Two irrigation systems in Colombia : their performance and transfer of management to users'associations

Two Colombian irrigation projects are studied in this report, the Coello and RUT projects. Management of the RUT project is going to be transfered soon from public managers to farmers. The Coello project has been farmer managed for about 13 years. The keys to its success have been: 1) the dynamism of the private farming sector and support services in Colombia, 2) the high level of farmer training, 3) patterns of land tenure - with farms an average size of 15 hectares, 4) regular maintenance, 5) continuity of medium and low level staff, 6) availability of communication and transportation facilities, and 7) some use of hydraulic engineering in the design of irrigation facilities, to simplify operations and reduce maintenance costs.