Cognition level of stakeholders on watershed development programme: A means for peoples’ participation

Water is the source of life. Despite its preciousness water has remained a neglected issue till date. One of the important reason behind India becoming water insecure nation is its free supply. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) forecasts that by 2025, thirty three percent of India's population will live under absolute water scarcity condition. The per capita water availability, in terms of average utilizable water resources in the country, has dropped drastically from 6008 m³ in 1947 to 2200 m³ now and is expected to dwindle to 1450 m³ by 2025. Against this backdrop a study was carried out to assess the awareness level of farmers in Uttar Pradesh. A total of 210 respondents were selected from 14 Village (Fifteen respondents each village) through equal allocation random sampling technique for the study. The major findings of the study include, majority (60.95 per cent) of the respondents belonged to the medium level of knowledge about the watershed practices followed by 20.48 per cent belonged to low level of knowledge and 18.57 per cent respondents were having high level of knowledge about watershed practices. The respondents (49.52 per cent) had knowledge about the crops with less canopy that were grown to protect the soil from rain water erosion, 49.05 per cent respondents were knowing the crops grown along the slope of the land while only 28.57 per cent respondents aware about staggered trenching checks surfaces runoff and soil loss in hills, and retaining wall in combination of vegetative barrier is economical and sustainable system of torrent controls.