Community watersheds combat drought
The monsoons came late over the semi-arid regions of central India this year.
While several farming villages suffered from drought, Kothapally village in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh had water in their wells for drinking and irrigating crops.
Empowering people
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and a consortium of partners including international, national, governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) empowered the people of Kothapally to cope with drought for more than nine years through community watersheds.
The community watershed at Kothapally has become a model replicated in many other sites in India, China, Thailand and Vietnam, and now in East and Central Africa.
Entry point
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the use of community watersheds as an entry point for agricultural and rural development, has converged many interventions to improve agricultural productivity and livelihoods of poor farmers.
The people of Kothapally have embraced many new technologies. The construction of check dams were based on the community needs and executed by the villagers themselves.
The introduction of improved varieties and hybrid crops, integrated pest management, the restoration of wastelands together with a continuously growing groundwater level resulted in significant higher yields and greater income for the poor.
Improved varieties
The idea also spread to other parts of Asia - China, Thailand and Vietnam. The Asian Development Bank supported watershed projects in these countries, which included introduction of improved crop varieties, rainwater harvesting, rehabilitation of farm ponds, introduction of legumes, vegetables and fruit in the cropping systems, innovative integrated pest management techniques and diversifying cultivation with horticultural crops, and increasing incomes with the rearing of pigs and rabbits.
For further information, contact Dr Suhas P Wani at s.wani@cgiar.org
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