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Farmers’ Perceptions and Satisfaction Levels on the Performance of Watershed Development Activities in the Morni Hill area of the Siwalik Himalayas in India

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Abstract

We describe the results of a survey of farmers’ perceptions of and satisfaction with the performance of watershed development activities on socioeconomic, agriculture and livestock, and environmental attributes. We administered a questionnaire to 120 farmers randomly interviewed in the Morni Hill area of the Siwalik Himalayas in India. Our results show that the farmers have considerable knowledge about the implementation of watershed development activities and their impact on the economy, agriculture and the environment. Our respondents generally agreed or strongly agreed with most investigated parameters, with a few exceptions such as employment opportunities in the dairying sector, rise in panchayat funds, milk production, fuel wood availability, grazing lands and use of mechanical inputs in agriculture. Water availability has resulted in a positive change in the cropping pattern, which has shifted to more remunerative crops, such as paddy, pulses, vegetables and high yielding wheat. Approximately 45 % of respondents were highly satisfied with the results of the watershed development activities. The overall level of satisfaction pertaining to different socioeconomic, agriculture and livestock, and environmental parameters was approximately 56 %, which reveals that respondents are well aware of the impacts of the watershed development activities. Therefore, we suggest that farmers’ perceptions could usefully be incorporated into decision-making processes for targeting land and water management interventions.

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Notes

  1. Approximately 3–7 cm of the topsoil layer often disappears during a single monsoon season.

  2. This is a permanent body of all adult villagers that assesses the impacts of development activities in the village.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the farmers of the Morni Hill area for their cooperation in contributions to this research in the form of interviews and for providing information regarding perceptions on watershed development activities undertaken in the area. We also wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for a meticulous and thought provoking review of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

    Omvir Singh, Tejpal Sharma & Jagdeep Singh

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  1. Omvir Singh
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Correspondence to Omvir Singh.

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Singh, O., Sharma, T. & Singh, J. Farmers’ Perceptions and Satisfaction Levels on the Performance of Watershed Development Activities in the Morni Hill area of the Siwalik Himalayas in India. Hum Ecol 44, 91–104 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-015-9801-x

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