Community-based irrigation management in Indonesia (Case study: Musi Rawas Regency, Bandung Regency, and Soppeng Regency)

Indonesia is an agricultural country that relies on the food sector.Irrigation infrastructure plays an important role to support the sector. It is therefore the sustainability of irrigation is vital. Community-based management of irrigation has been developed in Indonesia to support the development, operation, and and maintenance of irrigation. The aim of this study is to explore community-based irrigation management to support the sustainability of irrigation infrastructure. Three locations were choosed as case study; Musi Rawas, Bandung, and Soppeng Regency. The data analysis method used is qualitative analysis. The results of this study indicate that community groups are involved in determining irrigation development, such as holding public consultations, site selection, surveys, land acquisition, cooperation, operation, and maintenance. However, this community group does not yet have a robust organizational role because it has not provided rules, sanctions, or solutions to solve problems in the field. In addition, there is a lack of government support for community groups. Realizing a sustainable community-based irrigation system requires a high role of the community in irrigation management and support from the government in supporting the capacity of community groups and financing participatory activities.


Introduction
Infrastructure is vital to economic growth [1,2,3].Infrastructure can achieve economic growth by increasing access [4], reducing costs in the manufacturing industry, and increasing resource productivity [5] and employment opportunities [6,7].Furthermore, infrastructure also plays a role in creating a resilient and sustainable society [8].
Given the challenges that climate change expects to pose to smallholder agriculture, irrigation is a vital adaptation strategy for increasing agricultural productivity and reducing poverty [9,10].Irrigation infrastructure is crucial in supporting the agricultural sector, which determines food security [11] and has the opportunity to increase agricultural production [12].One of the Indonesian government's efforts to boost development in the agricultural sector to cover food needs, especially rice, is development in the irrigation sector.
Institutions and community groups have a role in the success of irrigation performance [13], where management is crucial in determining distribution, maintenance, setting rules and sanctions [14], and restoring a sense of ownership of the irrigation to the community so that the community is involved in every decision making [15].Previous research [16] has shown that Indonesia's Water-Using Farmers' Association (P3A) model in community-based irrigation is criticized because it only focuses on procedures that the bureaucracy has implemented rather than involving community decisions.The community should be the subject of development but considered only an object of development because the community does not take part in its management, so they feel there is no ownership of the irrigation network infrastructure [15].Irrigation management that involves the community affects the welfare of farmers [17,18] because it allows people to increase their income [19,12].
Irrigation infrastructure is a critical infrastructure in supporting the sector of agriculture, which in turn determines food security.The development and management of irrigation infrastructure must benefit all parties, especially farmers, so that the development and management of community-based irrigation infrastructure can realize farmers' food sovereignty.This study aims to explore communitybased irrigation management in Indonesia, where the research locations used are irrigation cases in Musi Rawas Regency, Bandung Regency, and Soppeng Regency.These three regencies were selected respectively to represent the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi.This third case is also an area that still has a lot of agricultural land and is a food barn.

Data and Methodology
This study uses a case study approach, an in-depth exploration approach to complex issues in actual conditions, with qualitative analysis methods.The data collected are secondary and primary.General data on area, type of irrigation, agricultural land, and irrigation area, and the number of Association of Water-Using Farmers (P3A) organizations collect from secondary data.In addition, other documents in the form of secondary data are the Regional Spatial Planning (RTRW) document, the Regional Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMD), and the Irrigation Development and Management Plan document (RP2I).Primary data is collected from interviews and questionnaires distributed to farmers and P3A in the case study locations.The questions are related to the community's contribution to technical planning, development, maintenance, and irrigation operations.Determination of respondents using accidental sampling, namely determining the sample based on coincidence; that is, anyone who accidentally meets the researcher as a sample.More details about primary data collection techniques can be seen in the following table.Musi Rawas Regency has excellent potential for the construction and development of surface irrigation because five main rivers feed it.There are three authorities of irrigation areas, it is the central authority (>3,000 Ha), provincial authority (1,000-3,000 Ha), and district authority (<1,000 Ha), consisting of technical and semi-technical irrigation networks.

Bandung
Bandung Regency is located in Java Island, in West-Java Province.The irrigation of Bandung Regency is sourced from surface irrigation (rivers) and mainly functions for the agricultural sector.In supporting agricultural activities in Bandung Regency, irrigation infrastructure spread in every subdistrict ranging from technical, semi-technical, and non-technical irrigation types with total irrigation areas are 36,793.75Ha.The irrigation authority is provincial and district irrigation authorities.The total area of provincial irrigation authorities is 11,039 Ha, and the regency irrigation authority area is 25,700.75Ha.Most irrigation networks in Bandung Regency are non-technical irrigation, where the percentage in the last five years has been 97.76%, and for technical irrigation networks, the ratio only covers 2.24% [20].

