Watershed Development in Northeast India: Impacts, Opportunities and Problems

The Northeast region is endowed with problems of undulating topography, soil erosion, small land holdings, jhume (shifting) cultivation, although it has fertile lands, high and dependable rainfall and agriculturally-favourable climate which can serve as the best-bet for the development of watershed programs on a large scale. Although a number of impact assessment studies have been done in past by various researchers and organizations on the watershed development programs, no thorough study has been conducted on the impact of watershed development programs carried out in the Northeastern region. It is in this endeavor, a study was attempted to assess the impact of watershed development programs in the region. The study is based on the review of evaluation reports as well as the case studies carried out under the project. The study assessed the performance of watershed programs by employing meta-analysis of 37 watershed case studies and micro-level studies of four watersheds in the region, which were implemented by different agencies/organizations under different watershed development programs have been documented. The results of meta-analysis of 37 case studies showed that all the watersheds in Northeast region were economically remunerative with an average B:C ratio of 1.79 with the average internal rate of return of 19.4. Agricultural productivity was increased by 28.9 per cent along with increased cropping intensity of 24.67%. The watershed interventions also reduced the area under jhume cultivation