ABSTRACT
Governments in developing countries like India actively pursue various forms of policy instruments like the implementation of development programs to achieve desired economic growth. The objective of such development programs is to transform a set of resources into desired results for upscaling. This is particularly so for the policies designed to alleviate rural poverty and foster economic growth in the agricultural sector of developing economies. For achieving these goals, understanding the nature, objectives, and scope of the development program and the responsiveness of target groups is imperative for all those engaged in developmental work including staff and policy makers. This applies to watershed program staff engaged in the development and implementation of technologies for enhancing food, fodder, and fuel productivity and ensure livelihood security for those below the poverty line. Thus, a systematic feedback from the project areas and beneficiaries is of crucial importance. Evaluation and monitoring studies provide the needed information for upscaling the interventions by implementing agencies. The objective of this chapter is to discuss in detail various methodologies employed in evaluating the performances of the watershed development programs in India. Given the significance of the watershed programs in meeting the challenges especially in rainfed agriculture, it is important to see how the issues facing the watershed evaluation could be addressed through the review of the different evaluation criteria and methods that have been field tested already. This chapter aims to derive the messages from the past studies focusing on the measurement methodologies in watershed evaluation. The chapter is organized into four sections. Section 1 deals with the introduction and an overview of the watershed development programs in India, section 2 outlines the various approaches used in watershed evaluation, section 3 applies the various methodologies with examples from the fields, and section 4 gives the conclusions and policy recommendations.
