Watershed Development In India

This book explores the exclusion of community groups from the perspective of people’s equal opportunities and equal access to newly generated economic benefits, tracing the factors determining their denial and exclusion. Paying specific attention to watershed development projects, it considers the detailed processes involved in the denial of institutional and livelihood opportunities to resource-poor groups, and discusses potential avenues for their meaningful social inclusion in the governance of natural resources.

The Green Revolution that transformed irrigated agriculture elsewhere in India had little effect in the rainfed, semi-arid regions. Agricultural productivity remained low, natural resources were degrading, and the people were poor. In the 1980s and 1990s, planners turned to watershed management to develop rainfed agriculture while conserving natural resources. By the late 1990s, India was spending US$500 million a year on watershed development projects. Strategies ranged from the purely technical to those that emphasized social organization. Little systematic analysis exists, however, on the success of the different approaches. This study, based on a survey of 86 villages in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra states, attempts to fill that information gap by evaluating the projects' relative success in raising agricultural productivity, improving natural resource management, and reducing poverty. In looking at the question of what approaches enable a project to succeed, it uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis to compare project and nonproject villages before and after the projects were implemented. The authors find that projects involving the villagers in planning and decisionmaking performed better than their technocratic, top-down counterparts, but projects that combined participation with sound technical input performed best of all. All projects faced difficulties in ensuring that poor people shared the benefits of watershed development.

This book analyses the empowerment process of the Bhil as a result of the implementation of the watershed project in Jhabua. This visionary project, planned and implemented by the Bhil community, has put in place an integrated strategy that has given them control over their livelihood. It is examined against the backdrop of a framework that links three important aspects-biophysical (resource management and ecological balance), socio-economic (productivity, agricultural growth and livelihood support) and institutional (sustainable resource use, equity and benefit-cost sharing); and their complex interactions.

The book deals with the strategies followed for planning, implementation, monitoring & evaluation and maintenance of structures etc for integrated management of watersheds in different rain fed agro-ecological regions in India. Various agencies involved in execution of watersheds like NWDPRA, MoRD, ICAR/SAUs, International Donors and NGOs were taken into consideration to study the successes and failures of watershed management programme in rehabilitation of arable and non-arable lands particularly in rain fed areas on sustainable basis through participatory watershed approach. SWOT analysis was also done in case of selected watersheds. This book will be of immense help to all those who are actively involved in watershed management programme. The policy makers, planners, researchers, soil conservationists, extension workers, progressive farmers and students associated with management of natural resources will also be benefited.

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the realization of improved rainfed agriculture yield in semi-arid and dry land areas. The incentive of watershed programs is to increase the return on investment with over 20% for 65% of the projects that are currently underperforming. Besides techniques to improve the livelihood of the many small