Economic Evaluation of Yeldur Nala Sub - Watershed Project in Kolar District of Karnataka.

The study was taken in Srinivaspura taluk, Kolar district of Karnataka to analyse the economic benefits derived by watershed beneficiaries of Yeldur nala sub watershed project implemented under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana-Watershed Development (PMKSY-WD). Primary data of the research was gathered from randomly selected 60 farmers from the project area which includes 30 watershed beneficiaries and 30 non-beneficiaries. Data collected was analysed using Simpson’s index, Cost and Returns analysis and Garret’s ranking. Higher crop diversity was found among beneficiaries of watershed project with Simpson’s index value of 0.85 compared to non-watershed farmers (0.77). Production, productivity and net returns of the major crops were observed higher in watershed area than in Non-watershed area. Annual income per farm was also found higher in watershed area with Rs. 2.84 lakh acre -1 than in Non-watershed area (Rs.1.70 lakh acre -1 ). Lack of awareness about benefits of watershed technology among the beneficiary farmers and poor participation by the farmers during training programmes conducted by the implementing agencies were the major constraints faced during the implementation of watershed projects. Results have sufficiently indicated that the watershed activities benefited farmers by enhancing their yield, net returns and overall income. Majority of sample farmers maintained farm pond when compared to trench cum bund as weed growth on these bunds was a major problem. It was also found that formation of watershed area farmers’ associations is necessary for the maintenance of soil and water conservation structures by watershed area development department.


Introduction
Agriculture in India is the major sector for economy, which depends highly on natural resources such as soil, watershed and vegetation.Nearly three fourths of the cultivated land is depending on monsoon, which is contributing about 42 per cent of the agriculture production in India (Anonymous, 2012).India receives annual precipitation of an average of 4,000 billion cubic meters (approximately 1183 mm rainfall) of which, only 48 per cent is available in surface and ground water entities of India (Anonymous, 2017).The scarcity and volatility of water availability has created pre and post production risk in Indian agriculture.
To fullfill the demands of the rising population, the conservation, utilization and up gradation of water on the scientific theories is essential along with the sustainability of dry land agriculture.This can be achieved by two alternative solutions, one is to bring all the rainfed areas under irrigation, which could not cover even 50 per cent of area cultivated.Second alternative is enhancing crop production in dry areas by promoting watershed technology.A watershed is a hydrologically referred as any surface area from which runoff resulting from water flow and is drained to a common point.Drought Prone Area Development Programme, Desert Development Programme and Integrated Wasteland Development Programme have been framed under one programme named Integrated Watershed Management Programme.It is a centrally sponsored program where the centre and state shared 90:10 ratio up to 2014-15.After 2015-16 IWMP was relabelled as Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana-Watershed Development (PMKSY-WD) where state and centreshare is in the ratio of 40:60 (Anonymous, 2015).

Kolar district of Karnataka stands fourth under
Rainfed Area Prioritization Index with erratic and uneven rainfall.The area under rainfed crops ranged from 74 to 85 per cent of the cultivated area.The mean annual rainfall is around 776 mm (ranging from 680 to 890) (Anonymous, 2018).Kolar being a water stressed area, facing major problems like, migration, degradation of lands, low productivity of farm lands, depletion of ground water resources, degraded soil, marginal/small farmers and fragmented land holdings, and less alternative income.In this regard, the rationale for watershed approach in rainfed agriculture areas is a way forward for the effective and efficient usage of natural resources by developing and managing them on a sustainable basis.This study sheds light on, how the selected watershed project helps in in-situ soil moisture conservation and rain water harvesting to augment ground water resources, crop production, development of pasture , livestock, fodder management and income-generation activities in a participative manner by involving the local communities that help in conserving these resources and the major constraints faced by the implementing agency and beneficiaries during implementation of the watershed projects in the study area with the following objectives.
To record the activities taken up under Yeldur Nala Sub -Watershed Projectin the study area.
To evaluate the economic benefits derived from Yeldur Nala Sub -Watershed Projectin the research area.
To determine the major constraints faced by the implementing agency and beneficiaries during implementation of the watershed project in the research area.

