Watershed Management Programme in the State :

In Madhya Pradesh the agriculture sector accounts for nearly one-third of GSDP and forms the backbone of the State's economy. Sustainable and continued agricultural development is essential for the overall development of the State. In Madhya Pradesh, agriculture is characterized by several problems, prominent among which is that of wide year-to-year fluctuations in production and consequently, farm incomes. The absence of assured irrigation in large parts of the State and of appropriate technology for dry land and drought prone areas compounds the problem. The State has 5 crop zones, 11 agro climatic regions and 4 soil types, which add to biodiversity in the State and acts favorably for production of various agriculture and horticulture crops. There are a high proportion of low value crops with low productivity and agriculture holdings are highly fragmented. There are also large areas of cultivable wastes and fallow lands.

According to the Agriculture Census there were 73.60 lakh operational holdings in the State. 65% of agriculture in the State is still traditional and mostly rainfed. With its most cropped area belonging to the rainfed category, the incidence of drought has become more or less a perpetual feature. It is pertinent to note here that in the last ten years the State has faced drought in nine years, which has impacted the GSDP adversely. Added to this the relentless exploitation of the natural resources base in the form of soil cover, vegetative cover and ground water due to increased biotic pressure mounting pressure on fragile eco-system. Rural poverty and extensive unemployment amongst the casual farm and non-farm workers indicates inadequate work opportunities. As consequences the livelihood of rural people's in rainfed agriculture areas has always been under constant threat.

In the context of above background the watershed management programme is the most appropriate and scientific approach for conserving the soil and water resources and optimizing their utilisation to have increased/sustainable agricultural productivity, regeneration of natural vegetation and better livelihood opportunities in rainfed areas of Madhya Pradesh. Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India had started watershed management programme in the year 1994 under Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Integrated Wasteland Development Programme (IWDP). Considering its importance, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Panchayat and Rural Development Department had also constituted Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Watershed Management (RGMWM) in August, 1994 to plan and implement the watershed projects in mission mode with the aim of reducing the vulnerability to droughts, improving the incomes and livelihood of people and also providing short-term employment opportunities. The watershed projects of National Watershed Development Programme In Rainfed Areas under Department Of Agriculture and Watershed Projects funded by NABARD have also been implemented in the state.

Objectives of Watershed Management Programme :

•  Augmentation, conservation and optimum utilization of soil and water resources in rainfed areas.
• Reducing the vulnerability to droughts and fluctuations in agricultural production.
• To restore ecological degradation and improving the environmental resource base.
• To develop an easily available repository of scientific and technological inputs for detailed and area specific planning available to the field level implementing agencies.
• To maximize people's participation in the planning, implementation, management and maintenance of watershed development activities.
• To focus on disadvantaged communities through equitable distribution of resources and sharing of benefits. to develop and demonstrate replicable Public Private Partnership (PPP) models for innovative and synergistic watershed planning, implementation, management and monitoring.
• Value addition to the Watershed Development Projects for sustainable livelihoods and economic benefits by enhancing agro-biomass production, implementation of income generation activities/micro enterprises, providing backward and forward market linkages and micro-finance solutions etc.

Implementation Mechanism of RGMWM( Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Watershed Management ) :

The Mission does not view watershed management as the programme, merely for soil and water conservation or engineering interventions, but provides the opportunity to neglected and weaker sections of rural public to have the access to resources. The most important element of the strategy envisaged for Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Watershed Management is to make rural people the hub of all development activities. This task sounds simpler than it actually is, because of heterogeneous groups of rural public which is stratified by caste, ethnicity, sex, religion, class, asset level, occupation, literacy, etc. Therefore to bring these diverse groups together to come forward with their aspirations and needs and to convert community demand into community action, the bottom to top participative implementation mechanism has been adopted by Mission.

Present Status and achievments : Watershed Management Programme in Madhya Pradesh has affected a greening of antipoverty investment in the state and made significant progress. The key achievements are as given below :

Increase in Kharif Area - 22.44%, Increase in Kharif Production - 36.73%, Increase in Rabi Area - 49.20%, Increase in Rabi Production - 36.03%, Increase in Rabi Irrigated Area - 46.89%, Increase in Double Cropped Area - 56.32%, Decrease in wasteland - 44.65%, No. of villages where water table increase has been observed – 6014 .