The present study aims to ensure the availability of
drinking water, fuel wood and fodder and raise income and employment for
farmers and landless labourers through improvement in agricultural production
and productivity. Indian agriculture is predominantly rainfed agriculture out
of 143 million hectares of total cultivated area in the country, 101 million ha
(i.e. nearly 70 per cent) area are rainfed and about 42% of dry land areas
contribute for total food grain production. Rainfall distribution and amount
variations affect farmers' socioeconomic circumstances and crop productivity.
The Watershed Management Program has given emphasis to the conservation of
natural resources in order to counteract unfavourable conditions and support
farmers.
Mid-term evaluation of IWDP- III batch watersheds was
conducted in all the ten watershed villages spread over in Valapady block of
Salem district in two phases; (i) Information was gathered from the Project
Implementing Agency (PIA) and discussion was made with members of the Watershed
Committee and Watershed Development Team (WDT) (ii) Field study was done and
interaction was made with the beneficiaries of the area where IWDP- III
watershed programme was implemented. And also using a simple random sampling
technique, 100 beneficiaries were selected to study the community participation
in implementing the watershed activities. The data were collected with a
well-structured interview schedule. Percentage analysis was used for data
analysis.
On the whole, it was observed that 85% of the community
participation was at full level in planning the work. The majority (82.4%) of
the village community showed their full participation in decision making
activities. Eighty per cent of the village community showed full participation in
the site selection process and regarding the execution of work, 76.4% of the
community showed full participation. It shows that the community people were
well aware of the importance of the watershed programme and they were involved
in the implementation of the programme at all stages of the programme. In
general, it was observed that in the area where watershed structures are
undertaken, there was a reduction in soil erosion. Under afforestation and
pasture development agro forestry plantation, jatropa plantation and fodder
crop demonstration were also done to increase the income of the village
community. They were also aware that if the watershed programme is implemented
in their village it would recharge the groundwater level which in turn would
improve their livelihood so the majority of the community people participated
in implementing the watershed activities.
Author(s)details:-
R. Sasikala
Directorate of Planning and Monitoring, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
Coimbatore-641003, India.
R. Premavathi
Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University, Coimbatore-641003, India.
Please See the book
here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/racas/v8/6283E
No comments:
Post a Comment