Community-based Participatory Watershed Management with Technical Backstopping

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• S P Wani, Bekele Shiferaw and T K Sreedevi
• International Crops Research Institute for the
  Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
• Patancheru P.O. 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India

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Challenges for Rainfed Agriculture

• Water - resource constraint defining the SAT, by
  2025, 1/3rd world population will face water
  scarcity
• Low natural fertility of tropical soils
• Low adoption of improved varieties and better
  resource management practices
• Land degradation is the result
• soil erosion, nutrient and organic matter loss,
  diminished water flows in streams and from ground
  storage

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Competing Demand for Water A Finite Resource

• Used in our day to day life
• Agriculture
• Industry
• Domestic
• Recreation
• Environmental Services

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Global ProblemNeeds Local Solution

• Holistic systems approach
• Collective efforts of all the stakeholders
• Knowledge driven management systems

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Watersheds as Entry Point for Improving
Livelihoods

• Watersheds are not only hydrological units but
  provide life-support to rural people
• If not managed properly then natural resources
  are degraded rapidly
• People and animals are integral part of the
  watersheds and their actions affect the health of
  watersheds

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Why Collective Action in Watersheds

• Different group of stakeholders are involved
• Type of resources are diverse
• Solutions to overcome diverse problems
• More than one actors involved
• Watersheds connect different communities
• Interventions have off-site impacts
• But diversity is unified by overarching land and
  water resources

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Foundation Elements of Collective Action

• Compelling Vision Sense of purpose, trust, and
  commitment among the team members
• Strong and Shared Leadership Leadership should
  help the members understand and appreciate the
  motivation and interests, concerns, and social
  and cultural norms of the individual members and
  the organization

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Foundation Elements of Collective Action
(Contd..)

• Interaction and involvement of all members
• Maintenance of individual self-esteem
• Equitable tangible personal benefits
• Awareness of interdependency and realization of
  potential welfare gains from CA of individuals

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Foundation Elements of Good Team (Contd..)

• Good governance Clear monitoring, recognition of
  rights to organize and agreed mechanisms to
  penalize free riders
• Open communication
• Attention to process and content
• Mutual trust
• Constructive conflict resolution

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Institutional Organization for Watershed
Management in India
MORD
MoAgril.
MoFE
National Level
CRD
CoAgril.
CC Forests
State Level
DRDA/ZP
DoAgril.
DFO
District level
PIA/WDT
Project level
SHG
UG
WA
Watershed level
WC
WS
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Soil conservation
Journey through Watersheds Approach in India
Water conservation
Productivity Enhancement
Compartmental
Holistic systems approach
Livelihood improvement
Top down and contractual
Participatory mode
Community ownership
Transparency and vigilant community
Inequitable benefits
No ownership by farmers
Tangible benefits well distributed
Less transparency
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Extent of Participation
Low

• Contractual
• Consultative
• Collaborative
• Collegiate

High
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ICRISATs Integrated Watershed Management
Model is Science-based Farmer Centric
Participatory Consortium Approach

A holistic participatory approach
Consortium for technical backstopping
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Innovative Farmer Participatory Consortium Model
for Integrated Watershed Management

• Empowerment of community and stakeholders
• Mix of individual and community-based
  interventions
• Consortium for technical backstopping

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Farmer-based Rainwater Conservation Small
measures go a long way

• Land forms
• - Broad-bed and furrow
• - Cultivation on grade
• - Contour plantings
• Field bunds/Gliricidia and Vetiver planting
• Improved cropping systems
• Soil amendments

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Water Harvesting and Management

• In each watershed provisions were made to take
  excess water out of fields safely and collect in
  tanks

A win-win situation- Bringing more water and
food for people
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Adarsha Watershed, Kothapally, India Benefits to
the Community

• Groundwater recharging
• Decreased runoff and soil losses
• Reduction in the occurrence of droughts

• Increased water levels in the wells
• Increased cropping intensity

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Farmers constructing the main drain to improve
water-logging at Ginchi watershed, Ethiopia
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Integrated Pest Management Options

• Improved pest management
• NPV to control Helicoverpa
• Plant origin pesticides
• Bird perches
• Pheromone traps
• Shaking plants

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Micro-enterprises for Improved Livelihoods

• Vermicomposting
• Value addition Daal mills installed
• Village-based seed bank
• Nursery raising by SHGs

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New Initiatives Community-based Biodiversity
Conservation

• Rehabilitation of CPRs
• Biodiesel plantations
• Below-ground and above-ground diversity study is
  initiated

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What We Achieved
Increased productivity
Water conservation and increased groundwater
recharging
Women equity
Rehabilitation of degraded lands
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Average Crop Yields with Improved Technologies in
Adarsha Watershed, Kothapally, 1999-2003
Crop 1998 Baseline Yield (kg ha-1) Yield (kg ha-1) Yield (kg ha-1) Yield (kg ha-1) Yield (kg ha-1)
Crop 1998 Baseline 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Sole maize 1500 3250 3750 3300 3480 3921
Intercropped maize (Traditional) 2700 700 2791 1600 2800 1600 3083 1800 3129 1950
Intercropped pigeonpea (Traditional) 190 640 200 940 180 800 - 720 - 949 -
Sole sorghum 1070 3050 3170 2600 2425 2288
Intercropped sorghum 1770 1940 2200 - 2109
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Average household net income from crop production
(2001 prices) in Adarsha watershed and
surrounding villages
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Farmers Day
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Interactions with Policymakers
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Drivers of Success in Adarsha Watershed
Kothapally

• Benefits
• Tangible economic benefits to individuals
• Collective actions
• Convergence approach for including landless
  families, women and youth groups
• Technical backstopping by a consortium
• Social mobilization and participation through NGO
• Need-based
• Majority farmers are small holders (lt 2 ha)
• Medium rainfall (800 mm)
• Largely rainfed areas (90)
• No water harvesting structure badly needed
  demand driven

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Drivers of Success in Adarsha Watershed
Kothapally (Contd..)

• Institutions and governance
• Funds managed by village committee Transparency
• No contractors all works through self-help
  groups (SHGs)
• Voluntary labor by villages for social work
• Capacity building
• Empowerment of community

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How We Moved
Top

• Sensitization
• ? Policymakers
• ? Line departments
  ? NGOs/PIAs ? Watershed level
• ? Farmers Associations
• Team building exercises
• ? Central theme reduction of poverty
• ? Common vision development
• ? Effective task forces across organizations

Bottom
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Guiding Principles to Achieve the Target

• Harness the strengths of diverse partners by
  harmonizing the existing institutions
• Build on experiences and work collectively for
  supporting policies to promote collective action
• Aim High to promote increased collective
  action towards higher plain to achieve collegiate
  mode
• Build trust and good team of NRM stakeholders
• Take risks supported with knowledge using new
  science tools
• Make use of knowledge for development and make
  the community strong

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Collective action can surmount difficult NRM
issues through integrated watershed management
The Message
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Thank you.