Most of ITC’s partner communities are in moisture-stressed semi-arid regions where erratic rainfall patterns have led to large scale crop failures over successive seasons. Marginal farmers are especially vulnerable and often forced to leave their villages in search of a livelihood.

ITC’s watershed development initiatives promote two vital objectives – water conservation and soil enrichment, enabling farmers to extend the cultivation cycle and return to multiple cropping.

To empower them to independently manage water resources, ITC has assisted farming communities in 22 districts across 7 states to organise themselves into water user groups.

Groups are trained in watershed management techniques that complement traditional water harvesting practices. Members learn to create budgets, formulate rules and regulations for water sharing, fix water user charges and tap government development schemes.

Community-based
management of water resources

User groups implement area-specific micro plans to conserve topsoil, minimise water run-off, restore defunct water harvesting structures and construct new ones. Contour bunds and trenches, rock fill dams, gabions, check dams, stop dams, earthen checks, percolation tanks, village and farm ponds minimise erosion, create water storage capacity and make agriculture more sustainable.

Group members contribute land, labour and up to 25% of construction costs while ITC contributes the balance. Water user charges are levied to build a corpus fund for maintaining structures, constructing new ones and investing in productive community assets.

Creating efficient water management regimes

ITC also addresses the much neglected aspect of the end use of harvested water. It promotes a culture of optimum water usage by enabling farmers to adopt efficient irrigation methods, improved agronomic practices, and the use of organic fertilisers to sustain soil nutrients.

Fighting drought & unemployment

The growth in farm productivity, coupled with construction work on water harvesting structures during the lean season, helps to provide employment and reduce seasonal out-migration.