Abstract:
The objectives of this research were 1) to study the effectiveness of water resource management for agriculture in the Chi river basin, 2) to study the factors influencing the effectiveness of water resource management for agriculture in the Chi river basin, and 3) to propose guidelines for improving the effectiveness of water resource management for agriculture in the Chi river basin. This research was a mixed methods research which combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The qualitative research was conducted by studying related documents namely the policies, plans and projects of water resource management for agriculture and local and foreign research. In-depth interviews with 15 key informants were also conducted. The informants were Sub-District Headmen, Assistant Sub-District Headmen, Village Headmen, Assistant Village Headmen, Village Committee members, Watershed Committee members, agriculturalists and District Agricultural Extension Officers. Two focus groups with five participants in each group, were formed. These participants were selected purposively from the leaders of each group mentioned above. The data were analyzed by analytic induction and interpretation. The quantitative research was conducted by collecting data from 250 respondents who were selected from family and community leaders of villages in 5 provinces in the Chi river basin, 1 village for each province. They were selected by using the stratified random sampling technique. The sample size was obtained by calculations done with Taro Yamanes formula. The tool used for data collection was a rating scale questionnaire with a reliability of 0.77. The statistics for data analysis were percentage, mean and standard deviation. The hypotheses were tested by One-way ANOVA and Stepwise Regression Analysis. The research findings were as follows; 1) The effectiveness of water resource management for agriculture in the Chi river basin was, overall, at a high level ( = 3.66, S.D. = 0.53). Considering each aspect individually, it was found that the planning and project aspects were both at a high level ( = 3.70, S.D. = 0.62), followed by the management aspect ( = 3.62, S.D. = 0.62) and public participation aspect ( = 3.59, S.D. = 0.58), respectively. The qualitative approach revealed that (1) the government policy lacked of the area knowledge that brought about the misunderstanding in peoples need, (2) lacking of the unity in water management for having no integrated system of related units, (3) lacking of local wisdom application, (4) there was no appropriate water management low, (5) the people role was dominated by the state officer in policy, plans and project formulation and (6) there was no information institute to provide necessary information for water management. 2) The influential factors affecting the effectiveness of water resources management for agricultural in Chi river basins consisted of 4 principle aspect as (1) public participation (β = 0.81) (2) planning (β = 0.60) (3) management (β = 0.34) and (4) project (β = 0.20). All of these four aspect could explain the variation of the effectiveness of water resources management for agriculture in Chi river basins at 77.0 (R2 = 0.77) at the statistical level of significance 0.05. The result of qualitative research showed that there were more influential factors affecting the effectiveness as (1) there was no effective technology for water preservation and water distribution, (2) lacked of expert in water management with necessary experiences and (3) there was no efficient information technology to provide accurate information for water management. 3) The proposed guidelines for improving the effectiveness of water resources management for agriculture in the Chi basin consist of 6 performing; (1) plans, projects and national water policies should be revised regularly in order to cope with the changes in the area and the peoples demands, (2) the water management plan should be integrated with clear objectives and member involvement, (3) local water management wisdom should be collected and applied effectively. This should include checking dams, irrigation ditches, ladder-type dams, hill water supplies, siphons, waterwheels and community forest conservation. All this valuable wisdom should prove to be useful tools to improve water conservation and management while lowering the costs, (4) the act should be enacted so that water management and development promote the preservation of the countrys resources, (5) the central organization should be set up as the central agency for water resource management by gathering all related agents under one unit in order to integrate all the data and promote cooperation, (6) the institution of water resource management should be established at academic centers for curriculum development, to provide training courses and to promote the appropriate knowledge and skills for all levels of people.