Measuring Agricultural Sustainability in Rainfed Regions in India – Spatial Evaluation of Watershed Projects

Abstract

Watershed development project is a popular NRM and agriculture development strategy in rainfed agriculture. The program has attracted huge investments since its initiation in 1980s in the country. Till date several phases of watershed projects have been implemented under guidelines that have been modified at regular intervals to adapt to changing situations. However use of tools of Geomatics makes the task manageable and provides the facility to measure the immeasurable, namely sustainable development. This paper presents a methodology developed to measure sustainable agriculture in rainfed regions. The paper discusses how the methodology was used to monitor changes in treated watersheds in two districts – Nalgonda and Rangareddy in AP, India. Temporal study since 2006 helped in indicating which aspects of watershed development projects were critical and contributed to sustainability. This information could be vital for the PIA of the projects who can use the information for mid-term correction or for overhauling the whole projects based on actual requirements in the field. Study indicated that although full sustainability has not been achieved, watershed development program was found to be useful and had contributed positively to agricultural development in rainfed regions.