development where multiple scales of decisionmaking and non-water issues are at play. While this defines the river basin as a disputed "space of dependence", the river basin has yet to acquire a social reality. It is not yet a "space of engagement" in and for which multiple actors take actions. This explains the endurance of an interstate dispute over the sharing of the Krishna waters and sets limits to what can be achieved through further basin water allocation and adjudication mechanisms – tribunals – that are too narrowly defined. There is a need to extend the domain of negotiation from that of a single river basin to multiple scales and to non-water sectors. Institutional arrangements for basin management need to internalise the political spaces of the Indian polity: the states and the panchayats. This re-scaling process is more likely to shape the river basin as a space of engagement in which partial agreements can be iteratively renegotiated, and constitute a promising alternative to the current interstate stalemate.