Trends in Biosciences

Natural resources viz., soil and water need to be conserved, developed and utilized efficiently due to ever depleting ground water which is the only feasible solution for conserving fresh water. The water tables are not getting recharged due to more run off (approximately 46% of the annual precipitation)¹ during the monsoon season which lasts only for three months (July–September). Study was conducted in district Unnao during 2005–08. Out of sixteen blocks of the district, seven blocks were selected for the study and tow villages from each block were short listed for selecting the beneficiaries of watershed development programme. Thus a total of 210 respondents from 14 villages constituted the sample for research work, beside farmers, seventy officers working in watershed development projects were selected for delineating constraints in implementation of watershed development projects. A pretested standardized interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents using personal interview method, and cost of cultivation was calculated to measure net income of respondents. The highest increment in net income was recorded (340.00 per cent) in Maize crop. The beneficiaries who were having 4–20 plants have gone to 92 as compared to 48 during pre-projectperiod,positive increment were recorded in majority (153.33 per cent) of the respondents having above two cows and highest increment (37.50 per cent) recorded in the number of respondents having one buffalo. The highest increment (33.33 per cent) in productivity of milch animals (cows and goats both) was recorded.