Watershed Development and Management in India

After reading this article you will learn about:- 1. Introduction to Watershed Development and Management 2. Definition of Watershed 3. History of Watershed Development Program in India 4. Objectives of Watershed Management 5. Delineation of Watershed 6. Component of Watershed Management 7. Approaches of Watershed Management 8. Land Use Planning for the Management of Watershed.

Introduction to Watershed Development and Management:

Watershed is not simply the hydrological unit but also socio-political-ecological entity which plays crucial role in determining food, social, and economical security and provides life support services to rural people. A watershed is a drainage area on earth’s surface from which runoff resulting from rainfall flowing from a single point to a larger stream, river, lake or the ocean.

It is a land surface (body of the soil) bounded by a divide contributing run-off to a common point. A positive water accretion to its upper boundary is in the form of precipitation and a negative accretion is in the form of evaporation.

Watershed management involves management of land surface and vegetation so as to conserve and utilize water that falls on the watershed, and to conserve the soil for immediate and long term benefits to the rural farmers, community and society.

The criteria for selecting watershed size also depend on the objectives of the development and terrain slope. A large watershed can be managed in plain valley areas or where forest or pasture development is the main objective. In hilly areas or where intensive agriculture development is planned, the size of watershed relatively preferred is small.

The rain-fed agriculture contributes 58 per cent of world’s food basket from 80 per cent agriculture lands. As a consequence of global population increase, water for food production is becoming an increasingly scarce resource, and the situation is further aggravated by climate change.

The rain-fed areas are the hotspots of poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, prone to severe land degradation, water security and poor social and institutional infrastructure.

Watershed Development program is, therefore, considered as an effective tool for addressing many of these problems and recognized as potential engine for agriculture growth and development in fragile and marginal rain-fed areas.

Management of natural resources at watershed scale produces multiple benefits in terms of increasing food production, improving livelihoods, protecting environment, addressing gender and equity issues along with biodiversity concerns.

Definition of Watershed:

A watershed, also called a drainage basin or catchment area, is defined as an area in which all water flowing into it goes to a common outlet. In a generalized way, watershed is defined as a body of soil with definite boundaries around it, above it and below it. People and livestock and the integral part of watershed and their activities affect the productive status of watersheds and vice versa.

From the hydrological point of view, the different phases of hydrological cycle in a watershed are dependent on the various natural features and human activities. Watershed is not simply the hydrological unit but also socio-political-ecological entity which plays crucial role in determining food, social, and economical security and provides life support services to rural people.

History of Watershed Development Program in India:

About 60 per cent of total arable land (142 million ha) in India is rain-fed, characterized by low productivity, low income, low employment with high incidence of poverty and a bulk of fragile and marginal land.

Rainfall pattern in these areas are highly variable both in terms of total amount and its distribution, which lead to moisture stress during critical stages of crop production and makes agriculture production vulnerable to pre- and post-production risk.

Watershed development projects in the country has been sponsored and implemented by Government of India from early 1970s onwards. The journey through the evolution of water­shed approach evolved in India.

Various watershed development programs like Drought Prone Area program (DPAP), Desert Development Program (DDP), River Valley Project (RVP), and National Watershed Development Project for Rain-fed Areas (NWDPRA) and Integrated Wasteland Development Program (IWDP) were launched subsequently in various hydro-ecological regions; those were consistently being affected by water stress and draught like situations.

Entire watershed development program was primarily focused on structural-driven compartmental approach of soil conservation and rain water harvesting during 1980s and before. In spite of putting efforts for maintaining soil conservation practices (example, contour bunding, pits excavations etc.), farmers used to plow out these practices from their field.

It was felt that a strait jacket top-down approach cannot make desired impact in watersheds and mix-up of individual and community based interventions are essential. The integrated watershed development program with participatory approach was emphasized during mid-1980s and in early 1990s.

This approach had focused on raising crop productivity and livelihood improvement in watersheds (Wani et al., 2006) along with soil and water conservation measures.

Objectives of Watershed Management:

Water shed management involves the effective use of all soil and water resources so as to provide a clean, uniform water supply for beneficial use and to control damage due to overflow. The basic objective of watershed management is to address problems of land and water use considering all available resources which are interdependent each other.

Major objectives of the watershed management program are:

(i) Conservation, up-gradation and utilization of natural endowments such as land, water, plant, animal and human resources in a harmonious and integrated manner with low-cost, simple, effective and replicable technology.

(ii) Employment generation.

(iii) Reduction of inequalities between irrigated and rain-fed areas and poverty alleviation.

(iv) Reduction of organic, inorganic and soil pollution.

(v) Provision for adequate supply of water for domestic, industrial and agricultural needs.

