Indian Journal of Soil Conservation

Major portion of the Deccan falls in the hot and semi-arid eco-region and is subject to periodic droughts of varying intensities, high soil erosion rates and rapidly depleting groundwater. Lack of irrigation water from different sources reveals that small and marginal farmers are vulnerable to precipitation changes, resulting in declining crop yields and water availability. Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) is an accepted practice for ensuring natural resource conservation, sustainable crop production and improvement of the socio-economic conditions of stake holders. Data collected from various watershed projects over the last three decades indicate that while crop yields increase by 15–40% and soil loss decrease by 2–10% due to various interventions (change in cultivars, improved production technologies, resource conservation practices and increased awareness), these improvements are not sustained due to a variety of reasons-changing rainfall patterns, cultivation of water intensive crops, excessive use of water resources, poor interest of stakeholders in natural resource conservation, and market dynamics. There are indications that benefits from IWM may fail under ongoing climatic changes indicating that treated areas remain vulnerable; this may also be due to several policy issues that encourage indiscriminate use of scarce water resources. There is an urgent need to revisit, review and modify existing policies of agricultural development in the semi-arid rainfed region so that the direct and indirect effects of watershed interventions become climate resilient and stakeholder vulnerability decreases.