Farmer-participatory integrated watershed management: Adarsha watershed, Kothapally India - an innovative and upscalable approach

Abstract

This project aims to enhance and sustain productivity in soils of medium to high water holding capacity in the intermediate rainfall ecoregion with emphasis on arresting soil degradation. The activities adopted to meet these objectives were (ICRISAT 2002): (1) characterization of the natural resource base, and identification of physical and socioeconomic constraints for sustainable production; (2) application of integrated, cost-effective, soil-water-nutrient management (SWNM) practices appropriate to farmers' resources and the natural resources of the ecosystem; (3) rehabilitation of degraded soils, and studies on the effects of integrated SWNM strategies on system profitability and sustainability; (4) integration and evaluation of the techno-socioeconomic feasibility of promising strategies for crop intensification and reduction of soil degradation, and to learn lessons on the benefits of scaling-up and scaling-out of watershed-based integrated genetic and natural resource management (IGNRM) to other parts of the SAT. This paper describes one of the successful cases of participatory consortium approach for community watersheds in an on-farm Adarsha watershed at Kothapally in Andhra Pradesh, India.