Abstract
The agriculture in low rainfall areas of eastern Rajasthan, India is characterized by high risks from drought, degraded natural resources and pervasive poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. In this region, water is the main limiting factor for upgrading rainfed agriculture. For such areas integrated watershed management is recognized as a potential approach for agriculture growth and rehabilitation of fragile and degraded lands. At Gokulpura-Goverdhanpura village in Bundi eastern Rajasthan, India an integrated watershed project was implemented using the holistic systems approach. This paper discusses the impacts of this watershed program on bio-physical, socio-economic, environmental and ecological parameters. Results indicate that due to watershed interventions the groundwater availability has substantially increased which brought changes in cropping patterns with high value crops. Significant increases in irrigated area, cropping intensity along with diversification of crops from traditional to commercial cash crops were recorded. The watershed program also significantly improved the socio-economic status of the watershed community. It has increased the income and reduced poverty of the people in the watershed. The watershed interventions generated good employment opportunities and significantly reduced the migration of both skilled and unskilled labor from the watershed village to urban areas. It has also improved the environmental quality and ecological status in the watershed. The watershed interventions increased the vegetative index or greenery, reduced runoff, soil loss, and land degradations and improved the bio-diversity in fragile ecosystems. Overall, the integrated watershed program at Gokulpura-Goverdhanpura provided resilience by ensuring continued and sustainable multiple outputs, besides soil and water conservation and other positive environmental effects.
Highlights
In most of the SAT regions, increasing population pressure, lack of investment and technological progress are taking heavy toll on the quality of productive natural resource base
The objective of this paper is to report on effects of integrated watershed program on biophysical, socio-economic, environmental and ecological changes at the watershed level in low rainfall areas of eastern Rajasthan, India
The Gokulpura-Goverdhanpura watershed was used as a case study for assessing the on-site impact of various watershed interventions implemented to support sustainable agricultural development
Summary
In most of the SAT (semi-arid tropics) regions, increasing population pressure, lack of investment and technological progress are taking heavy toll on the quality of productive natural resource base. The rainfed areas of eastern Rajasthan in India are characterized by very low and erratic rainfall, frequent droughts; and agricultural production is uncertain and risky on the degraded soils and depleted water resource. Due to these adverse conditions, agricultural productivity and farmers’ incomes are low and highly variable. To improve groundwater and to sustain agricultural productivity, effective management and efficient utilization of rainwater is essential [1] For these regions, integrated watershed management has been proposed and adopted to address the issues related to sustainable agricultural productivity at enhanced level, conservation of soil and water to provide improved livelihood opportunities to farmers [2]
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