Indigenous Practices for Soil and Water Conservation - Agropedia

The main features of YFA's approach are:
• Participatory rural appraisal to learn from farmers not only about their
needs but also about solutions;
• Formation of a number of small homogenous sanghams, and also a composite
watershed sangham in each village;
• Planning of soil and water conservation programs on an individual farmer
basis t h r o u g h j o i n t field visits;
• Social equity through internal contribution of water and land resources by
the beneficiary to the landless; and
• S u b s t a i n a b i l i t y t h r o u g h diversification of l a n d use a n d proper management
o f l a n d a n d w a t e r resources.
The soil and water management technologies being implemented include:
• D i v e r s i o n d r a i n s for safe diversion of w a t e r to ponds a n d t a n k s ;
• Field bunds on boundary lines with waste weirs;
• Disposal of water from field to field or by boundary waterways;
• Farm ponds for percolation and irrigation; and
• Gully checks.
The concern for social equity was an important feature of YFA's approach.
The beneficiaries of individual farm ponds contributed not only 25% of the
overall cost but also gave a part of their land and water to the landless families
identified by the local sangham.
The watershed program has improved the productivity of cultivated land,
bringing fallow land under the plow, increasing the area under irrigation
through efficient use of run-off, water and hence improving the sustainability
of the system. This experience with implementation of a watershed program
through individual farmers, sangham and local-village level workers has been
found to be successful. The experience emphasized that:
• The earlier program implemented by the Government did not succeed because
farmers were not involved in the planning process, and unsuitable
SWC technologies were introduced.
• There is a lot to learn from farmers about efficient soil and water management
practices for their situations.
• There is a need for flexibility in the formation of a sangham, choice of technologies,
and tackling social equity issues so as to achieve a local fit*.
The participatory approach emphasizes the identification of location-specific
needs and community responsibility in a project.
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