Perception of farm-women regarding indigenous practices for soil and water conservation and their scientific validation: A case study from Udaipur district, India

Conservation of natural resources, particularly soil and water is crucial for sustainable agricultural production. India has been long recognized as one of the pioneer country in popularizing many of traditional conservation practices. However, given larger size with varying climatic conditions these practices are not uniformly applicable throughout the landmass, therefore a careful consideration and scientific validation is imperative. Besides, being agricultural economy rural women play vital and active role both in cultivation and allied fields. This paper presents the indigenous soil and water conservation measures followed by local tribal and non-tribal farm-women and provide their scientific validation based on experts’ opinion. The study was conducted in eight villages of Girwa (tribal) and Badgaon (non-tribal) local administrative units in Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Data were collected from 200 randomly selected respondents (100 tribal and 100 non-tribal women) using detailed questionnaire through personal interview. It was found that majority of women used indigenous practices related to soil and water conservation at medium to high level. In general non-tribal women were found to be more aware about the applicability of indigenous practices for natural resource conservation. Among the twelve commonly followed indigenous practices only five namely, vegetative barriers, diversion ditches, stone wall technique, stone wall reinforcement, and khadin or submergence tanks, were found to be scientifically applicable to the region. Therefore, it is recommended that these practices should only be encouraged and level of women's utilization of indigenous practices must be enhanced through additional exposure and trainings.