Watershed intervention technology- A case study analysis

Abstract

Land being the major non-renewable natural resource is inelastic in nature. As watershed supports the entire dry land agriculture/horticulture and also remain the catchments for tanks and reservoirs, the strength of the watershed development programmes will largely determine the growth in agriculture. Watershed management was a holistic approach aimed at optimizing the use of land, water, vegetation and all associated components in an area which could alleviate drought, moderate floods, prevent soil erosion, and improve water availability, increase fuel, fodder and agricultural production on a sustainable basis. Water harvesting is usually employed as an umbrella term describing a whole range of method of collecting and conserving various forms of runoff from different sources. Watershed Intervention Technology is a composite approach to an efficient use of land and water resources so as to get optimum production from them and also to preserve the soil from deterioration and future utility, (Ministry of Water Resources, 2008).