Performance of Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP): A Study from Nagaland, India

A critical issue in development scenario is how to achieve the exact implementation of development plan to get the maximum outcome from the implementation of developmental initiative. This paper is an attempt to assess the performance of IWMP in Nagaland, India. Altogether, 120 beneficiaries of IWMP were included as study community. Physical and financial performances were taken into consideration. It had significantly contributed through the adoption of rubber cultivation, horticultural crops cultivation, agroforestry and forest trees cultivation. The area under shifting cultivation had shown a significant decline. The overall cropping intensity also had significantly increased under IWMP. Various soil and moisture conservation activities, namely, ‘contour bund’, ‘water harvesting structure’ and ‘half-moon’ terrace were adopted by the beneficiaries under IWMP. Further, it had remarkably contributed to the livestock sector and increased the income of the beneficiaries from different occupational activities and monthly expenditure of beneficiaries. Owing to the implementation of the project, the possession of the bank account of beneficiaries had reached up to 72.00 per cent. Considering the sources of credit of the beneficiaries, the most common source of credit was the local moneylenders with a higher rate of interest, which remarkably switched to SHGs with a relatively lower rate of interest. The overall (physical and financial) performance of IWMP in Nagaland, India was satisfactory and policy process should take the issues into consideration for socio-economic up-scaling of rural people through watershed approach.