Socio-economic impact of watershed development programmes in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, India.

摘要

The watershed development programmes influence quantity and quality of natural resources and thereby bring changes in the socio-economic conditions of people. This study examines the ex-post socio-economic impact of watershed based developmental interventions in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh. Data were collected from 240 households selected from eight watersheds implemented under different institutional arrangements and eight control villages. The results showed significantly higher gross returns from crop cultivation on watershed beneficiary farms than that of control farms. The decomposition analysis revealed that watershed based interventions contributed mostly for the difference in gross returns between watersheds and control villages. A comparison of source wise income revealed that crop enterprises were the major contributor towards total household income and percentage-wise share were considerably larger at watershed villages. The study also indicated that watershed management programme had positive and significant impact on creation of both casual and regular employment opportunities at the farm level. Significant reduction in incidence and duration of out-migration was also observed among watershed beneficiaries in the region.