Although China has reduced its poor population from 250 million in 1978 to 30 million in 2003, an overall reduction in world poverty still depends on progress being made in China because of its huge population. The concentration of poor in western rural regions makes China s task of poverty alleviation complex. Clearer and more transparent analyses on the reasons for poverty are essential prerequisites of any development policy that puts poverty reduction at its heart. The purpose of this paper is to identify causes for being poor in western rural China. It argues that the essence of rural income poverty in the western region is water poverty. Low efficiency of agricultural productivity resulting from poor land quality and uneven distribution of water resources has led to heavy dependence on irrigated agriculture. Irrigated agriculture has played and will play a critical role in creating employment opportunities and alleviating poverty. Existing water shortages and competition for different water utilization make it imperative to enhance the efficiency of water resource management.

本文认为制度创新是经济增长的重要源泉。制度做为一种“公共品”，是一种稀缺性资源，更由于中国强制性制度变迁的特点，农业制度供给处于严重短缺状态中。中国农业制度供给不足，既有初级行为团体方面的原因，又有次级行为团体方面的原因。然而做为供给主导型制度变迁，农业制度供给不足主要是政府主体造成的。产权制度、市场制度、就业制度等制度供给严重滞后于制度需求，对中国农业发展造成了极大的负面影响。

What are the factors impeding or enhancing cooperative behavior amongst farmers in Chinese irrigation district maintenance? This paper argues that economic inducement mechanisms can enhance farmers' cooperative behavior in ID management, especially under the background of being lack of self-organization. The Nash equilibrium solution of cooperative behavior amongst farmers is derived. Given the amount of other farmers' maintenance effort, the factors influencing farmer i's cooperative behavior are classified into two groups-endogenous factors and exogenous factors. The endogenous factors are expected income achieved from irrigated agriculture and geographical location along an irrigation canal. The exogenous factors are the importance of the consumption of private goods relative to the use of the irrigation infrastructure, collective goods, and the price of collective goods. The influence of each factor is analyzed. Economic inducement mechanisms are shown to be crucial for the emergence of cooperative behavior amongst farmers in an ID. Dividing farmers within an ID into different water user associations can help to overcome strategic behavior in ID management, providing technical support, establishing compensation mechanisms and establishing land-transferring mechanisms can induce more maintenance effort.

流域水资源的特点决定了单纯的市场机制和单纯的政府管理机制都不能做到水资源的有效配置，政府宏观调控下的水资源准市场配置是实现流域水资源效率配置的基础。流域水资源准市场发育的内在条件为：明确界定的产权、与土地使用权相分离的水使用权、市场主体的培育和合理的水价。适宜的制度环境是流域水资源准市场发育的外在条件，为此必须完善水资源立法；改革政府行政机构，建立不同主体的利益补偿机制。