Water is an important input for irrigated agriculture. However, the irrigation sector, especially in developing countries, often faces pressure to secure water for production activities and maintain irrigation services. To sustain the supply and delivery of water in irrigation, not only should efficient use of water resources be promoted, but the balance between the cost and revenue from water supply must be sustained. In most cases, the appropriate setting and application of water pricing is crucial to achieving these objectives. In this paper, the use of level-of-service-based water pricing is described and illustrated with a case of a modernized irrigation system in a central highland province of Vietnam. The results from this study show that: (i) modernization of irrigation systems increases service levels and farmers have more choices for selecting services provided; (ii) water rates can be reasonably calculated with respect to the level of irrigation services provided; and (iii) farmers are more likely to select an acceptable level of service for a reasonable water price instead of choosing to pay more for a higher quality of service. This paper highlights the importance of policies which support the modernization of irrigation systems and pursuing level-of-service-based water pricing to promote more sustainable irrigation development in developing countries.

This study assesses whether low-cost digital transparency can improve irrigation service quality under seasonal water scarcity. At Tan Thanh Agricultural Cooperative, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam, a ‘digital coordination package’ was applied to one secondary canal, consisting of public disclosure of irrigation schedules through Zalo and a focal point for reporting and resolving disruptions. A comparable adjacent canal served as the control. Based on a balanced panel of 150 households surveyed before and after the intervention (300 household-period observations), the study applies a Difference-in-Differences framework. The outcome is an Irrigation Service Quality Index on a 0–100 scale, built from timeliness, transparency, responsiveness, and perceived distributional equity. Results show negligible baseline differences but substantial post-intervention divergence. Household fixed-effects estimates indicate that the intervention was associated with a 19.08-point increase in service quality (p < 0.01). Because treatment is assigned to a single canal per arm, this estimate should be interpreted as indicative rather than a definitively identified causal effect, as canal-specific shocks cannot be fully excluded. The finding holds across PCA-based indexing, first-difference estimation, and ANCOVA with baseline controls. Overall, digital transparency improved predictability, accountability, and information symmetry, although one cropping season is insufficient to confirm the elimination of head-end advantages.