Evaluation of irrigation efficiencies for water users' associations in a major irrigation project in India by DEA

Purpose – The quantity and quality of available water resources have been recognized limiting factors in development of most of the arid and semi arid regions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency, for water users' associations (WUA), of irrigation project Samrat Ashok Sagar (Halali) in India, using benchmarking by data envelopment analysis as the performance evaluation tool and to integrate the outcome of the benchmarking process for planning, design and effective management of available water resources. Design/methodology/approach – To collect information or data required to calculate indicators, there was personal interaction with water users and executive engineers in‐charge of the project, and competent authority for WUA (sub‐engineers), with other technical staff and with establishment staff and the purpose of the study explained. In the analysis, the performance gap was compared within the scheme. The causes of the performance gap and the action required for closing the performance gap were explored. Data envelopment analysis was done for different sets of input output by input‐oriented model through software. The data collected were real time and validated from Samrat Ashok Sagar Irrigation and Drainage Project Authority. Findings – It was found that the majority of WUAs as per model I to model VI had efficiency below 70 per cent, which is a matter of serious concern. It is evident that considerable variations occur amongst the various WUAs in terms of the operational characteristics reflected by the independent variables. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that it is evident that considerable variations occur amongst the various WUAs in terms of the operational characteristics reflected by the independent variables.