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Farmland water conservancy facilities, as important rural public goods, are the key agricultural infrastructure to enhance agricultural anti-risk capabilities and comprehensive food production capacity. They are the core driving force for achieving China’s rural revitalization strategic goals. Rural economic, social and ecological issues have attracted great attention from governments at all levels in China.

However, under the realistic background of national project resource-intensive villages and water user associations, many water conservancy facilities inside and outside the village still cannot achieve effective governance, which shows that pure capital input and main body construction are not a solution to inter-village water conservancy governance. Sufficient conditions for the problem. How to build an effective water conservancy management and protection mechanism, get rid of the predicament of water management organizations at the grassroots level, and overcome the irregularity of water control rules and order at the grassroots level has become an urgent problem.

In view of this, this article takes the reform and management of farmland water conservancy facilities in Wufeng Town, Yongchun County, Fujian Province as an example, analyzes the establishment and change of water management rules in the field of grassroots villages and towns, and analyzes the mechanism of the rules on the effectiveness of water treatment at the grassroots level. Discussing grassroots water management situations from the perspective of rule construction, and in-depth analysis of the effects of grassroots water management rules on the effectiveness of water management will help policy makers to understand grassroots water management rules and provide decision-making basis for further improving the construction of rural grassroots water management systems.

I. Overview of Farmland Water Conservancy Facilities Management and Protection Reform in Yongchun County, Fujian Province

Yongchun County is a typical agricultural county located in the southeast of Fujian Province. In 2014, Yongchun County was identified as a pilot county for the innovative operation and management mechanism of farmland water conservancy facilities nationwide. In 2015, under the guidance of the county water conservancy bureau, the county’s Wufeng Town began the reform of farmland water conservancy facilities management and protection. Wufeng Town is located 12 kilometers northwest of Yongchun County. It has 8 administrative villages. The registered small-scale rural water conservancy projects in the town include canals, dams, and mountain ponds. The data used in this article are mainly from the field investigations conducted by the research team in Yongchun County, Fujian Province in 2017 and 2019.

1. Water management status of Wufeng Town, Yongchun County before the management reform

At that time, the intact rate of water conservancy facilities in Wufeng Town was not enough to meet the water demand for agricultural production. Water conservancy management and protection requires grassroots pockets, which places a heavy burden on the town’s finances and also causes the grassroots’ ability to control water loss. At the same time, the loss of grassroots people’s foundation for water treatment in Yongchun County makes it difficult for grassroots water management, especially in the field of inter-village water management, to integrate diverse water needs and effectively monitor the “free-rider” behavior. (Zhou Qian et al., 2018) .

2. Water management status of Wufeng Town, Yongchun County after management reform

In 2015, in order to solve the problems of unknown property rights and lack of daily management and protection of farmland water conservancy facilities, Yongchun County established a Qingping Water Conservancy Engineering Maintenance Center in Wufeng Town. ( Hereinafter referred to as “maintenance center”) , piloting a professional and centralized farmland water conservancy management and protection model. As a social enterprise, the maintenance center is contracted to the town government to take charge of the daily management and protection of farmland water conservancy in the town. Since then, the water conservancy construction in Wufeng Town has gradually improved.

In summary, from the water management situation before and after the reform of farmland water conservancy facilities in Wufeng Town, Yongchun County, it can be seen that the town has entered the management stage from the years of disrepair and unmanaged water conservancy facilities before the reform. The stage of good and orderly maintenance of water conservancy facilities after environmental protection reform: the government, village collectives and socialized enterprises have become active actors in water management at the grassroots level, and the responsibility for management and protection of water conservancy facilities at the grass-roots level has been implemented; The rules make the grassroots water management system perfect.

Second, the analysis of the development of farmland water conservancy facilities reform rules in Yongchun County, Fujian Province

In 2015, Yongchun County launched a reform of farmland water conservancy facilities management and protection, which opened up a new situation for the farmland water conservancy facilities management and protection in Wufeng Town, and also led to changes in many rules in the town’s grassroots water control action context. Insight into the changes in water management rules at the grassroots level will help to understand the mechanism of water treatment rules at the grassroots level after the reform of management and protection.

1. Boundary rules: adjust resource boundaries and extend actors’ boundaries

After implementing the reform of farmland water conservancy facilities management and protection in Wufeng Town, Yongchun County, changes have been made to the resource boundary and the actor boundary rules.

On the one hand, through the establishment of a maintenance center, the resource boundary was adjusted from the original administrative boundary to the hydrological boundary, thereby providing grass-roots water conservancy services, realizing the full coverage of management and protection services, and solving the interactive push of inter-village water management Problem, to achieve effective connection of management and protection of water conservancy facilities.

On the other hand, before 2015, poor business environment such as unclear rights and responsibilities of water conservancy facilities and long investment return periods of water conservancy facilities directly hindered new water conservancy service providers such as enterprises from entering grassroots watersheds.