(vi) Control of floods through small constructed reservoirs and other water impounding structures.

Delineation of Watershed:

Hydro-logically, watershed is an area from which the run-off flows to a common point on the drainage system. Every stream, tributary, or river has an associated watershed, and small watershed aggregate together to become larger watersheds. Water travels from headwater to the downward location and meets with similar strength of stream, and then it forms one order higher stream as shown in Figure 27.2.

The stream order is a measure of the degree of stream branching within a watershed. Each length of stream is indicated by its order (for example, first-order, second-order, etc.). The start or headwaters of a stream, with no other streams flowing into it, is called the first-order stream. First-order streams flow together to form a second-order stream. Second-order streams flow into a third-order stream and so on.

Stream order describes the relative location of the reach in the watershed. Identifying stream order is useful to understand amount of water availability in reach and its quality; and also used as criteria to divide larger watershed into small unit. Moreover, criteria for selecting watershed size also depend on the objectives of the development and terrain slope.

Component of Watershed Management:

1. Entry Point Activity (EPA):

Entry Point Activity is the first formal project intervention which is undertaken after the transect walk, selection and finalization of the watershed. It is highly recommended to use knowledge-based entry point activity to build the rapport with the community.

Direct cash-based EPA must be avoided as such activities give a wrong signal to the community at the beginning for various interventions. Details of the knowledge based EPA to build rapport with the community ensuring tangible economic benefits to the community members are described here.

2. Land and Water Conservation Practices:

Soil and water conservation practices are the primary step of watershed management program.

Conservation practices can be divided into two main categories:

(1) In-situ and

(2) Ex-situ management.

Land and water conservation practices, those made within agricultural field like construction of contour bunds, graded bunds field bunds, terraces building broad bed and furrow practice and other soil-moisture conservation practices, are known as in-situ management. These practices protect land degradation, improve soil health, and increase soil-moisture availability and groundwater recharge.

Moreover, construction of check dam, farm pond, gully control structures, pits excavation across the stream channel is known as ex-situ management. Ex-situ watershed management practices reduce peak discharge in order to reclaim gully formation and harvest substantial amount of run-off, which increases groundwater recharge and irrigation potential in watersheds.

3. Integrated Pest and Nutrient Management:

Water only cannot increase crop productivity to its potential level without other interventions. A balanced nutrient diet along with adequate moisture availability and pest and disease free environment can turn agricultural production several folds higher compared to unmanaged land.

Integrated nutrient management (INM) involves the integral use of organic manure, crop straw, and other plant and tree biomass material along with little application of chemical fertilizer (both macro- and micro- nutrients).

Integrated pest management (IPM) involves use of different crop pest control practices like cultural, biological and chemical methods in a combined and compatible way to suppress pest infestations. Thus, the main goals of INM and IPM are to maintain soil fertility, manage pest and the environment so as to balance costs, benefits, public health, and environmental quality.

4. Crop Diversification and Intensification:

The crop diversification refers to bringing about a desirable change in the existing cropping patterns towards a more balanced cropping system to reduce the risk of crop failure; and crop intensification is the increasing cropping intensity and production to meet the ever increasing demand for food in a given landscape.

Watershed management puts emphasis on crop diversification and intensification through the use of advanced technologies, especially good variety of seeds, balanced fertilizer application and by providing supplemental irrigation.

5. Use of Multiple Resources:

Farmers those solely dependent on agriculture, hold high uncertainty and risk of failure due to various extreme events, pest and disease attack, and market shocks. Therefore, integration of agriculture (on-farm) and non-agriculture (off-farm) activities is required at various scales for generating consistent source of income and support for their livelihood.

For example, agriculture, livestock production and dairy farming, together can make more resilient and sustainable system compared to adopting agriculture practice alone. Product or by-product of one system could be utilized for other and vice-versa.

In this example, biomass production (crop straw) after crop harvesting could be utilized for livestock feeding and manure obtained from livestock could be applied in field to maintain soil fertility. It includes horticulture plantation, aquaculture, and animal husbandry at indivisible farm, household or community scale.

6. Capacity Building:

Watershed development requires multiple interventions that jointly enhance the resource base and livelihoods of the rural people. This requires capacity building of all the stakeholders from farmer to policy makers.

Capacity building is a process to strengthen the abilities of people to make effective and efficient use of resources in order to achieve their own goals on a sustained basis. Unawareness and ignorance of the stakeholders about the objectives, approaches, and activities are the reasons that affect the performance of the watersheds.

Capacity building program focuses on construction of low cost soil and water conservation methods, production and use of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides, income generating activities, livestock based activities, waste land development, market linkage for primary stakeholders.

