Investing in Livestock Development in Water-Scarce Semi-Arid Watersheds: Technological, Institutional and Policy Dimensions

Watershed Development Programmes (WDPs) in India were conceived as tools for correcting the regional imbalances in agricultural development created by Green Revolution, through investments in soil and water conservation (SWC) and natural resource management (NRM) in rainfed areas. Though the overall impact of WDPs has been positive and significant, with increase in physical and economic access to groundwater, landless and marginal households hardly benefited from watershed development. Recent evidence points out that in many watersheds inequities increased, since for non-land owning and -well owning households access to drinking water, grazing lands and other natural resources decreased. This paper is based on a research project carried out by the International water Management Institute, South Asia in India during 2002-2005, which attempted to document and understand the livestock-environment-livelihood interactions in watersheds in semi-arid India. This paper elucidates the important role of livestock in livelihoods of communities in water-scarce watersheds and demonstrates that unless livestock interventions are consciously and astutely planned, with due consideration to protecting livelihoods and environment, WDPs might not result in equitable benefits. Limited access to livestock-related institutional services and social organization does not contribute to sustainable livestock-livelihood-environment interactions. The paper highlights the major role that technological and institutional factors play in bringing about the livestock development that would impact positively on livelihoods and the accompanying policy changes that are necessary.watersheds, livestock, environment, livelihoods, markets, services, Livestock Production/Industries, O13, Q56, Z13,

Gender and innovation processes in rice-based systems

This GRiSP report is based on the perspectives of women and men from three rice-growing villages in the Nueva Ecija province of the Philippines

Strengthening partnerships and networks in agricultural research for development.

Partnerships have been and are a cornerstone of ILRI’s implementation framework. ILRI has a partnership strategy to guide the implementation of ILRI’s activities. This module complements this strategy in terms of preparing our collaborating partners to effectively participate and contribute to multidisciplinary, multistakeholder interventions. This module is expected to have multiple uses. One, as a source material for trainings that could be organized at different levels, and two, as reference document to upgrade the knowledge of staff of partner organizations about partnership design and management in R4D projects. The design of the learning module includes guidance notes for potential trainers including learning purpose and objectives for each session; description of the session structure (including methods, techniques, time allocation to each activity); power point presentations, presentation text, exercise handouts, worksheets, and additional reading material. There are also evaluation forms and recommended bibliography for use by future facilitators. The session modules can each be downloaded separately by search in this repository