Evaluation Methodology for Post-facto Assessment of Watershed Development Project A Multidisciplinary, Multi-scale & Multi-aspect Approach

Not AvailableThis report analyses the experiences and lessons from three World Bank–Supported watershed development projects in the Indian states of Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.5 The primary reason for the analysis was to guide the development and execution of new watershed programs in India, including new Bank-supported state-level operations in Uttarakhand and Karnataka, and a proposed national project now under preparation. Accordingly, it was important to deepen the knowledge base about large-scale, community-led watershed development in order to share that knowledge with key stakeholders both inside and outside of the World Bank. Another important reason was the immediate and growing concern over water resources and their management in India and the question of how well watershed development programs internalize these concerns. A third impetus was the nexus between rural poverty and rainfed agriculture and the important role that watershed development programs are to fulfi ll in the development of sustainable rural livelihoods. India’s watershed development programs are one of the Government of India’s (GOI) principal tools for poverty reduction in rural areas. Poverty in India is concentrated in the drylands, hilly and tribal areas; one of the ascribed causes for which is the poor performance of India’s rainfed agriculture. The infl uential Parthasarathy Committee report on watershed development programs, in making these points, provided a strong case for Government to utilize these programs for poverty reduction and food security purposes. The report argued: While irrigated agriculture appears to be hitting a plateau, dryland farming has suff ered neglect . . . [however] while it is the rainfed parts of Indian agriculture that have been the weakest, they are also the ones that contain the greatest unutilized potential for growth . . . [and poverty reduction impacts would be greatest] if growth were to be focused on these neglected regions; and In our view, raising the productivity of rainfed areas is an imperative if we are to meet the goal of national food security in the coming years. We have estimated that, even in the most optimistic scenario of further irrigation development in India, nearly 40% of national demand for food in 2020 will have to be met through increasing the productivity of rainfed dryland agriculture . . . and this demands intensive watershed work in these regions.Not Availabl