Assessing the Level of Participation and Acceptance of Watershed Practices in Panchkula District

In a watershed development programme, people's participation is very important for the successful adoption of the practices recommended by the experts in the region. The present study was conducted in Panchkula district of Haryana with an objective to find out the level of participation and adoption of recommended practices in watershed development programme. A total of 26 recommended practices pertaining to watershed development were identified. Data were collected from 240 farmers of eight villages by personal interview with the help of structured interviewed schedule and a group discussion. Analyzed data shows that regarding participation, majority of the respondents participated at a moderate level in different stages of watershed development programmes. The participation was 70 percent in planning stage, whereas in implementation stage and maintenance stage it was 60.83 percent and 60.41 percent respectively. Major factors behind the high level of participation in programme were high rate of literacy among respondents and frequent contact with extension agencies. Apropos adoption, the study revealed that majority of respondents adopted crop varieties for rain-fed conditions (82.92 percent) followed by intercropping and peripheral bunding (81.25 percent), cover cropping (71.25 percent), plantation of trees and grasses on deep gully slopes (62.08 percent) gully plug (61.67 percent), check dam (57.50 percent), bamboo plantation in gully bed (41.67 percent), grasses waterway (41.25 percent). However, they did not show much interest for watershed technology like contour farming, well recharge, contour ploughing and contour trenching. The study indicates that there is need for making the concentrated efforts for convincing the farmers in the region for adopting the better practices advocated by the watershed experts so that the productivity of the farming system could be increased and sustained.