Soppeng
Soppeng Regency is located in South-Sulawesi Province, Sulawesi Island.Soppeng Regency has an area of 25,238 ha with irrigation types based on water sources divided into surface irrigation (rivers) as the primary water source and pump irrigation and groundwater as supporting water sources.District authority is 9,666 Ha, province authority is 5,344 Ha, and central or state authority is 10,228 Ha.The entire irrigation area under the district's authority includes semi-technical with a percentage of 38.30% and irrigation with the provincial and central authority, including technical with 61.70%.

Irrigation management in Musi Rawas, Bandung, and Soppeng Musi Rawas
In the construction and development of irrigation networks, the Musi Rawas Regency Government optimizes the existing irrigation areas through rehabilitation and improvement, as well as the result of sites that have the potential to develop new irrigation areas.For the maintenance of the irrigation system, the central government has a vital role in handling heavy and moderate damage.The Government of Musi Rawas Regency proposes rehabilitation of irrigation networks annually using Special Allocation Fund (DAK) funds through the Ministry of Public Works and Housing.Meanwhile, the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD) of Musi Rawas Regency funds use for light maintenance of the irrigation network.Water-carrying channels in irrigation in Indonesia can be divided based on the following hierarchy: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quarter network.The government's role in development and maintenance is getting bigger the higher the carrier hierarchy.
Irrigation management in Musi Rawas Regency is carried out by the government and farming community groups, consisting of the P3A, the Water-Using Farmers' Association Movement (GP3A), and the Main Water-Using Farmers' Association (IP3A).The difference of P3A, GP3A, and IP3A is depend on the coordination area.IP3A is a coordination body for the primary canal for one sub-district dam or several villages and hamlets.The GP3A acts as the coordinatotion body of the two secondary channels.P3A works as a tertiary channel coordination body with a minimum area of 20-30 ha.Participation of the farming community/P3A/GP3A/IP3A in the construction, construction, and improvement of irrigation networks through involvement in the stages of socialization and public consultation, surveys, land acquisition, construction implementation, and as preparation and execution of operations and maintenance.Meanwhile, in irrigation management, community participation in P3A/GP3A/IP3A is the operation of irrigation networks and maintenance of irrigation networks.These activities include submitting proposed planting plans, offering water needs, providing input on changes to planting plans, changing cropping patterns, and participating in farming community activities to explore irrigation networks.

Figure 1. Semi-technical irrigation (tertiary canal) in Musi Rawas
Musi Rawas Regency Government has conducted P3A and GP3A training related to Irrigation Management at the farmer level and disseminated the Participatory Self-Management System.Irrigation control has not been going well because several interests use irrigation water for fisheries and agriculture.There is the use of irrigation for irrigating ponds with heavy water, namely with a high-speed water flow system.The owner of the pond has not been wise in using irrigation water, where ponds with heavy water dump the water elsewhere and do not return to the original channel.It causes reduced water discharge from irrigation canals.So rice fields far from primary irrigation or receiving water from tertiary flows do not get a share, so the impact of rice production in Musi Rawas Regency is reduced from previous years.

Bandung
The government and farming community groups manage irrigation management in Bandung Regency.The government handles the planning, rehabilitation, operation, and construction of irrigation, while community groups consisting of IP3A, GP3A, and P3A provide suggestions, make decisions, and maintain and operate irrigation.The number of P3A groups in Bandung Regency is 212; each village divides 30 people into five groups.P3A's contribution to development provides advice such as site selection and personnel assistance and grants to irrigation maintenance and operations by providing mutual aid to irrigation cleaning.

