Dimensions and determinants of people's participation in watershed development programmes in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh: An econometric analysis

The present investigation has been conducted in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh to study the extent of people's participation and identify the factors which influence their participatory decisions. A total of 120 households were selected from eight watersheds implemented under different institutional arrangements from the region using a multistage sampling framework. Data collection was done by personal interview of the sample respondents on a pre-tested schedule specially designed for this study. The results indicated an overall People's Participation Index (PPI) of 27% to 41% in the selected watersheds. The highest level of participation was observed in programme planning stage in most of the projects which got reduced during subsequent stages of the programme. Socio-economic and institutional variables affecting people's participation were identified through multinomial logit analysis. It was observed that age and education of household head, land holding size and extension contact were the influential factors which affected the participatory decision of the farm households.