The present study was conducted infour blocks of Pudukkottai district in Tamil Nadu which is well known for having more number of irrigation tanks and the majority farmers depend on tank irrigation for crop cultivation. Since the farmer having good experience in managing and utilizing tanks for irrigation, an attempt was carried out to measure the extent of participation of tank user farmers in community based tank irrigation management system. In order to measure the participation of tank user farmers, the major tank management activities were identified and presented to the respondents. The responses were obtained in a three point continuum with the range from regular to never. The study revealed that majority of the farmers had medium extent of participation and also they had regular participation in tank management activities such as carrying out desilting activity followed by cleaning the water supply channels, arranging water distribution among users, identification of leakages on bunds and their repair, strengthening of tank bunds.
Tank, irrigation, participation, community, management
