Watershed Management through
Community Participation

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the people of Pura and Budpura villages of the Bundelkhand region. Climate change negatively impacted these villages that lie in the Babina block in Jhansi district, Uttar Pradesh. The decline in rainfall and lack of water conservation strategies and initiatives, steered up the drought kind of situation in these villages. This further affected agricultural output as the land under farming dwindled. Decline in agricultural productivity enhanced the issue of food security in the region. Further, substantial reduction in agricultural profits, endangered the financial condition of the farmers’ families. Migration from these areas, to find alternate livelihood options, increased sharply.

Development Alternatives (DA) intervened and worked with the community to bring about a positive change. The team undertook a detailed baseline study, inclusive of community meetings to understand the existing problems and potential solutions to them. Post this, a project for Integrated Watershed Management through community participation, was proposed to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The above action plan was approved by NABARD from its Watershed Development Fund. The implementation of this Integrated Watershed Project took place through community participation by forming a water conservation committee. Then the DA team facilitated and guided the committee to prepare the action plan for the capacity building phase. After successful completion of the capacity building phase, NABARD sanctioned the Full Implementation Phase wherein the village committee took full charge of complete implementation and monitoring of the project work by practicing transparency, accountability, participation, ownership, inclusion, democratic decision making and collective actions. Some of the important components of the project are as follows:

• Water Conservation Committees - In accordance with the implementation plan, Gram Panchayats were viewed as the best place to encourage and enhance community’s participation. Further ‘Vikas Water Conservation Committee’ in Pura and ‘Aadarsh Water Conservation Committee’ in Budpura were organised and strengthened. These committees were formed through active participation of all caste, class, age and gender. They were completely responsible for implementation and monitoring of the project.

• Committees’ Bank Accounts - Post formation of the committees, bank accounts were opened for them. This further assisted them in receiving the beneficiary amount directly from NABARD.

• Community’s Labour Contribution - A large scale community’s labour contribution programme was organised. This was done in the presence of Chief General Manager (CGM) of Regional Office, NABARD, Lucknow.

• Capacity Building Phase - Soon after the initiation of this project, 10 percent of the beneficiary’s fund was made available to the committees. This further assisted the committees in employing the technical inputs on water conservation provided by Development Alternatives team members.

• Training Process - To mobilise various implementation activities related to watershed development, committees organised capacity buliding training sessions for the community. Additionally, educational excursion sessions were also organised by the committees. These efforts further expedited the implementation process of the project.

• Maintenance Fund - Committees set up a maintenance fund in which the received grant was converted into a revolving fund. The targeted audience could borrow a loan at 2 percent interest rate for a time period of 18-24 months. Further, this conversion of the grant into a revolving fund, addresses three critical issues. First, it increases the number of beneficiaries benefitting from the grant. Second, the life of the grant rises, as the interest amount received helps in maintaining the fund. Third, it inculcates a habit among the beneficiaries taking a loan, of paying their dues on time.

• Maintenance of Records - The work involving maintenance of records is carried out jointly by the committees and Development Alternatives team members. Everyday details such as labourers’ attendance register, work plan, meeting and training materials, cashbook and ledger accounts, and other similar registers are maintained.

• Sustainable Development Initiatives - A number of initiatives for sustainable development were taken up. First, fodder production was promoted to ensure fodder for the cattle throughout the year. Second, for the maintanence of soil health, soil testing kits were purchased. Third, targeted farmers were provided the knowledge of drip irrigation for promotion of a new practice in vegetable production. Fourth, a farm bank was setup at the village level to financially assist the farmers in purchase of farm machineries. Fifth, farmers were encouraged to adopt the practice of integrated farming system.

Apart from the above initiatives, different livelihood options to the intervened villages were made available. This was done with the help of the committees’ and special attention given to especially the poor, landless farmers and women, who needed an alternate livelihood option. Grocery stores, cycle repairing shops, goat rearing and vegetable shops were provided as a means of alternate livelihood option to the targeted group. Self Help Groups (SHG) were setup, where sewing machines were made available to the women, to use it for earning a living. Further revolving funds were made available to these SHGs by linking them with the National Rural livelihood Mission (NRLM). ■

Amarnath Singh
asingh2@devalt.org