The Institutional Context of Irrigation in the Bajo Yaque del Norte Project, Dominican Republic

Work on irrigation water management in the semi-arid, northwest Dominican Republic with agrarian reform growers is described. Irrigation agriculture is presented as an institution where communication between users and suppliers is critical for establishing control over the resource and determining the purpose to which the resource is put. Maintaining communication between users and suppliers serves to realize public and private agent objectives, and avoid system decay to a "tragedy of the commons." The discussion of irrigation water management is placed in the comparative framework of national modernization and development efforts.