Research Journal of Agricultural Sciences, May 2012, 3(3): 736-740 Impact of Centrally Sponsored Scheme- National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas Projects in Southern Karnataka T N Sachinkumar, Y S Arun Kumar and K Harishkumar Department of Agriculture Economics, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK), Bangalore – 560 065, Karnataka, India e-mail: tnsachin@gmail.com Received: 09 June 2011 Revised: 17 September 2011 Accepted: 02 January 2012 A B S T R A C T Concurrent monitoring and evaluation study of centrally sponsored scheme- National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (CSS-NWDPRA) was carried out at selected watersheds of fourteen Southern Districts of Karnataka, to assess the impact on cropping pattern as well as cropping intensity due to interventions of soil and water conservation. Net cropped area of sample farmers increased by 4.15 per cent while the gross cropped area increased by 8.5 per cent with an increase in cropping intensity from 117 to 122 per cent. Further crop diversification with replacement of field crops (Cereals and pulses) by high value commercial/plantation crops (Oil seeds, Mulberry, Vegetable, mango etc) was observed with the implementation of NWDPRA. Significant increase in employment opportunities and standard of living after implementation of development was indicated by increase in consumption, health and hygiene expenditure. Many of defunct wells became functional (25%) possibly due to ground water recharge, besides 6 per cent increase in the total number of functional wells and as a result irrigated area increased from 0.69 to 1.05 acres per well because of project implementation. Key words: National watershed development project, Rainfed area, Southern Karnataka Land development on watershed approach to development is basically the recognition of the inter- relationships between land and water and accordingly scientific conservation, appropriate land use, vegetative cover in order to promote socio-economic welfare of the people, while at the same time maintaining ecological balance and sustainability. About 60 per cent of the net cultivated area is rain-fed and supports the livelihood of 40 per cent of the total population, which contributes about 44 per cent to national food stocks (Anonymous 2004). Ninety one per cent coarse cereals, 90 per cent pulses, 85 per cent oilseeds, 65 per cent cotton and 55 per cent rice are grown under rain-fed conditions. The rain-fed agriculture has potential to increase yield of crops by two to three folds in India and which can be harnessed through the adoption of integrated watershed technologies. Currently, the average productivity of rain-fed areas in the semiarid region is around 800-1000 kg ha -1 . The basic problems of rain-fed agriculture are variations in seasonal rains during the crop growing period. Hence to minimize the vagaries of climate, conserve rainwater, minimize land degradation, improve groundwater recharge, increase crop intensity and crop productivity watershed management approach is adopted (Kerr et al. 2000, Samra 1997, Wani et al. 2002). The literature on watershed development in India is largely confined to qualitative descriptions of the success stories which describe the social processes that contribute to successful watershed development and discuss less of the technical component. Huge investments were made by the Karnataka State Government in watershed programmes and 569 micro-watersheds were identified for implementation under NWDPRA programme besides the programmes under World Bank and other agencies during the tenth plan (2003- 07). The monitoring and evaluation and impact assessment of NWDPRA programme were taken up by UAS Bangalore. M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS The impact assessment study was based on the qualitative and quantitative information generated with respect to pre-project and post project status of various ecological and socio-economic indicators. The success criteria were suitability and acceptability of the conservation measures applied their production and conservation efficiency, present status and reliability of interventions. Besides these indicators, project implementation approach was also evaluated for effective community development, synergistic integration of different project components and overall weaknesses and strong points of the project. The information on pre and post project status of these parameters was obtained from official project records available with project implementing agency, revenue records, informal group discussions held with the beneficiaries located in 14 villages, Intensive sample survey conducted by the evaluation teams, on the spot evaluation of the conservation measures. The main reliance of this impact evaluation study is intensive sample survey conducted during 2007-08. Socio-economic survey was conducted by interviewing 840 randomly selected farm families from each Research Journal of Agricultural Sciences 3 (3) 736 https:// www.rjas.info ISSN: 0976 -1675