ABSTRACT
This study provides empirical evidence of major debates in collective action theory concerning resource and member heterogeneity by conducting a survey on 63 randomly selected water-user associations promoted by the West Bengal state government of India. The functioning and governance of these institutions were evaluated by efficiency in resource mobilization (collection of membership fees), members’ perception of transparency and democratic decision-making, and dependency on third-party involvement in the future. The study finds that a larger command area, larger proportion of smaller farmers, optimum membership fee, frequent general body meetings, certain documentation, and power structure improve the functioning and governance indicators.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful for the support provided by the staff members of West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMIP), Government of West Bengal, India. The authors are grateful to SRG Consultancy, Kolkata, for conducting the survey work.
Author contributions
Indranil De: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; funding acquisition; investigation; methodology; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; Soumyadip Chattopadhyay: formal analysis; investigation; writing – review and editing; Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan: investigation; writing – review and editing; Prabhat Mishra: project administration; Akhilesh Parey: project administration; and Subhasish Dutta: project administration.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2022.2041407.