Amita Shah, Suhas P Wani, PK Joshi, KV Raju, TK Sreedevi , YS Ramakrishna and Team

1

• Amita Shah, Suhas P Wani, PK Joshi, KV Raju, TK
  Sreedevi , YS Ramakrishna and Team
• International Crops Research Institute for the
  Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
• Patancheru P.O. 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India

2
Specific Objectives

• To critically assess the impact of various
  watershed development programs in India
• To identify the drivers of success from the
  bright spots in terms of targeted objectives,
  enabling policies and institutions contributing
  towards achieving greater impact
• To develop suitable institutional and technical
  recommendations, policy guidelines and suitable
  database for sustainable and efficient
  management of the watershed programs

3
Approach

• Convergence and consortium
• Macro- and micro-level studies
• Detailed analysis of secondary data
• Detailed case studies
• Use new science tools

4
Main Emerging Messages

• Vast potential of rainfed agriculture needs to be
  harnessed
• Farmers yields are lower by 2 to 5 folds than
  the achievable yields.

5
Main Emerging Messages (Contd..)
Watershed development programs in India are
silently revolutionalizing the rainfed areas and
can become Growth Engine for inclusive and
sustainable development in vast tracts of rainfed
areas in India
6
Watersheds are Revolutionalising Drylands
7
Crop yields in Adarsha Watershed Kothapally
during 1999-2007
8
Scaling-up of Watersheds

• Convergence
• Collective action
• Capacity building
• PPP-business model to promote high-value crops
• Technical Backstopping

9
Drivers of Collective Action

• Tangible economic benefits for individuals
• Income-generating activities
• High-value crops
• Holistic approach IGNRM approach

10
Main Emerging Messages (Contd..)
Knowledge-based entry point activity is more
effective for better and sustainable community
participation than the regular cash back EPA
currently adopted in the watershed programs
11
Main Emerging Messages (Contd..)

• Multiple benefits from watersheds for society
• Strategic research in the area of quantification
  and economic valuation of such services
• Strategies for development in low and high
  rainfall areas, emerging second generation
  problems
• New tools in the area of social and biophysical
  sciences
• Policies for ME and IA needs to be undertaken

12
Main Emerging Messages (Contd..)
Capacity building is the weakest link for
scaling-up meaningful watershed programs
13
Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups

• Targeted interventions to benefit women and other
  vulnerable groups
• New science tools
• Participatory approach
• ICT for CB
• Transparency

14
Way Forward Recommendations Watershed policies
and guidelines

• Unify the efforts around a new paradigm which
  shifts the objectives from merely
  drought-proofing and agricultural production to
  sustainably increasing agricultural productivity,
  reducing poverty, protecting the environment, and
  building human and natural resource resilience to
  cope with future challenges, including climate
  change
• Common guidelines with a single effective
  national and state mechanism, better use of
  technology and a move from a subsistence to a
  business model by establishing market links and
  public private partnerships

15
Way Forward Recommendations Watershed policies
and guidelines
(Contd..)

• 3. To help meet the national goal to conserve,
  manage and efficiently use scarce water
  resources, watersheds need to be recognized as
  the most appropriate framework in which various
  agencies concerned with surface, ground and
  drinking water and sanitation can interface to a
  common purpose.
• 4. Macro watersheds of 1,200 ha and above have
  achieved impacts more effectively than
  micro-watersheds of 500 ha.

16
Way Forward Recommendations Watershed policies
and guidelines
(Contd..)

• 5. We recommend the establishment of consortia
  comprising the key research and development
  institutions, Civil Society Organizations and the
  private sector. Secondly, the engagement of
  quality service providers to augment what can be
  achieved by individual programmes in capacity
  building, technical backstopping, and knowledge
  dissemination to improve performance. Finally, we
  recommend the implementation period be extended
  from five years to seven to eight years

17
Way Forward Recommendations Watershed policies
and guidelines
(Contd..)

• 6.Knowledge-based entry point activities which
  deliver immediate tangible economic benefits, and
  so capture the attention and enthusiasm of the
  community and promotes collective action by
  building self sufficiency
• 7.The current funding of watershed programmes is
  insufficient to effectively embrace social,
  environmental, and sustainability objectives. The
  performance of watersheds would be greatly
  improved by attending to the following aspects of
  funding
• To provide new funds for seeding
  income-generating activities, capacity
  development and CPR development
• Timely release and flexibility to meet location
  specific needs
• For Monitoring and Evaluation including for the
  application of new science tools

18
Way Forward Recommendations Watershed policies
and guidelines
(Contd..)

• 8. We recommend a sum of Rs.20,000/- hectare for
  integrated watershed development. In order to
  effectively deal with sustained income
  generation, capacity building, monitoring, and
  technology generation and to extend treatment
  coverage throughout each watershed will require
  additional funds. These may not entirely be new
  money
• 9. The Project Implementation Agency and
  Panchayati Raj Institutions, particularly the
  Gram Sabhas, should have clearer roles and
  responsibilities. Panchayati Raj Institutions
  should play an important role in the governance
  of watersheds and in post-project support

19
Way Forward Recommendations Institutional
Arrangements

• 10.The performance and sustainability of
  watersheds can be substantially improved by
  exploring the option of strengthening and
  supporting small area groups in place of user
  groups in their planning and execution
• 11.Mid-term evaluation, impact assessment after
  programme completion and post-project evaluation
  after four to five years will enable implementing
  agencies to make mid-course corrections and
  governments to adjust policy. ME information
  should be put in the public domain

