The contribution of economic analysis to the design of sustainable irrigation projects

Irrigation projects can take a variety of forms, but they often require substantial investment and bring together stakeholders with differing resources and interests in the shared management of water. In a recent publication, the french Scientific and Technical Committee on Agricultural Water (COSTEA) proposed an economic analysis process for each type of irrigation project, focusing on the main project stakeholders, namely farmers and irrigation scheme managers (operators). A few methodological principles are summarized in this four-page text: 1- Taking every type of stakeholder into account and in particular the diversity of agricultural producers; 2- Determining the conditions for irrigation infrastructure management stability and financial equilibrium; 3- Carrying out better evaluations of projects’ impacts at different geographical levels (community/region/ country).