Watershed development in India – a tool for the rich or for the poor?

Programmes to make better use of land and water resources (known as watershed development programmes) have been introduced to many parts of rural India in recent years. These often improve natural resources management, but the extent to which they benefit poor people is less clear. For example, improvements to land quality only help people with access to land. Watershed development is important in rural areas, but requires further planning to improve livelihoods for the rural poor.

Improvements to rural livelihoods are most likely to occur if development programmes make long-lasting changes in five key areas. These are: improved natural resources; better health and education services; improved social networks and gender equality; greater financial resources (including greater income and opportunities for saving); and improved tools, equipment and infrastructure (such as roads).

Research by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies in India, the University of York and University of East Anglia (both UK), looks at the impacts of watershed development programmes on people in Andhra Pradesh. This has been a key province in the Indian National Watershed Programme, where programmes have been widely introduced. The research has found that watershed programmes do not improve livelihoods for the poorest people in all five of the key areas identified. For example, some villages show improvements in natural resources and infrastructure, but not human or social development. No villages show clear improvements for the poor in all the five key areas.

Further issues emerge:

• Watershed development is necessary to improve environmental resources. It can restore soil and water resources, which in turn improves crop lands, grazing land and wastelands.
• Watershed programmes do not generate income and employment for all social groups, particularly poorer people, on a long term sustainable basis.
• The benefits from programmes- such as improved irrigation - are only likely to reach medium income or wealthy households.
• Where there are limited prospects for irrigation within a watershed programme, agricultural opportunities may be limited. In these situations, support for other income-earning activities (such as dairying) will be important.

Many impacts are hard to attribute directly to the watershed development programmes. Furthermore, some benefits may be short-lived, and not sustainable (such as reduced out-migration and, employment opportunities created during the implementation period). Improvements in the supply of groundwater, fodder and fuel wood are most likely to be long-lasting impacts.

Policy interventions are essential to tackle the problems that are currently missed by watershed programmes. Unless extra measures that specifically target the poor are introduced, wealthy people will continue to benefit the most. Specific measures include:

• Plant nurseries and dairy programmes that make use of the improved moisture and grazing conditions resulting from the watershed programmes.
• Improvements to infrastructure (particularly roads) that allow remote households to benefit more from the programmes.
• Systems for improving rural credit and finance targeted at poor households.
• A policy environment that supports the development of self-help groups and other systems that improve social networks.

Well-managed watershed development programmes have clearly been an important intervention, and have helped to restore natural resources in many places. However, the assumption that they will always improve the sustainability of rural livelihoods is not always true. Additional pro-poor policy measures (often labelled 'watersheds-plus') are clearly necessary. This will allow programmes to have a greater impact on poverty reduction.

Source(s):
'Participatory Watershed Development in India: can it sustain rural livelihoods? ' in Development and Change, 35, 2, by V. Ratna Reddy, M. Gopinath Reddy, S. Galab, J. Soussan and O. Springate-Baginzki

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 13 January 2005

Further Information:
V. Ratna Reddy
Centre for Economic and Social Studies
Nizamia Observatory Campus Begumpet
Hyderabad
500 016
India

Tel: +91 40 23416467
Fax: +91 40 23406898
Contact the contributor: vratnareddy@cess.ac.in

Centre for Economic and Social Studies, India

The University of York, UK

University of East Anglia

Other related links:
'Tackling India’s rural water crisis: new developments in managing water supplies'

'Is river management too important to leave to governments?'

'Watershed management and poverty – time for a rethink?'

International Water Association

Watershed Window, Michigan State University