Performance assessment of transferred irrigation management: Case study of Dzce Irrigation District in Turkey

In this study, physical and financial performance criteria of transferred irrigation management of Duzce Irrigation District were evaluated between 2006 and 2012. Physical and financial performances are irrigation ratio and sustainability of irrigated land, and cost recovery ratio, maintenance expenditure to revenue ratio, operational cost per unit area, total cost per personnel employed on water delivery, revenue collection performance and service area per personnel, respectively. The analysis results indicated that irrigation ratios were between 12.8 to 23.2% while sustainability of irrigated land rates were between 1.33 to 2.40 for the studied years. On the other hand, cost recovery ratio and revenue collection performance values were changed between 56.4 to 89.4 and 70.9 to 93.2%, respectively. Moreover, maintenance expenditure to revenue, operational cost per unit area, total cost per person employed on water delivery and service area per personnel had between 4.8 to 24.4%, 111.3 to 183.9 US$ ha-1, 7288.5 to 13168.8 US$ ha-1 and 116.9 to 234.9%, respectively. As a conclusion, it was stated that transferred irrigation management for Duzce Irrigation District does not have enough financial and physical performances and needs recovery.   Key words: Sustainability, irrigation ratio, operating cost, water delivery, Duzce.