Figure 2. Mutual cooperation in irrigation cleaning in Bandung
There is no charge for using irrigation water.According to the farmers, the water distribution during the rainy season in Bandung Regency is relatively smooth.Perceptions of water quality are good and still useable, but it is necessary to distribute water in turns during the dry season.P3A's role here is to provide scheduled water distribution so that all farmers can access water reasonably.Provision of tertiary channel irrigation land using farmer's land, for the secondary channel using land acquisition.In addition, irrigation in Bandung Regency can serve 400 farmers in one village.The service area is determined based on the farmer's proposal.Each group does irrigation monitoring according to the coordination area but not regularly.
Before irrigation, farmers had difficulty irrigating their fields in the dry season because they had to rinse every three months.Every night they have to rotate the water or rinse the areas, so the water does not snatch away.After the construction of irrigation, water distribution was normal and did not experience drought due to the proposed irrigation development from the P3A group.Most farmers feel that water distribution is fair, water quality and quantity are better, time-saving, and there is an increase in production and cost savings.
However, some problems related to irrigation management still occur.The P3A group does not make money, so community participation is lacking.Some P3A members are old farmers who have retired, and the interest of the people of Bandung Regency in becoming farmers has decreased because most of them choose other jobs, such as laborers, resulting in a shortage of new members for the P3A group.In addition, to the lack of irrigation maintenance, there is still a lot of waste in the irrigation canal, so obstruction of water flow to tertiary channels-Furthermore, the lack of community empowerment programs from the government related to irrigation management education.
Another problem is that several work programs from GP3A have not socialized due to limited funds.There are still some areas where the water distribution is uneven due to the damage to the water catchment area upstream, which results in reduced water discharge in the weir.Some farmers take water directly from secondary canals and cause channel erosion or damage; no regulations or sanctions to address this problem.

Soppeng
The government and farming communities carry out irrigation management in Soppeng Regency.The government handles planning, medium to large-scale irrigation construction, and rehabilitation.The same as in Musi Rawas and Bandung, community participation in irrigation management conducts in the form of IP3A, GP3A, and P3A.Besides, there are also farmer groups and water regulator (uluulu).Farmer groups are responsible on the distribution of fertilizers and seeds, and the ulu-ulu which regulates the water.Before entering the planting season, three communities held a Matudang-Tudangeng event as a deliberation that brought together, discussing planting patterns, cleaning canals, checking water discharge, the need for canal repairs, and the distribution of seeds and fertilizers.
The P3A is in charge of development, such as surveying irrigation areas, implementation of development, and maintenance, such as small-scale repairs using funds from P3A obtained from postharvest contributions such as 30 Kg of unhulled rice or Rp.100,000.This fee is not for irrigation water use but rather for small-scale irrigation needs or problems to be dealt with directly without waiting for government funding.Soppeng Regency has 218 P3A, most of which require revitalization and repairs to improve performance in the future.In addition, 12 GP3As in Soppeng Regency are members of the Irrigation Commission, and six others still require revitalization and even new formation.The results of the Technical and Institutional Socio-Economic Profile data also showed that, in general, there are still many irrigation areas that do not yet have P3A and GP3A and only have farmer groups and associations, especially in irrigation areas with an area of fewer than 100 hectares.
Before the existence of irrigation canals, water distribution was not going well because it seeped into various places, so agricultural areas far from the primary channel were challenging to get water.Still, after the irrigation canal, water was able to reach up to land far from the primary canal.The following is a picture before and after the construction of the irrigation canal.Soppeng Regency is an area that can supply rice to the surrounding area but cannot categorize as a national food barn due to several irrigation management problems, such as the absence of dams causing dependence on river water.There is no third planting season in the dry season due to a lack of water.In addition, the division of authority at the district, provincial, and central levels in irrigation canals made overlapping rules at several points, so problem-solving is slow due to the need for prior coordination.Another problem is converting land, especially in urban areas, to housing.In some locations, housing construction usually takes irrigated land, which can cause channel blockages to permanent channel closures.

Conclusion
Based on the survey results at three irrigation sites, community groups are involved in deciding on irrigation development, such as holding public consultations, site selection, surveys, land acquisition, cooperation, operation, and maintenance, especially for the lower hierarchy of irrigation.However, these community groups do not yet have a robust organizational role.In study locations, problems are still found, such as areas that did not serve the irrigation water, such as limited water flow from irrigation to agricultural land in Musi Rawas because the ponds take up a lot of water discharge.In Bandung Regency, some people still disposes wastein irrigation canals and take water directly from secondary channels.In Soppeng Regency, there is a lack of innovation in water supply, resulting in dependence on one water source.Still, this community group has not provided any rules, sanctions, or solutions to solving field problems.In addition, the lack of government support for community groups is still encountered, such as in Bandung Regency; the lack of community empowerment programs related to irrigation management and limited group funds have resulted in few socialization programs from the GP3A group.The impact caused a decrease in the community's interest in joining as irrigation managers.Hence, most members of irrigation managers were elderly, for young adults were less interested in becoming members.Realizing a sustainable community-based irrigation system requires a high role of community organizations in irrigation management, and government needs to support the capacity of community groups.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Before and after the construction of the irrigation canal in Soppeng