MID-EVALUATION OF THE WATERSHED PROGRAMME (IWDP- III) IN SALEM DISTRICT

R. SASIKALA¹*, R. PREMAVATHI^2
1Directorate of Extension Education, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
²Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
* Corresponding Author : srisasitnau@gmail.com

Received : 28-06-2018     Accepted : 12-07-2018     Published : 15-07-2018
Volume : 10     Issue : 13       Pages : 6641 - 6643
Int J Agr Sci 10.13 (2018):6641-6643

Keywords : Watershed Programme, Village Community
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Author thankful to Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
Author Contribution : All author equally contributed

Indian agriculture is predominantly a rainfed agriculture out of 143 million hectares of total cultivated area in the country, 101 million ha (i.e., nearly 70 per cent) area are rainfed and about 42% of dry land areas contribute for total food grain production. Variation in amount and distribution of rainfall influence the crop production as well as socio-economic conditions of farmers. To balance the adverse condition and to help the farmers, importance has been given to Watershed management programme for natural resources conservation. Mid- term evaluation of IWDP- III batch watersheds were conducted in all the ten watershed villages spread over in Valapady block of Salem district in two phases; (i) Information were gathered from Project Implementing Agency (PIA) and discussion was made with members of the Watershed Committee and Watershed Development Team (WDT) (ii) Field study was done and interaction was made with the beneficiaries of the area where IWDP- III watershed programme was implemented. And also using simple random sampling technique, 100 beneficiaries were selected to study the community participation in implementing the watershed activities. The data were collected with well-structured interview schedule. Percentage analysis was used for data analysis. On the whole it was observed that 85% of the community participation was at full level in planning the work. Majority (82.4%) of the village community showed their full participation in decision making activities. Eighty per cent of the village community showed full participation in site selection process. And regarding execution of work 76.4% of the community showed full participation. It shows that the community people were well aware of the importance of the watershed programme and they were involved in the implementation of the programme at all stages of the programme. They were also aware that if the watershed programme is implemented in their village it will recharge the ground water level which in turn will improve their livelihood so majority of the community people participated in implementing the watershed activities.

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