Decision Support to Livestock and Environment Policy Issues in Watershed Development (India)

Goal

Livestock production plays a crucial role in the management and utilisation of semi arid and arid lands of India. Under these conditions, animal husbandry is the traditional and major source of livelihood of people with arable farming playing more of a complementary role. However, rapid depletion of natural resources, more especially the common property resources, partly due to growing human and livestock population and due to adoption of non sustainable practices, have seriously affected the poor, marginalized and landless people, especially women, who have depended on these resources for maintenance of their livestock and their own livelihood.

Despite that the importance of livestock in watershed management is generally recognized, there is a conspicuous absence of data and analysis on watershed management - livestock interaction at the strategic, institutional as well as on the operational level.
This deficit corresponds also with the lack of systematic research and documentation of livestock activities in government and donor sponsored projects in India. If at all included, livestock activities are considered under income generating activities, restricting its perspective and focus, under development programmes.
Therefore, a critical understanding of the role of livestock at watershed level and the need for evolving appropriate measures to promote livestock while preserving the natural resource base is imminent for India.

“Livestock and Environment Interactions in Watersheds in India” is a 24 months applied project being implemented in water-scarce watersheds in semi-arid regions of India. The project is conducting in-depth studies in 5 watersheds to identify and analyse critical issues with regard to livestock, environment and development linkages in water-scarce watersheds, in order to make a substantial contribution to the improvement of the understanding of livestock – environment interactions and the policy setting to improve the design and implementation of watershed programs.