Kothapally, a flourishing rural community in India’s semi-arid Andhra Pradesh state, enjoys healthy crop and vegetable yields, and a year-round supply of water. But this hasn’t always been the case. Before 1999, Kothapally faced recurrent droughts and widespread poverty, forcing many families to literally migrate to greener pastures.
Today, the 1,500 people whose livelihoods depend on the availability of and access to water in this community often play host to experts from Africa and other parts of Asia who are keen to find out more about the success of the participatory watershed management system introduced into the area by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in 1999.
ICRISAT and a consortium of partners began implementing the Adarsha Watershed project to explore low cost water conservation systems that might improve crop yields in the face of drought. The project initially focused on implementing soil and water conservation measures and crop improvement techniques for 270 individual farmer families. However, as soon as the farmers saw the improved financial returns generated by these interventions, they began working together to build community structures.
More than 250 rainwater harvesting structures, such as check-dams, mini percolation pits, sunken pits and gully plugs, were erected in the watershed. ICRISAT promoted low-cost structures that were relatively easy to build and maintain using local materials.
Several watershed-linked micro-enterprises were also evaluated as a means of providing alternative income and livelihood opportunities. Efforts to empower the community and increase awareness at various levels were undertaken to sensitize farmers and policy makers. As such, the project has directly impacted many poor and vulnerable people, particularly women, and landless and marginal farmers.
Analyzing Adarsha’s impact
A recent study by ICRISAT and the Stockholm Resilience Centre compared Kothapally and neighboring villages to analyze the impact of community water conservation and harvesting on water resources availability and socio-economic consequences. Results show that water runoff is only half of what is was before the intervention, while groundwater recharge has increased by more than 200 percent. Community wells now remain full even during the dry season.
The study also shows that Kothapally women, who were actively involved in the initiative through self-help groups that initially focused on vermicomposting, have gone on to finance a diverse range of small-scale enterprises ranging from tree nurseries to tailoring.
Valuable lessons for the North
“Kothapally proves the long-term benefits of a holistic and participatory approach to promote local low-cost water and soil conservation,” said William Dar, ICRISAT’s Director General. “This is a valuable model to follow given the water crisis that many countries are now facing.”
Suhas Wani, a project leader and principal scientist on watersheds at ICRISAT, feels a collaborative approach is feasible in the North. “As in India or Africa, agriculture is the main water user in Europe,” he said. “But farmers have larger holdings so you can manage water resources and scarcity in an easier way. In Europe, you could be talking about one decision-maker for 200 hectares whereas in India there could be 200 households on 200 hectares.”
A new pilot project in India, led by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) working group and run by ICRISAT, seeks to scale up the use of good water management practices and related tools at a farm level. Towards this end, it will develop a simple water impact calculator for farmers to estimate the impact of their current practices on water conservation, and find ways to minimize water use. The calculator could be a valuable tool for India but also possibly for other countries affected by water scarcity.
Given the global nature of climate change, Europe’s recent drought suggests the lessons learned from research in the South could also prove valuable to the North as well.
This post was compiled using information from an AlertNet post, “Can India teach Europe to deal with drought?” written by Alina Paul-Bossuet, ICRISAT’s communications specialist, and other reports.
[...] must look at how we can prevent soils becoming degraded in the first place. By involving farmers in sustainable water and soil management, Kothapalli, a village in Andhra Pradesh, India, which was previously below the poverty line due to [...]