"Since the issuance and effective application of decentralization policy, the irrigation management authority, which is previously handled by the central government is handed over to local governments and community, in accordance with the Presidential Instruction Number 3 of 1999 concerning Irrigation Management Policy Reform (IMPR). IMPR is substantially aimed at community empowerment and participatory in irrigation management to achieve the objectives, task and responsibility redefinition of the farmers in irrigation management, as well as Water User Association and Federation (WUA/WUAF) is substantially required. Action program of IMPR consists of WUA empowerment facilitation and counterpart service. Concrete action of the program is mobilization of a number of farmer counterparts (TPPI Facilitators) to correspond members of WUA/WUAF for institutional independence and self-sufficiency in irrigation management Short-term objective of the program is to ensure farmers' independency and self-determination in irrigation management, no more dependence to government, starting out from planning, activity implementation, maintenance and operational funding, to utilization of irrigation benefits. This study is aimed at analyzing performance of program implementation and influencing factors. Research is conducted in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Province, one of national rice production centers. There have been 53 Water Users Association Federation (WUAF) spreading over Sleman, Bantul, Kulon Progo and Gunung Kidul Districts which are considered analysis units.
According to field research, performance of program implementation for four years (2001 to 2004) is satisfactory, but not optimal, showing that: (a) water-using farmers registered as members in the WUA and WUAF are not self-sufficient in irrigation management, from financing to scheme maintenance; (b) management of water users' contribution fee (WUCF) which should become a potential source of fund is not completely applied; and (c) many tertiary schemes are not functional for being damaged or plugged. Program activities conducted just include establishment of WUA organization, member registration, and merging WUAs to several WUAFs, while some of them have prepared organization statutes (AD/ART). In brief, WUA empowerment facilitation and counterpart service Di. Yogyakarta Province covering 35 irrigation areas with 20,450 hectares width, has not provided significant impact on farmers' income-generating.
There are two variables significantly influence the implementation performance, namely: (1) insufficiency of human resources, especially field facilitators; and (2) insufficiency of financial support, especially for facilitators to cover all activities as they are just provided with limited fund to settle transportation cost. Fund limitation influences time for counterpart. Field counterpart service is just provided for 2 to 3 months. Responsive actions to be taken to improve implementation performance in the future consists of, among others: (1) allocation of proportional facilitators by taking work volume and target accessibility into account; (2) adequate budget allocation by considering money value to goods and services required for field implementation; and (3) communication consistency and intensity should be significantly improved to ensure that policy and action program is completely informed to target groups."
Depok: Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik Universitas Indonesia, 2005
