Success and Sustainability of Watershed Management Projects in Rainfed Agro-ecosystem in North West Himalayan Region

AbstractThe community based participatory watershed management approach adopted in India to address land degradation and to cope up with threat of water scarcity and depleting biodiversity. Watershed based approaches helped in increasing agricultural productivity and showed substantial improvements in rural livelihoods. This study was conducted to identify the indicators responsible for sustainability of community led watershed management projects in rainfed areas in the country. Data was collected from 240 respondents (farmers-200, officials- 40) taken through simple random sampling technique. Friedman test was deployed to quantify the contribution of individual factor in sustainability of community based watershed management programmes. Findings showed that all the influential factors were sub-divided under following major indicators namely; technological, economical, institutional, social and political sustainability of community led watershed management projects and then they were analyzed. Result showed that factors like cost effectiveness of technology, people’s participation, creation of awareness about the watershed, local institutions building, ethical and transparent dealing, signing of memorandum of understanding etc. are crucial factors for sustainability of watersheds. Development agencies should be keep these factors in mind before going for planning and implementation of watershed management projects which is ultimately helps in success and sustainability of community led watershed development projects.