The study was conducted during 2011 – 2012 in six distressed (debt stressed) districts in Vidarbha region of
Maharashtra and one watershed cluster was selected from each district such as (i) Asoli watershed cluster in
Ghatanji taluka of Yeovatmal district, (ii) Berala-Yeota watershed cluster falls in Chikhali taluka of Buldana
district, (iii) Dharmapur watershed cluster situated in the Nandgaon Khandeshwar taluka of Amrawati district,
(iv) Dhudhalam watershed cluster falls in Block and district of Akola, (v) Mothegaon watershed Cluster is
located in Risod Tahsil of Washim district and (vi) Dahegaon watershed cluster situated in Arwi taluka of
Wardha district (Fig.1). The term watershed cluster was used in the study, which can be described as “an area comprised of two or more micro watersheds at a single place adjacent to each other having different drainage
channels”. These watershed clusters were selected purposively because NABARD Supported Holistic Watershed
Development Programme was launched on 2nd October, 2006 in these six districts of Vidarbha region in
Maharashtra.The study was taken with the main objective to find out the extent of people’s participation in
government sponsored watershed development programmes in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. The respondents
were selected from the beneficiary farmers of watershed clusters with the help of stratified proportionate random
sampling plan. Twenty respondent farmers selected from each watershed cluster and thus, in total 120 respondent
farmers were selected for the study from six watershed clusters.