Methodology The Research Area
The present research was undertaken in Srinivaspur taluk of Kolar district of Karnataka state.According to the agro-climatic zones, the area is classified as a "eastern dry zone (zone 5)."Srinivaspura taluk is one among the five taluks of Kolar district which is 24 km away from the district and was reported in having a wide variation in distribution and pattern of rainfall over the years.

The Study Method
For the study, a purposive sample technique was used.In the primary level, Kolar district was selected based on Rainfed Area Prioritization Index (RAPI).In line with the goals of the research and consultation with Watershed Development Department Bengaluru, Karnataka, Yeldur nala sub watershed project under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana-Watershed Development(PMKSY-WD) in Srinivaspura taluk of Kolar district was selected, as most of the watershed activities were completed in that area.Totally 60 sample farmers were selected,of which 30 beneficiaries of watershed project and 30 non beneficiaries were randomly selected from Yedrur and Beeraganahalli villages in the study area, where in each village includes 15 beneficiaries and 15 non beneficiaries.Primary Data on socio-economic features, cropping pattern, allied activities, economic impact of the major interventions undertaken through Yeldur nala sub watershed project collected from the sample farmers through pre-tested schedule.

Statistical Tools
Crop Diversification Index Simpsons Diversity Index (SDI) is often used index for measuring crop diversification in a particular geographical area and is employed to calculate crop diversification in study area using -the formula given below Here, Ji = A m / Σ A m is the proportion of the mth activity in acreage.A Simpson index value nearing zero, indicates that the area is near to the specialization in cultivating a particular crop and if value is near to one, then the region is completely diversified in terms of crops.The per cent place of every rank was converted to scores by using the table given in Garrett and Woodsworth (1969).For every constraint the scores of individual respondents were added and divided by the total number of sample farmers from whom scores were added.Finally, the six limitations were ranked by giving ranks 1, 2, 3,..., 6 in descending order of the mean scores.

Result and Discussion
Out of the total sample respondents, 8 farmers were benefitted with Farm Pond, 29 farmers benefitted with trench cum bund, which helps to conserve soil and water in the field.17 of them were benefited from Dry land horticulture i.e. provided with mango seedlings, 14 were benefited by Agro forestry i.e. provided with silver oak seedling, along with these 13 and 17 farmers participated in Fodder production promotion and animal health camp respectively.Four of the farmers were self help group (SHG) members had undergone training of income generation activity conducted by implementing agency (Table 1).
The livestock inventory of the sample farmersrevealed that in watershed area 30 per cent of sample farmers owned local cows, 16 per cent owned buffalo and around 6 per cent of farmers had bullock pairs.Sheep and poultry were owned by 3 and 6 per cent of sample farmers respectively.Similarly, in non -watershed area 30 per cent of farmers owned local cows, 5 per cent owned buffalo and 5 per cent of farmers had bullock pairs.Sheep and poultry were owned by 10 and 5 per cent of farmers respectively (Table 2).Production of the main cultivated crops in the watershed area observed higher compared to nonwatershed area.The productivity of major crops cultivated was higher in watershed beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries and difference in productivity was higher in Mango with 14.32 quintals/ac followed by tomato (10.89 quintals/ ac).The production and productivity of mango was higher in watershed area when compare to non-watershed area due to distribution of mango seedlings in the watershed area with percentage change in productivity 30.92.There is considerable increase in productivity of all the crops, where higher per cent increase was in horse gram and ragi with 35.53  respectively.The gross returns per acre was also observed higher in watershed beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries and it was higher in tomato with Rs.198627/acre Rs.142623/acre respectively.The net returns were higher in watershed area compared to non watershed area and was observed higher in tomato Rs.114650 and Rs.65078 respectively and lower in horse gram Rs.10102 and Rs.4866 respectively (Table 5).
These results are in line with findings of Nirankusha (2015) where he reported that per acre respective crop gross and net return received by watershed farmers was substantially greater than that of non-watershed farmers this was because of water and soil conservation activities which enhanced yield of crops.
Net returns per rupee of expenditure was calculated to be higher in watershed area when compared to non -watershed area and was observed higher in tomato (Rs.2.37 and Rs.1.84respectively) and lower in horse gram (Rs.1.41and Rs.1.24respectively) because of improved yield by watershed interventions which further increased net returns of crops.
Table 6 depicts Annual Income of sample farmers in the research area.The study shown that net returns for all crop was higher in watershed area (Rs.240682) when compare to non-watershed area (Rs.126922) with difference in income of (Rs.113759) which is 47.27 per cent higher than non-watershed area, this is due to soil and water conservation activities like farm pond, trench cum bund, check dam and nala bund increased soil fertility which further enhanced crop yield and farm income.Similar findings were reported by Nirankush (2015) in his study (Table 6).

