PARTICIPATORY WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT USING EO INPUTS - A WORKING MODEL FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND IMPROVED LIVELIHOOD IN RURAL INDIA

摘要

India lives in villages, particularly where there are large tracts of arid and semi-arid areas with poor farmers battling with low productivity and sub-standard living conditions. Most of these farmers depend heavily on rainfall for agricultural production and sustenance. An innovative program of participatory watershed development taken up through multi-stakeholder involvement and precious Earth Observation (EO) inputs across 5 districts of Karnataka under Sujala Watershed Development Programme is described here. An effective and successful demonstration of using high-tech inputs at grass root level has empowered people to enrich themselves with knowledge to develop watersheds and improve standard of living of individuals in particular and community as a whole. EO based products on natural resources are effectively used for integrated land and water resources developmental planning at grass roots for enhancing the productivity levels in dryland areas. EO inputs along with judicious mix Geographical Information System (GIS) and Management Information System (MIS) has helped in characterization, prioritization, developmental planning, implementation strategies generation with peoples' participation, concurrent monitoring and impact assessment at various stages of implementation. The innovativeness of this study lies in (ⅰ) infusion of modern technologies in the form of EO inputs with simple MIS/GIS tools in local language and simple client-server solutions; and (ⅱ) participation of people, experts, local Government, NGOs, and other stakeholders with one clear objective of achieving sustainable development. Multi-seasonal and high spatial resolution EO products are used discretely at various stages of the project implementation for effective project monitoring. This further includes ground-based information on the poverty, living standards, and socio-environmental parameters for correlation and trend analysis for the benefit of project's decision making. The project has been successful in enriching the ground water potential, reduced soil erosion as shown by estimated runoff measures, increase in cropping intensity along with the net returns from the fields and effective conservation of land and water resources as seen through mid-term evaluation (first discrete evaluation results). It has brought out improvement in the livelihood opportunities for the marginalized farmers in their own lands. Another notable feature in this project is that it ensures greater transparency, social mobilization and capacity building at the grassroots. This study is a clear demonstration of how an effective participatory watershed development program could