Management Information System for Watershed Development Programmes in India

Abstract

Improving productivity and incomes in rainfed areas is a major challenge in India and many other parts of the world. A key to achieving this is improving the use of natural resources, particularly land and water which are major constraints in these areas. A major initiative through which this is pursued is watershed development (WSD) programmes which have been taken up under different schemes of the Government of India and the state governments. Since poverty is particularly acute in the rainfed areas, large expenditures are being made on WSD programmes. WSD programmes have gone beyond natural resource management to include production enhancement and enterprise promotion activities in the recent years. A complex institutional hierarchy of government and other agencies is involved in the planning and implementation of WSD programmes. However, WSD projects often have unsatisfactory outcomes and often fall short of their objectives. In numerous cases this has been found to be due to weak institutional arrangements including weak linkages among institutional structures and operational systems leading to high transaction costs, poor participation and poor decision-making. A major reason behind this is poor information flows. The paper develops the design of an effective management information system to improve the performance of WSD programmes. This requires the identification of institutional performance indicators to address the objectives and strategy of WSD programmes. Based on these, elements of a specific information system are outlined which would directly help in more effective problem identification and decision-making. Computers and internet would play a major role and the information system could help enhance the performance of WSD programmes.