Performance of Watershed Development Projects under Different Management Regimes

Watershed development in India has gained momentum with a variety of agencies trying approaches to technology, costs and subsidies, and institutional arrangements. The Watershed Development Programme has three important features: Unprecedented devolution of decision-making power backed up by financial allocation directly to the district level and hence to the village organisation level, creation of partnerships between government and non-government organisations, and technical and financial flexibility. The project places special emphasis on improving the economic and social conditions of the poor and the disadvantaged sections of the watershed community. This has to be achieved through equitable distribution of benefits from land and water resources and through greater access to income-generating opportunities. With this background the present paper attempts to evaluate two different watershed development programmes in India under different management regimes. Considering both the project implementing agencies (PIA) and their performances this study summarizes that in few cases (total cultivated area, irrigated area and cropping intensity) the Government agency has resulted better than that of the voluntary organisations. as the PIA. But when we consider the participation of the beneficiaries, the voluntary organisations has yielded better result. The evaluation suggests that the WDA will bring sustainable development and will more successful when both the PIAs (Government & the Voluntary organisations) will work together at the village level.