20
Way Forward Recommendations Monitoring and
Evaluation

• 12.We recommend an assessment be made that takes
  in to account total environmental and
  socio-economic impacts. Such a broad assessment
  would best be conducted across different
  agro-ecologies together at sub-basin level
  supported by simulation modelling

21
Way Forward Recommendations Monitoring and
Evaluation
(Contd..)

• 13. Baseline information and needs-assessment in
  a uniform format must be undertaken before funds
  for works are released.
• Limited indicators
• Participatory evaluation
• Independent agency
• New science tools
• 14. Cost-effective and sustainable watershed
  development. Use hydrological and environmental
  data from benchmark watershed for each
  agro-eco-region and district. This will also
  enable an assessment of impacts outside the
  watersheds. Such work needs adequate financial
  support

22
Way Forward Recommendations Technology

• 15.Although, watershed approaches seem to have
  universal application for effective management of
  natural resources, sustainable agricultural
  production and income generation the
  comprehensive assessment showed that one size
  fits all approach did not work. Need different
  interventions for higher and lower rainfall
  regions.

23
Way Forward Recommendations Technology
(Contd..)

• 16. The CA has identified a range of best-bet
  options, for major and widespread impact on
  poverty reduction, environmental improvement,
  agricultural productivity and resilience.
• 17. Widespread deficiencies of secondary and
  micro-nutrients are severely holding back crop
  productivity. At a stroke, government could
  increase crop yields by 30-80 with an initiative
  to diagnose soil health in rainfed areas and
  apply appropriate remediation
• 18. There is a need to build capacity within the
  research establishment to undertake effective
  technology development for poor people.
• 19. We recommend extending governments emphasis
  on Information and Communication Technology
  (ICT) for the rapid transfer of appropriate
  information to the various stakeholders within a
  watershed and link farmers to markets

24
Way Forward Recommendations Technology
(Contd..)

• 20.To date, water policy has focused on
  augmentation of supply, this now needs to be
  expanded to embrace water demand management and
  water use efficiency. There are a number of
  aspects
• Drinking water needs
• Devise and implement policies to regulate
  groundwater extraction
• Ban the cultivation of high water requiring crops
  such as paddy and sugarcane in watershed areas
• Encourage cultivation of low-water requiring
  crops with market incentives.
• Promote efficient irrigation methods through
  water-saving devices and the creation of
  community-based water assets

25
Way Forward Recommendations Technology
(Contd..)
21.Advances in weather forecasting have created
opportunities to reduce farming risks and
mitigate the effects of climate change. The use
of long-range weather forecasts for crop planning
and of medium and short-range weather forecasts
for crop management should become the norm
26
Way Forward Recommendations Gender and
Vulnerable Groups

• 22.Equity and gender concerns regarding women,
  the resource-less and those without adequate
  representation need to be brought to the
  forefront of watershed planning and execution.
• Emphasis on womens active participation
• Gender concerns should form non-negotiable
  components of the initial phase
• Adequate representation of women and vulnerable
  groups in decision making committees

27
Way Forward Recommendations Gender and
Vulnerable Groups
(Contd..)

• 23. Common property resources can effectively be
  regenerated as pasture and biofuel and energy
  plantations and used to generate income when
  managed by vulnerable groups.
• 24. New income and market opportunities are
  emerging with watershed interventions. This calls
  for a comprehensive support for capacity
  building, credit and market links through
  increased and clearly defined financial
  allocations.
• 25. Once again, there are clear opportunities to
  use watershed programmes for improving
  co-ordination between government programmes
  dealing with employment, literacy and numeracy,
  sanitation, child care and nutrition.

28
Lead AuthorsSuhas P Wani, PK Joshi, KV Raju, TK
Sreedevi, Marcella DSouza, Amita Shah, PG
Diwakar, K Palanisami, S Marimuthu, YS
Ramakrishna, Meenakshi SundaramContributory
AuthorsAK Jha, GP Guyal, Mike Wilson, Piara
Singh, P Pathak, Crispino Lobo, RC Sachan, Kiran
Raverkar, FA Shaheen, Sachin Sinha, B Ramkumar, K
Tirupataiah, Santhi Kumari, Sandeep Dave, Subhash
Chandra, HN Singh, Abraham Samuel, J Joy, Suhas
Paranjape, Sachin Oza, Viren Lobo, Suvendu, TK
Bhati, Suresh Kumar
Lead and Contributing Authors
29
Ram Chandradu, Dharmishta Chowhan, Jyotsna
Sitling, Prabhat Kumar, Shailendra Tewari,
Banerjee, Kulkarni, Mandal, Chaya Datar, AVR
Kesava Rao, Ch Srinivasa Rao, Kanchan Chopra,
David Radicliffe, Michel Gluck, NK Sanghi, DK
Marothia, KV Rao, MD Osman, Srinath Dixit, VN
Sharada, B Venkateswarlu, PK Mishra, AV
Padmanabhan, G Subba Reddy, GR Korwar, Shankar,
DLN Rao, GV Ranga Rao, Suresh Pande, OP Rupela, S
Desai, Peter, AK Mishra, Deep Joshi, SP Tucker, R
Parthasarathy, S Nedumaran, Rosana P Mula, RL
Shiyani, RS Dwivedi, Dadhwal, Tushar Shah, KN
Reddy, RS Deshpande, Anupam Das, PV Veera Raju ,
Ravindra, TS Vamsidhar Reddy
Supporting Authors
30
Participating Organizations
31
THANK YOU.