Dispute management in farmer’s managed irrigation system: A case study of Geya Danda irrigation system of eastern Nepal

Social organisation runs with certain rules and regulation. These rules and regulations are defined according to normative order. These orders are based on customary law and local law. This kind of order is in practice in Nepal around different social institution; farmer managed irrigation system (FMIS) is one of them. Irrigation management, as such, is a very broad field. Just as every social science investigation has own social research boundaries, the limits of such a study of irrigation management are set by objectives of the particular study. The main issue of this research is dispute management practice and the role of local knowledge. In this case, water management is conceptualized as a process of how farmers govern, operate, and maintain an irrigation system (social and institutional aspect). Irrigation system management includes how water is acquired from the source (water production), how it gets to canal (water acquisition), how it is allocated to particular place (water allocation), how it is distributed in different field channels (water distribution) and how it is used in farming individual plots (water appropriation).