Impact of watershed intervention in Dindorkheda village

Context
Tribal communities in many parts of Pratapgarh, (Rajasthan, India) have for a long time been living off forest resources, existing farmlands, and thereby meeting their subsistence requirements. However, of late, with external influence and access to market economy, there has been a shift in the interest of the communities towards preserving their natural resources. The recent trends in migration to distant areas in search of wage opportunities and somewhat assured regularity in income sources (from wages) are further weakening the traditional values of conserving the natural forest reserves. Village Dindorkheda is an excellent example of efforts made towards conservation of their resources and revival of rural livelihoods.

Village Profile: Dindorkheda comes under the Kerwas Panchayat in Pratapgarh tehsil of the newly formed Pratapgarh district. It’s a tribal village (comprising of Meena tribe) with a total number of 18 households (with total population of 72 people - 32 females and 40 males). Most of the farmers are small and marginal with an average land holding size of around 1 ha. The area has good forest cover, with a diversity of forest species and a major portion of the geographical area comes under forestland. The community is dependent on agriculture, forests and wage labour for their livelihood.

The Intervention: The need of intervention in the area emerged from the fact that though agriculture is one of the prime sources of livelihood, the production has been considerably low for want of proper irrigation facilities, degradation of common lands further denuding the soil cover and several other combined reasons like lack of information on best practices in agriculture and financial resources for timely purchase of agricultural inputs. The area was once rich in natural resources especially the forest produce sufficing domestic and farm requirements, but with the increasing population and weakening of institutional arrangements led to the degradation of natural resources. FES initiated its intervention in Dindorkheda in the year 2005, with various soil and moisture conservation activities (See Table 1) related with watershed approach. The village formed a watershed development society christened ‘Seetla Mata Jal Grahan Vikas Samiti’ for the purpose of implementing watershed activities. An important element was encompassing all villagers as members of the institution, developing village specific rules and regulations for managing their institution and resources towards sustenance.

Besides setting on the path of restoring the degrading natural resources, the people also benefited in the form of employment through daily wages (instrumental in catering day to day needs). With the institutional arrangements and mechanisms developed by the community members for protecting and sustaining the resources, there was marked increase in the level of awareness and was a stepping stone towards building social cohesiveness within the village and its surroundings. This also led to the understanding of the importance of conservation among the community, which resulted in the village further gaining access to control of over 10 hectares of forestland under Joint Forest Management (JFM) arrangements.

Impact of the Intervention
Increment in biomass, conservation of fertile soil, nutrient and water recycling, and increasing moisture regimes led to strengthening of forest-water-agriculture inter-linkages. Construction of water harvesting structures led to sufficient availability of water for irrigation, for livestock drinking and household purposes, and which contributed to an increase in crop production and ensured food security. Three Water Harvesting structures (WHS) constructed had a combined total water holding capacity of 40,700 cubic meters helpful in irrigation. In addition to this, soil and moisture conservation work in the form of Farm bunding (4,086 cmt) and Drainage Line Treatment (DLT- 829 cmt), was carried out. Soil and moisture conservation measures have been instrumental in arresting 4,915 cmt of soil being eroded. On the other hand, grass biomass of forestland, which was 2.6 tonnes per hectare soared up to 4.8 tonnes, after project intervention. This was a good indicator of the effectiveness of the conservation work on land and water resources and its impact on various production systems.

Impact on Agriculture  

A household survey in the village indicated an increment of 20.6 % in the area under double crop, which can be attributed to the increased availability of water. In Rabi season, a marked change is observed in case of wheat production (from a total of 25 quintals in year 2003 to a total of 55.12 quintals in year 2008) and the main rationale behind it is the increase in water availability through water harvesting structures. In the Kharif season, there has been a shift in cropping pattern with cotton being replaced by white soyabean. Where soyabean is primarily for seen as a cash crop, maize supplements their consumption needs and the total production of maize has increased from 65.5 quintals in year 2003 to 107 quintals in year 2008. Increase in maize production has led to an increase in food availability (maize being the staple food) per person per household.

This has resulted in an increment in average income from agriculture from Rs. 7,160 in the year 2003 to Rs. 12,938 in the year 2008. At the same time the average expenditure on agriculture has reduced from Rs. 6,156 in the year 2003 to Rs. 4,625 in the year 2008.

Inference
Watershed development approach proved to be one of the most practical techniques in conserving and sustaining the natural resources, which is critical for augmenting productivity and production. While the community’s perception and attitude were the driving force to this success, the most important change that the intervention has brought along in the village is the revival of social cohesiveness amongst the villagers, which eventually would be instrumental in sustaining the change.

Contirbuted by - Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)