Watershed Development in Gujarat - edoc - Humboldt-Universität zu ...

2 Programme Area 5Groundwater and surface water are the two different sources fromwhich water is utilised for irrigation purposes. These two sources aremainly replenished by rainfall and stream flows." (FERGUSON, n.d. b)2.1.2 Socio-economic and political situationSelected socio-economic featuresGujarat is the second most industrialised state of India 1 . The mainindustries are located in the "Golden Corridor", the area along the mainhighway and railway line from Ahmedabad, moving south, towardsMumbai. Major industries include chemical companies, rubber, plastic,petroleum factories, electrical and textile plants. The high extent ofurbanisation (35 percent) also indicates a scope for development in theservice sector, which already accounts for 42 percent of Net StateDomestic Product (NSDP). Industries and the service sector also providemajor temporary employment opportunities for seasonal (migrant)labourers. Annual overall growth rates in the state economy ofapproximately 8 percent per year since 1991 can mainly be attributedto the increase in the secondary and the tertiary sectors. Yearly growthrates in agriculture have only been at around 4 percent.Agriculture, forestry and fishing related processing enterprises provideemployment to an estimated 1.1 million people (GOVERNMENT OFGUJARAT, 2000a). More than half of these people work in their ownfamily enterprises in the tiny sector, providing employment only to upto two people. Annual growth rate of these enterprises has been 6.9percent; only the few larger ones are growing faster by 14.5 percent(1990-98), in urban areas. Only 40,000 people find employment inlarger scale enterprises with 6 or more workers (GOVERNMENT OFGUJARAT, 2000a). Hence, there still seems to be a large andunexploited potential for agro-based industries, an area, which theGovernment is slowly selecting for promotion and support.The share of agricultural production in the NSDP of the State is only 21percent, down from over 30 percent ten years ago. This figure is lowerthan the Indian average of 26 percent. Farming is nevertheless still themainstay in rural areas. Latest reports indicate that the employmentfigure for the rural population is 52 percent as compared to those ofurban population, which is 35 percent. In rural areas, self-employedpopulation (32 percent) is found to be more than that of urbanpopulation (14 percent). 27 percent of the rural population is engagedas casual/contract labourers (GOVERNMENT OF GUJARAT, 2000b).1 Gujarat ranks second in terms of industrial investment projects under implementation and secondin regard to net value added by the manufacturing sector (Socio-Economic Review, Gujarat State,1999-2000).