Demonstrated benefits from social capital: The productivity of farmer organizations in Gal Oya, Sri Lanka

An analytical construct of social capital is presented, followed by a case study from Sri Lanka. There, farmer organizations were established in the G al Oya irrigation scheme in the early 1980s with a combination of roles, ru les, norms and values that supported mutually beneficial collective action. This produced measurable improvements in system performance and efficiency . Tn the 1997 dry season, after farmers were told there was not enough wate r in the reservoir to grow a rice crop, they achieved through their organiz ations a better-than-average harvest from 65,000 acres by efficient and equ itable distribution. Ethnic cooperation was demonstrated by upstream Sinhal ese farmers sharing water with downstream Tamil farmers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.