Clear understanding of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanism and other expertise in field of science and management is essential for government official and policy markers. The stakeholders should be aware about the importance of various activities, their benefits in terms of economics, social and environmental factors.

Therefore, organizing various training at different scales is important for watershed development. Besides, there are some other components needs to the considered like, livestock management, afforestation, rural energy management, development of community skills and resources etc.

Approaches of Watershed Management:

Social and hydrologic factors are perhaps the most important since the elements involved in it, largely determine the desired programme. Hydrological characters of soil like infiltration, moisture content, the presence of permeable layer, texture etc. affect the movement of water in the soil. However, various contingent planning needs to be adopted for the successful management of watershed which are as follows:

Interdisciplinary team work, size of watershed, erosion, initial data information including meteorological and hydrological and soil data, socio-economic conditions etc. However, planning for the management of watershed is broadly divided into two groups considering all those factors.

1. Integrated Approach:

This approach suggest the integration of technologies within the natural boundaries of a drainage area for optimum development of land, water, and plant resources to meet the basic needs of people and animals in a sustainable manner. This approach aims to improve the standard of living of common people by increasing his earning capacity by offering all facilities required for optimum production.

In order to achieve its objective, integrated watershed management suggests to adopt land and water conservation practices, water harvesting in ponds and recharging of groundwater for increasing water resources potential and stress on crop diversification, use of improved variety of seeds, integrated nutrient management and integrated pest management practices, etc.

2. Consortium Approach:

Consortium approach emphasizes on collective action and community participation including of primary stakeholders, government and non-government organizations, and other institutions. Watershed management requires multidisciplinary skills and competencies.

Easy access and timely advice to farmers are important drivers for the observed impressive impacts in the watershed. These lead to enhance awareness of the farmers and their ability to consult with the right people when problems arise.

It requires multi-disciplinary proficiency in field of engineering, agronomy, forestry, horticulture, animal husbandry, entomology, social science economics and marketing. It is not always possible to get all the required support and skills-set in one organization. Thus, consortium approach brings together the expertise of different areas to expand the effectiveness of the various watershed initiatives and interventions.

Land Use Planning for the Management of Watershed:

In a restricted sense, integrated land use planning for watershed management involves comprehensive development of whole watershed for different land uses, while in a broader sense; land use planning involves total development of kinds of resources of watersheds such as, land, water, climate, plant and man.

The success of watershed development depends upon the nature of available resources within the boundaries of watershed. Therefore selectivity approach is more rational and priority basis for the successful watershed management.

Criteria for Selection of Watershed:

The basic criteria for selection of watersheds are:

(a) Magnitude of the problem

(b) Future of addressing the problem

(c) Capacity/potentiality for overall development

(d) Availability of desired technology

(e) Acceptability and participation of the rural people

(f) Availability of infrastructural facilities

In order to plan developmental activities on watershed basis, an appropriate frame work of some standard watershed, uniform system of delineation and codification in necessary. At micro level, it follows 5 stage sub-division using drainage maps of 1: 1 million scales.

At micro level, watersheds of 1000-5000 ha, a 3 to 4 stage sub-division is followed and useful for operational level using 1: 50,000 scale drainage maps. On farm level, base map of 1: 15,000 and larger scale can be used.

Water Harvesting:

According to the National Commission on Agriculture, it may not be possible to irrigate 40% of cultivable land with the available water resources in India. Therefore, the remaining 60% of land shall depend on available monsoon rains as source of water for crops. These cells for development of water harvesting which can be adopted in small watersheds.

Depending upon the size of the watershed contributing of run-off and site where water can be stored with minimum losses, the surface run-off harvesting programme can be practiced effectively. The use of farm ponds/tanks for ensuring rabi crops for rain- fed agriculture has been found economical in many states of India.

The system provides opportunity for surface water collection in the tanks and groundwater recharge for wells which can also provide water year round for domestic as well as supplemental irrigations.

Recommendations for Practioners:

(i) Select watershed sites where dire need exists in terms of improving soil and water conservation, enhancing productivity and improving livelihoods.

(ii) Adopt holistic and participatory consortium approach from the beginning i.e. from selection of watershed.

Watershed Models:

Because of complex inter-disciplinary nature of predicting watershed performance, mathematical models have been postulated by various hydrologists. These models are computerized devices for simulating the hydrologic processes that occur during the conversion of precipitation of stream flow.

Their uses in conjunction with available information on soils, land use, geology and stream channel characters are able to predict the spatial and temporal sequences in hydrology of watersheds. Comprehensive models have the ability to assess the influence of land use patterns and structural works on stream flow from watershed when it is subjected to number of precipitations.