Impact Assessment of Integrated Watershed Development in Lachaputtraghati Watershed, Koraput, Odisha

Abstract

The burgeoning population demands additional resources to meet the growing needs in terms of food, fodder, fiber, fuel, fruit and water. Each year an additional 0.25 billion metric tons of grain (21% higher) must be produced to feed the increased population (PBIO 100 Lectures Notes, 1999). Globally, 80% of agriculture is rainfed and contributes 60% to -1 world’s food basket. Current productivity of rainfed agriculture is low (<1 t ha ) and to be increased for sustainable agricultural productivity to achieve second green revaluation. Over 120 M ha land area has been declared degraded (Maji, 2007; NRAA, 2011) in India. Holistic development of the rain-fed areas is one of the prime concerns of the Government of India. About 60% of total arable land (142 M ha) in the country are rain-fed, characterized by fragile and marginal land with low productivity, low income, low employment and high incidence of poverty. Development of watershed/catchment is one of the most trusted and eco-friendly approaches to manage rainwater and other natural resources, which has paid rich dividends in the rain-fed areas and is capable of addressing many natural, social and environmental intricacies (Samra, 1998; Wani et al., 2002, 2003a, b; Rockstorm et al., 2007). Management of natural resources at the catchment/watershed scale produce multiple benefits interms of increasing food production, improving livelihoods, protecting environment, addressing gender and equity issues along with biodiversity concerns (Sharma, 2002; Wani et al., 2003a, b; Joshi et al., 2005; Ahluwalia, 2005; Rockstorm et al., 2007) and is also recommended as the best option to upgrade rain-fed agriculture to meet the growing food demand globally (Rockstormet al., 2007). Water and soil resources are finite, non-renewable over the human lifetime frame, and prone to degradation through misuse and management (Lal, 2000). Scarcity of water for agricultural and domestic purpose remains a major problem and has led to low crop productivity and environmental degradation. Decline in per capita agricultural production has seriously affected food security and livelihoods of people. There is a considerable potential to bridge the yield gap between the actual and the potential yield through adoption of improved resource management technologies (Singh et al., 2001). Several studies have highlighted that appropriate rainwater management and utilization results in enhanced agricultural productivity (Samra, 1997; Wani et al., 2003a, b; Joshi et al., 2005). The challenge before the Indian agriculture, therefore, is to transform rainfed farming into more PAGE - 1 IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF INTEGRATED WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT sustainable and productive systems through efficient use of natural resources through the integrated resource management following the concept of participatory integrated watershed management. Rainfed areas currently constitute 63 % of the net sown area in the Eastern Region of India and supporting 20% of livestock and 28% of human population of the country. The region has a predominance of tribal (54 tribal communities) constituting about 30 % of the total population of 37.9 M (Chauhan, 1998). It’s also observed that around 62.5% of the total geographical area of Eastern Region is degraded exclusively by water induced soil erosion which in conjunction with salt-affected and acid soils works out to be 73.9%. Data on soil -1 -1 loss tolerance limits indicate that the tolerance (T) value varies between 7.5 and 12.5 t ha yr across the region. Indiscriminate deforestation and practice of Jhum cultivation lead to accelerated erosion for which proper conservation measures are need to be adopted especially on very steep slopes. The Government of India (GOI) adopted watershed management as a strategy to address the sustainable agricultural productivity in the rain-fed areas for the last three decades. Further, GOI has adopted a watershed management as a national policy since 2003 (Joshi et al., 2004). The prominent national programmes implemented in the Eastern region are NWDPRA, IWDP, RVP/FPRs, WDPSCA, NAP and DPAP. With the launch of massive watershed development programmes in the country during 1990’s, all the previous programmes were converged to develop e different areas by adopting a participatory watershed management approach. The maximum area has been treated under IWDP (43.9 lakhs ha) followed by DPAP (25.9 lakh ha), NWDPRA(13.7 lakh ha) and other programmes (13.6 lakhs ha) since inception. Similarly, the maximum expenditure has been made under NAP (`708.88 crores) followed by NWDPRA (`547.11 crores) (Sharda et al., 2008 & 2010). A model watershed in the tribal dominated areas of Odisha was implemented by CSWCRTI, Research Centre, Sunabaeda, Koraput under the MMA, NWDPRA, sponsored by the MoA, GOI, New Delhi. Koraput district (110) is one among the top one-third districts (167) based on high Rainfed Areas Prioritization Index (RAPI) by the NRAA (2012). A comprehensive assessment of LPG watershed was taken up to assess the bio-physical and socioeconomic impacts of various interventions in the watershed. The overall goal of this case study is to get insights into watershed management programs as an implementer and to identify the key components for augmenting the progress and impact on tribes in the rainfed areas. l To assess the impact of watershed development activities on land degradation, rainwater availability and its productivity, crop productivity and livelihoods in the tribal dominated micro watershed. l To assess the socioeconomic impact of the watershed interventions. To identify the gaps/constraints for effective planning and implementation of activities in the watershed for the harnessing full potential of rainfed ecosystems.