Efforts have long been made in India to improve the management of major watersheds for ecological reasons - such as reducing the siltation of reservoirs. The management of micro-watersheds (of around 500 hectares) is a more recent focus of policy and has both ecology and livelihoods as itsobjectives. Experiments have shown that, in some areas, more than a doubling of resource productivity can be achieved by careful rehablitation. Many watersheds contain both private and common land. It is already clear from a number a efforts led by NGOs that, to be equitable and institutionally sustainable, the rehabilitation of both common and private lands needs action rooted in strong resource user-groups capable of taking decisions ina participatory way and resolving conflict. To build up groups in this way requires both time and skills, both of which have proved elusive in government projects and programmes. The key question addressed in this book is how far the approaches developed by NGOs can be adopted (or adapted) by the public sector and applied on a wide scale,for, without such approaches, neither the ecological nor the livelihood benefits of watershed rehabilitation will be achieved.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The research presented in this book demonstrates how an integrated ‘systems’ approach to farming in the watershed context increases the effectiveness of a production system and improves people’s livelihoods. It takes an integrated approach, using one watershed in Ethiopia as a ‘laboratory’ or model case study to focus on the interaction and interdependence between land, water, crops, soil, water harvesting, supplemental irrigation, forestry, socio-economic aspects, livestock and farm tools. A range of linked studies was conducted with active participation of the farming community and other relevant stakeholders, such as the local offices of agriculture and extension services. The starting point for the work was the premise that previous efforts to solve farming system constraints using a piecemeal approach or discipline-specific focus have not been successful. Thus, addressing agricultural and environmental constraints through a holistic approach enables the generation of comprehensive technologies to sustainably improve the natural resource base and livelihoods of communities. The authors discuss trade-offs and resource allocation, demonstrating how the environment can be protected while also improving productivity. A unique feature is the methodology developed for the selection of suitable fields and farmers to implement new approaches or improved technologies, to achieve production increases while reducing degradation of sensitive agro-ecosystems. It is also shown how the watershed scale is a valuable basis for assessing the protection of fragile lands.

This book, which contains 15 separately authored chapters, discusses both the principles and applications of an integrated approach to natural resource management. Such an approach must embrace the complexity of systems and redirect research towards the greater inclusion of issues such as participatory approaches, multi-scale analysis and an array of tools for system analysis, information management and impact assessment. Case studies, particularly from developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are included. This book is of interest to a wide range of readers in many disciplines, including forestry, soil and management sciences, agriculture, and development studies.

This book examines the politics of rural development with special reference to watershed development interventions in the desert province of Rajasthan in India. Watershed development (and rainwater harvesting) is one of the most significant rural development interventions in rainfed areas of India since the early 1990s. A range of developmental actors including the state watershed department, international donors, NGOs and grassroots organisations are involved in sponsoring watershed development projects. Using multi-sited ethnography and conversational interviews with the deliverers as well as recipients of development, the book compares and contrasts the watershed interventions of the state and two different kinds of NGOs in Rajasthan. While conventional studies on watershed development have focused on the evaluation of ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of particular projects, whether implemented by the state or NGOs, the book moves beyond this narrow analytical gaze to look at the roles, agendas and interests of multiple development agencies, often partnering together and sometimes competing with each other as part of, what the author calls, the ‘watershed development regime’. Taking cue from watershed development and water conservation projects over the last two decades, the book engages with the larger question of ‘how’ of delivering development. It examines the complex processes of cooperation, competition, negotiations, contestations and conflicts between different stakeholders, including the agents of development and differently positioned rural social groups in the context of Rajasthan. The book demonstrates that the recent interventions in watershed development and rainwater harvesting have considerably shaped the politics of development in Rajasthan in a number of ways: by becoming a site for the remaking of the ‘state’ and its internal relations, by disturbing the local hegemony in the countryside, by creating new relations of patronage between diverse agents and recipients of development, by increasing the associational capacity as well as creating new conflicts (intra and inter village) and by initiating competition and cooperation between the various agents of development over control of local resources and power.

This book focuses on the gendered experiences of environmental change across different geographies and social contexts in South Asia and on diverse strategies of adapting to climate variability. The book analyzes how changes in rainfall patterns, floods, droughts, heatwaves and landslides affect those who are directly dependent on the agrarian economy. It examines the socio-economic pressures, including the increase in women’s work burdens both in production and reproduction on gender relations. It also examines coping mechanisms such as male migration and the formation of women’s collectives which create space for agency and change in rigid social relations. The volume looks at perspectives from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal to present the nuances of gender relations across borders along with similarities and differences across geographical,socio-cultural and policy contexts. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, development, gender, economics, environmental studies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs and think tanks working in the areas of gender, climate change and development.