Malawi economic monitor, February 2024
Watersheds play a crucial role in sustaining the ecosystem, biodiversity, wildlife, agriculture, and human population by serving as the natural resource base for all forms of life. These natural boundaries
Watershed Development
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An evaluation of the impact of the natural forest protection programme on rural household livelihoods
This paper estimates the impact on local household livelihoods of the Natural Forest Protection Programme (NFPP), the largest logging ban programme in the world that aims to protect watershed and conserve natural forests.
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Agricultural ecosystems: facts and trends
The rapid increase in food prices in many countries has led to substantial media attention on agriculture. This publication does not attempt to cover everything there is to know about agricultural ecosystems. Rather, it tries to present well documented facts and figures to better understand the challenges facing the sustainable management of agricultural ecosystems.
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Rural distress and government policy
National Sample Survey data in Income, Expenditure and Productive Assests of Farmer Households, 2003 showed that 96 per cent of farmer households are in deficit and half of the households are indebted. Debt waiver can only be welcomed in such a situation. Once indebted, marginal and small farmers will hardly be in a position to repay the debt even if it is from institutional sources where interest rates are much lower than the rates charged by private moneylenders. (Letters)
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Common guidelines for watershed development: Some reflections
The Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects, brought out by the union government, is an adapted version of the Parthasarathy Committee Report. This article highlights some of the major features of the guidelines and discusses ways to take forward the main concerns that have engaged much of the recent policy discourse on watershed development.
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Study reveals shift from agricultural activities
A recent study - "Linking Community-Based Water and Forest Management for Sustainable Livelihoomds of Poor in Fragile Catchments of the Indus-Ganges Basin' - conducted by People Science Institute (PSI) here, shows a remarkable shift from farm- based to non-farm activities in Hilaungad Watershed of Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand. Only 14 per cent people are still practising agriculture, a figure which was 51 per cent 10 years ago.
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Stereo Cartosat-1 satellite remote sensing data in assessing topographic potential of soil erosion
Streo Cartosat-1 satellite data was processed to generate high spatial resolution digital elevation model (DEM) using ground control points (GCPs) collected through geodetic single frequency GPS in differential GPS mode. DEM was processed to generate bare earth DEM by removing heights of natural and man made features from DEM.
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Beijing's water crisis 19492008 Olympics
This report traces Beijing's 60-year transformation from relative water abundance to water crisis, and the main policy responses to keep water flowing to China's capital. Official data indicates that Beijing's population growth, industrial development, and its expansion of irrigated farmland have driven huge increases in water consumption since 1949. The report also argues that drought and rapid demand growth aren't the only factors behind the water crisis. Short-sighted policies since 1949 have degraded Beijing's watershed and promoted the over-use of limited water resources.
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Issues in adoption of hill agriculture technologies
Green revolution in India has bypassed the remote places like hills. Farmers who are struggling for survival under unfavorable conditions like hills need focus. In Uttarakhand, only 13.62 per cent is the net cultivated area. Agriculture in Uttarakhand is primarily confined to lower and mid hill regions and is basically subsistence in nature.
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Bundelkhand package calls for debt relief
The Union Agriculture Ministry has worked out a package for revival of the farm sector in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on the lines of the Rehabilitation Package for Vidarbha and other drought-prone districts where farmers' suicides were high. Among other measures for relief, the Bundelkhand package suggests a debt relief for farmers in the region. It calls for contingency cropping, diversification and cross-breeding for local cattle that had lost fertility due to lack of minerals and green fodder.