We encountered a similar experience in Wollo, where the world vision convinced the owner of a land where a spring emerges to allow to tap the spring to the community. The compromise was that he was provided with his own tap and also hired as an operator for the public water point. I couldn't say about how this fits to the irrigation case. 

Thanks Essayas. This is a good example; but again in situations where there is no employment opportunity yet, and when the community didn't yet rip the benefits, what other incentives can we employ to convince the farmer?

Hi Annet; how do we access these resources? Is it a competitive grant or an application in the name of the farmer??

Thanks. One literature I got suggested an annual financial award to the farmer contributed by the irrigation beneficiaries. However, it could have been done only after the beneficiaries realize the benefits. I hope there is an experience in Countries with similar settings like Nepal, India?

 Tilahun,

Spring is a form of ground water emergence, and so is a common property, although in country like India, the farmers have the right to the ground water usage in their lands (transgressions occur underground though). In Ethiopia, there may not possibly be any water rights issue, but then for developing infrastructure, the farmer's permission shall be required. Sure the farmer himself may be willing to irrigate his land if he is not doing it now. So, the best thing would be to convince him that infrastructure development cost in his own farm shall be provided for free to him (if the cost is shared). Otherwise, some kind of compensation for the land lost due to laying of pipeline etc. in his land should be provided to him. If the community approaches him, surely he should agree.

If he does not agree, and the spring is perennial, you could very well use the surplus water flowing out of his land...

Please do convey what did you do to convince the farmer.

Attached are some papers on springs in India. More in my RG site.

Kind regards,      

Dear Pradeep,

Many thanks for these insights and papers. Given the small land size of his farm, the farmer is worried that the infrastructure development in his farm will eat all his plot and he may not benefit out of it. One other thing we have tried was to negotiate with the community to allocate a bit of irrigable land so that he would be also benefiting directly from the infrastructure development. But there was disagreement among the members. At what stage do we need to involve the local government?