How much is a watershed worth? An assessment

India accords high priority to watershed programmes as a strategy for integrated rural development in drought-prone areas. Watershed development programmes are public funded and thus, valuation of different kinds of indirect benefits to the individual/society in addition to the direct visible benefits are important to support public policies on watershed programmes. The present study attempted to assess various kinds of indirect benefits associated with a watershed project along with visible direct benefits in terms of incremental returns from agriculture. The results showed that due to shift in cropping pattern and enhancement of productivity levels, net returns from agriculture and horticulture increased by around 7.43 lakh yr ⁻¹. Whereas, values of various recurring indirect benefits were estimated at 9.80 lakh yr ⁻¹ and single period benefits due to employment creation and changes in asset value was 30.01 lakh, which demonstrated that indirect benefits out of natural resource conservation activities are much higher than the direct benefits from the watershed.