NREGA / Watershed Development; Implications for Green Jobs and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

NREGA / Watershed Development; Implications for Green Jobs and Climate Change

• Prof. Ravindranath

Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

What is the issue

• Can Employment Generation, Rural

Development, Agricultural Development and Poverty Alleviation programs

–create Green Jobs? –lead to adaptation to climate risks and climate change –contribute to Mitigation of Climate Change –generate Environmental Services

• YES

Developmental Programs

• 1. MG-NREGA – Rural Empl. program
• 2. Watershed Development
• 3. National Afforestation Program

– Community forestry/JFM/Greening Mission

• 4. Desert Development
• 5. Minor irrigation program
• 6. Soil and Water Conservation program
• 7. Sustainable Agriculture Development

Implications of Developmental Programs

• Most of these program aimed at Natural

Resources lead to conservation / regeneration of NR

– Soil, Water, Forest, Grazing land

• Generate Environmental Services

– Ground water recharge, Soil and Water conservation, Biodiversity conservation

• Climate Change related implications

–Adaptation; Ground Water recharge, soil & Water

conservation, Agro-forestry, soil organic matter enhancement, etc

–Mitigation; Agro-forestry, Afforestation, Soil Org.

Matter enhancement

Two Programs

• 1. MG – NREGA – National

Rural Employment Guarantee Act

• 2. Watershed Development

Objectives of MNREGA Program

• To enhance livelihood security in

rural areas by providing

–at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household

• whose adult members volunteer to

do unskilled manual work

Works / Activities implemented under NREGA

1. Water conservation and water harvesting; 2. Drought proofing, including Afforestation and tree plantation; 3. Irrigation canals, including micro and minor irrigation works; 4. Provision of irrigation facility, plantation, horticulture, land development 5. Renovation of traditional water bodies, including de- silting of tanks; 6. Land development; (Conservation bench terracing (CBT), Contour and

graded bunding, field bunding, pasture development)

7. Flood-control and protection works, including drainage in waterlogged areas; 8. Rural connectivity to provide all-weather access. 9. Any other work that may be notified by the Central Government in consultation with the State Government.

NREGA Employment Generation

Type of works 2011-2012 2010-2011 2009-2010 2008-2009 2007-2008

• No. of households

provided employment 3,82,94,824 5,57,63,244 52,8,64,608 4,55,18,907 3,43,26,563

• No. of households who

have demanded employment 3,78,55,866 5,49,54,225 5,25,30,453 4,51,15,358 3,39,09,132

Person days in millions

Total

1208 2571 2835 2163 1436

Women

596 1227 1364 1035 610

NREGA Activities & Employment

Type of works 2011-2012 2010-2011 2009-2010 2008-2009 Land Development 107,965 425,494 342,465 189,517 Flood control 34,103 111,054 95,953 62,554 Water conservation & Harvesting 121,809 537,848 629,833 248,167 Drought proofing 48,270 142,963 115,843 75,443 Micro Irrigation Works 26,780 232,384 151,655 66,173 Provision of Irrigation facility to Land 116,966 408,582 360,831 238,088 Renovation of Traditional Water bodies 39,067 236,166 162,736 92,519

Environmental and socio-economic Services: NR conservation &

Socio-Economic Benefits from NREGA Works

Water conservation & harvesting

• Groundwater recharge
• Reduced water erosion
• Irrigation availability
• Sustained livelihoods

Irrigation

• Irrigation water availability
• Improved agricultural crop yields, sustained yields
• Secured livelihoods

Land development

• Reduced soil erosion, hence improved soil quality
• Improved / sustained agricultural yields
• Agricultural productivity

Drought Proofing - Afforestation

• Fuelwood and fodder availability
• Biodiversity conservation
• Erosion control and soil quality improvement
• Flood control

Renovation of traditional water bodies

• Ground water recharge, soil fertility

improvement, increased crop productivity

Environmental Services from NREGA

Local ES

1. Soil fertility improvement 2. Groundwater recharge 3. Increased irrigation water availability 4. Increased drinking water availability 5. Soil & water conservation 6. Increased grass, fuelwood, NTFP availability 7. Erosion & Flood control

Regional / Global ES

• 1. Carbon Sequestration
• 2. Biodiversity

conservation

• 3. Improved adaptive

capacity

• 4. Vulnerability

reduction to current climate risks

Approach for assessment of Environmental Services

Desilting of water storage bodies

• Loss of vegetation cover, over grazing and inappropriate

cultivation practices in the catchment – leads to soil erosion and silting – loss of water storage capacity

• Reduction of ground water recharge

– due to silt pan formation

• Desilting activity involves removal of silt from

the water body using human labour

• Farmers are encouraged to collect the silt and

apply to crop fields to improve soil fertility

– The tanks are largely used as percolation tanks

Environmental services from desilting: indicators and methods

Environmental services Indicators of environmental service and units Methods of estimation Increased water availability Groundwater level in bore wells (meters water level) PRA and hydrological measurements Area irrigated (hectares) PRA and secondary data Water storage capacity (cubic meter) Hydrological modeling Groundwater recharge Groundwater level in bore wells (meters water level) PRA and hydrological measurements Water percolation (cubic meter) Hydrological modeling Increased and stable crop yields Soil fertility (percent organic matter, silt and clay percent, nitrogen in kg/ha) Soil sampling and laboratory analysis Changes in crop yield (percent) PRA

