Résumé
A successful story of how the peasant irrigation farmers and scheme managers evolve a mechanism for joint decision making and management of Hadejia Valley Irrigation Project (HVIP) located in Semi-Arid Zone of Northern Nigeria, was made. For a period of 6 years, users were able to contribute an annual average of 0.58 million Naira for the maintenance of secondary and tertiary levels of distribution network. In the meantime, the managers' financial commitment was raised to an annual average of 5.29 million Naira for similar responsibility at primary level as well as delivery of other essential services needed by the users. This translated into increase in annual cropping intensity by 45% while crop diversity tripled from 3 to 9 crops in 12-months yields of wheat, rice increased from 0.6 t/ha and 2.0 t/ha to 3.0 t/ha and 4.5 t/ha, respectively, while yield of crops like maize, tomato, onion etc. Generally doubled within the 5 years intervention, resulting in an increment of 111% (in Naira/ha) of net farm return while net return per operator's labour was also improved by 20% (in N/8-hr-man day). These achievements were recorded through a research action effort aimed at synthesizing generic lessons and experiences on implementation of participatory irrigation management (PIM). The wealth of experiences and knowledge accumulated by the Nigerian and French Scientists and stakeholders is a resource that can be harnessed and crystallized into a set of approaches and lessons on PIM, which can be applied not only in HVIP but in other similar irrigation schemes in Nigeria. Thus the quest of the Federal Government of Nigeria, "developing capability, both organizational and managerial for user participation in the design and service delivery on public irrigation projects" can be addressed. The book is the final output of the systematic work done on implementing participatory management for sustainable irrigation services on HVIP. It document the approaches, lessons, experiences, prospects and inferences gained from the implementation of the tripartite collaborative project on the participatory irrigation management in HVIP between International Centre for Agricultural Research and Development (CIRAD) of France, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) of Ahmadu Bello University (Abu), Zaria and Hadejia Jama'are River Basin Development Authority, Kano (HJRBDA). The book aims to provide practical information and guidance to individuals and organizations on user organizations development and performance improvement approaches that have produced results. The publication seeks to address the fundamental question: under what situations are user organizations most effective in managing irrigation systems? The publication, therefore, allows policy markers and public irrigation project managers to learn from the identified fundamentals of best participatory irrigation management practices and the various organizational models under which the desired impacts can best be attained. (Résumé d'auteur)