Watersheds
130+
Villages
21+
Institutions
2400+ ha
Area Treated
“A watershed development approach should not be an area development approach, and efforts towards sustainable development should be equally focused on inexpensive, inter-bund management practices.”
Why watershed plus activities?
In India, the major policy thrust to address livelihood improvements in dryland farming areas has been on watershed development. Various watershed development projects have been implemented in the country to improve livelihoods in dry areas through soil and water conservation measures.
With the emphasis on people’s participation, community mobilization has widely been the entry point in watershed development projects - primarily through promoting self-help groups (SHGs).
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The SHGs are eventually expected to lead to large-scale people’s involvement in implementing the project activities. Despite people’s participation, extensive soil and water conservation activities, and various technological innovations, increased farm productivity has somehow remained inadequate in just about every watershed development project.
Watershed development, in general, has remained more as an area development approach, with greater emphasis on cost-intensive activities such as drainage course treatment and construction of various water conservation and harvesting structures.
It is indeed a necessary preliminary step. More often, the projects close at this stage rather than capitalizing on the preparatory activities. Subsequently, the efforts towards sustainable development should move forward with equal emphasis on inexpensive, inter-bund management practices.
Over the years, we have executed several watershed projects and interventions that have improved soil fertility and crop productivity. In addition, we have implemented various productivity enhancement measures through watershed-plus activities, yielding favourable results.
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Implementing inter-bund inexpensive management practices early in the watershed is crucial to improve soil fertility, moisture and crop yields.
The Framework
• We ensure that the watershed interventions focus on soil moisture conservation and drainage line treatments based on geohydrological inputs of that particular watershed.
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• We promote and involve CBOs from the beginning in watershed-plus activities to ensure their ownership.
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• We support implementing in-situ soil moisture conservation practices, soil fertility, and modified crop management practices.
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• We develop a local extension system with para workers to provide hands-on support to implement the watershed plus activities.
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