Section 7 – Practical interactions between engineers and farmers

Our job is to learn from each other and find more innovative irrigation system – Mohammed Nouri, Assistant Professor, Water Resource Management

In this section you’ll learn about:

  • how you communicate your role to farmers;
  • how you can learn from farmers;

The Farmer versus the Irrigation Engineer

Consider these attributes often assigned to farmers and engineers. Do you agree with these labels?

Farmer Irrigation Engineer
Informal Formal
Inefficient Efficient
Traditional Modern

Do we as practitioners feel that to move to the more professional model farmers must learn from us? Or is the learning mutual?

Scholars in the 1970s promoted linear models of thinking and often said that public irrigation schemes failed because of the farmers’ lack of knowledge, or because farmers don’t follow instructions. In these instances, the farmer is to blame when something goes wrong.

However, we should ask ourselves how the farmers see the technologies promoted to them. How do they imagine the reaction between water and soil or different technologies?

If we think like an engineer, we have technical descriptions for describing the various aspects of our work. People working on farms have the same experience as us of irrigation and agricultural concepts but will use a different terminology.

We may assume a farmer’s lack of knowledge, but it’s our own specific jargon that limits understanding. We must learn to listen and communicate with farmers to benefit from their empirical knowledge.