(
Debasis et al. 2017) Cost and Returns The cost and returns of major cultivated crops were analysed by using cost concepts-Cost A, Cost B and Cost C.(Susheela et al. 2016) Cost of production/quintal = Cost of cultivation/ hectare / Quantity of main product/ hectare Gross income = (Quantity of main product × Price of main product) Net income (NI): = Gross income -Total expenditure Returns per rupee of investment = Total cost Gross Returns Garrett's Ranking Garrett's ranking analytical tool was adopted to rank the constraints faced by beneficiaries during the implementation of watershed programme in study area.Constraints for the study area were listed by taking opinions of the sample farmers and with regard to the various studies undertaken in the similar field.For constraints faced by beneficiaries each of the sample farmer was requested to rank the listed six constraints from one to six.In this technique, rank one signify most important one and rank six signifies least important aspect.Rank allotted to every constraint by each respondent was converted into per cent position with the formula, Per cent position = 100*(M hg -0.50) /N g Where, Mh j depicts for rank given for the ith factor (h= 1, 2……6) by the j th individual (g = 1, 2 …..50) Ng stands for the number of variables that each individual has ranked.

Table 2 : Livestock inventory of sample farmers in Watershed and non- watershed areas (2018-19). (number)
more crop diversity in watershed area compared to nonwatershed area, this may be because of increased water availability and improved soil fertility due to watershed activities in the study area.The study conducted by Palinisami et al. (2011) also revealed similar results where cropping pattern and cropping intensity were influenced by watershed interventions which resulted in improved soil health and moisture holding capacity of soils (

Table 4 : Production and productivity of major crops cultivated by beneficiaries and non- beneficiary sample farmers underYeldur Nala Sub -Watershed Project.
Note: figures in the parenthesis indicates Difference in productivity percentage.

Table 9 : Soil and water conservation activities undertaken in the sample farmer's fields
To conserve the soil and water in the field, some of the structures were constructed in sample farmer's field.Farm pond, field bund and trench cum bund were constructed for eight, one and twenty nine farmers respectively, out of which seven farmers maintained farm pond and only eighteen farmers maintained trench cum bund.Farm ponds constructed under watershed projects were efficiently maintained by farmers compared to other water harvesting structures, this was because farm pond benefits the farmer by holding more rain water compared to trench cum bund and field bund and it was very difficult to manage trench cum bund and field bund as weed growth on these bunds was a major problem.(Table.9)ConclusionThisstudy gives ample scope for and perfect picture of the economically efficiency and sustainability of watershed activities in watershed area on soil health, water availability and rural livelihood over non-watershed area.Due to soil and water conservation activities ground water table increased, there was less soil erosion resulted in increased crop yield, fodder production was efficiently managed, agroforest activities indicated that the watershed activities, benefited farmers by enhancing their net returns and overall income.Still there is a lack of knowledge about the benefits of watershed among the farmers resulted in poor maintaince of soil and water conservation structures like field bund, trench cum bund, farm pond, check dam and nala bund, Hence there is need to enhance information about the advantage of watershed activities and for formation of watershed farmers' associations for the maintenance of soil and water conservation structures by watershed development department for the sustainability of the developmental work.