Site Specific Micro-Watershed Based Sustainable Hill Farming in Upper Catchments of Indian Himalya

摘要

The North West Himalaya is characterized by high altitude (1,000m to >3,500m above msl), steep slope (15% to >100% slope), high intensity rainfall (> 100mm/h), prevalence of shallow and gravelly soil (7.5～15cm depth and >40% gravel), severe degradation, loss of forest cover and inaccessibility (8.6km length of roads compared to 37km/100km2 in India). The region spreads over 33 million ha across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states in India. Twenty two million people inhabit this region, who are supported by 2.14 million ha of cultivable land, with an average land holding of less than 0.1hm2. North-West Himalaya (NW Himalaya) mid-hills (600~1,800m above msl), cultivation is mostly practiced on terrace hill slopes. Majority of the farmer's family produce only 4~5 months of sustenance food from its cultivated terraces (Ved Prakash and Narendra Kumar 2006). Thus, increase in the productivity of the micro watersheds has become the major thrust area for food security in the hills. Shortages of land and low productivity are the cause for cultivation of steep and unstable hill slopes. Srivastava et al., (1983) reported that about 33% of cultivated land belong to class Ⅴ, Ⅵ and Ⅶ against the norm of not cultivating any land having capability beyond Ⅵ yet farmers tends to cultivate steep slopes to increase production which leads to more erosion and loss of productivity. Agriculture in the region faces major problem of the water resources and its management as 90% of the area is rainfed. The problem further gets aggravated due to slopy terrains and shallow soil depth, which allow major portion of the rain water to be lost as runoff (Singh et al, 2001).