Soil and Water Conservation
Undertaken with support from government agencies, AKRSP has operated a number of programmes dedicated to the sustainable management of soil and water, the main natural resources available to India’s rural populations. Its soil and water conservation measures have improved over 40,000 hectares of land. Interventions encompass the formation of watershed groups and participatory irrigation management in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; dozens of irrigation and ground water recharge systems; promotion of micro-irrigation devices like drips and sprinklers; river basin management, including the construction of over 1000 check dams and irrigation tanks; and other watershed management measures.
AKRSP was selected as Project Implementation Agency for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Madhya Pradesh, which ensures that employment generation schemes lead to productive assets. Distress migration has been reduced by 70-90 percent for farmers and by 30-50 percent for agricultural labourers, according to the research study carried out by the international water management institute titled “Agrarian Transformation Among Tribals: From Migrants to Farmer Irrigators”. AKRSP was the first NGO to implement Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) in Gujarat. Today, there is a PIM Act in Gujarat. Even AKRSP’s watershed approach has been recognised by Government through a citation of AKRSP in the revised national watershed guidelines.