Impacts on groundwater level and area irrigated – pre and post NREGA

Depth of borewells

Changes in soil organic carbon of cropland soils with silt application

In all 6 villages silt was removed and transported In 5 of the villages silt was applied to cropland

Vulnerability Climate Risks Assessment

• 1. Water vulnerability

index

– changes in groundwater level (m) – area irrigated (ha) – irrigation availability (days/y) – storage capacity of the water body (cubic meter)

• 2. Agriculture vulnerability

index

– area irrigated (ha) – irrigation availability (days/y) – soil fertility index (OC and NPK) – groundwater level (m)

• 3. Livelihood

vulnerability index

– work availability during summer – changes in wage income – financial investment under NREGA at the village level

• 4. Overall vulnerability

index

– linear aggregation of

• Water
• agriculture and
• livelihood indices

Vulnerability Reduction; different indices- water, Agric., Livelihood

9.1 8.3 3.0 7.1 6.3 0.2 0.0 4.0 8.0 12.0

Water Agriculture Livelihood

Dharmapura

4.7 4.5 3.0 4.7 4.4 1.0 0.0 4.0 8.0 12.0

Water Agriculture Livelihood

Gowdanahalli

11.9 11.4 3.0 2.4 2.2 0.4 0.0 4.0 8.0 12.0

Water Agriculture Livelihood

Kandikere

11.0 10.6 3.0 5.9 5.4 0.0 0.0 4.0 8.0 12.0

Water Agriculture Livelihood

Koverahatti

Bars represent Pre and post NRGEA respectively

0.7 0.8 0.2 0.5 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Dharmapura Gowdanahalli Kandikere Koverahatti

Pre NREGA Post NREGA

Overall Vulnerability Reduction – Pre and post NREGA

Conclusions from NREGA - Chitradurga Study

• The study demonstrated the potential of

Employment Focused NREGA activities to provide environmental services

– Increased ground water percolation & recharge – Enhanced water storage in water bodies – Increase in soil fertility – Reclamation of degraded lands – Carbon sequestration

• Reduce vulnerability of production systems and

livelihoods

– Improved Water supply, soil fertility improvement,

Conclusions

• 1. Rural Employment programs aimed at

Natural Resources (soil, water, forests, grassland) contribute

– Generation of Env Services + Conservation / Regeneration of NR + Adaptation to CV / CC – Sustain water, Agric production, livelihood

• 2. Need for convergence of Empl Scemes with

NR conservation

• National level at the Ministry level
• Village level – technical capacity
• 3. Adaptation current climate risks – also

enhances Adaptation to future CC

Watershed program; Mitigation and Adaptation Synergy

National Watershed Development Programme

Ministry of Rural Development has administered 3 area-based watershed programmes for development of wastelands/degraded lands namely Drought Prone Areas Programmes (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP)

• No. of project

sanctioned

Area covered (in million ha.)

Total funds released by Centre (Rs. in crores) DDAP 27439

13.0

2837.81 DDP 15746

7.8

2103.23 IWDP 1877

10.7

2797.56

Grand Total 45062

32.3

7738.60

Details of projects sanctioned and funds released from 1995-96 to 2007-2008

Watershed program – CC/CV Adaptation; Vulnerability Reduction

ACTIVITIES

– Water conservation – Land development – Soil conservation – Agro-forestry – Diversified agriculture and livelihoods – Afforestation – Horticultural crops

LEAD TO

• Reduced vulnerability
• Enhanced - adaptive

capacity of the poor

THROUGH

• Land development –

improved soil water holding capacity, reduced soil erosion

• Water conservation –

Potential for dry season crops, increased irrigation

• Multiple crops & tree crops –

to cope with the fluctuating rains

• Employment security –

Forestry & horticultural incomes, income during non- agricultural seasons

Watershed program - Mitigation & Green jobs

Climate change mitigation

 Soil carbon enhancement



Mulching



Organic matter addition

 crop residue turnover  Multiple cropping

 Carbon sequestration thro

tree planting



Afforestation of catchment area



Agro-forestry on crop lands



Horticulture on crop lands

Creation of Green jobs thro watershed activities

 Desilting of tanks  Renovation of traditional water bodies  Afforestation of catchment area  Land development  Water conservation  Provision of irrigation facility  Agro-forestry

Mitigation – Adaptation Synergy – in Watershed

• 1. Watershed provides excellent opportunity

for promoting M&A synergy

• 2. Multiple environmental and socio-economic

benefits

• 3. Cost – effectiveness of investment due to

multiple benefits

• 4. Political acceptability of both M&A strategy

to address climate change

• 5. Attractiveness to Donor agencies

CC Impact & Adaptation Strategy

• Need for research for assessing the CC impacts at district /

watershed level to assist decision making – Water resources, droughts, floods, crop yields, forest distribution and fire, biodiversity, fisheries..

• Need to identify and rank vulnerable;

– Sectors, regions / areas /communities….

• Study the adequacy of current traditional adaptation

practices to droughts, floods, forest fires, etc

• Need to develop adaptation practices and strategies
• Mainstream CC adaptation in developmental progs:

– Agricultural development, forest management, watershed development, fisheries development, irrigation projects, drought relief programs, etc – What incremental actions needed

• Develop and implement pilot adaptation projects