Environmental Migration from Rainfed Regions in India Forced by Poor Returns from Watershed Development Projects
In India, watershed-based development has been the strategy for growth and sustainability of agriculture in semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions popularly termed rainfed agro-ecological regions (Fig. 9.1) (Velayutham et al. 1999). The strategy has been dev
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Environmental Migration from Rainfed Regions in India Forced by Poor Returns from Watershed Development Projects Kaushalya Ramachandran and Padmaja Susarla
1 Introduction In India, watershed-based development has been the strategy for growth and sustainability of agriculture in semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions popularly termed rainfed agro-ecological regions (Fig. 9.1) (Velayutham et al. 1999). The strategy has been developed to ensure and enhance rural livelihoods, management of natural resources and conservation of soil and water that attracted large public investments in the last 30 years. More investments have been assigned for the same purpose in recent times to ensure sustainable development in rainfed areas. Rainfed agro-ecological regions extend over 76.74 million ha out of the total geographical area of 90.4 million ha in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu in Peninsular India. According to the Census of India – 2001, over 71 million persons are involved in agriculture and related activities in these four States alone, which contribute a large amount of food grain, pulses and oilseeds to the national food stock. As perennial irrigation sources are lacking and mean annual rainfall ranges from 300 to 800 mm (occurring on 52–55 rainy days) and is also associated with thunderstorms that induce massive soil erosion and land degradation, a watershed-based development programme has been adopted as the major development initiative for improving rural livelihoods in the region (Katyal et al. 1996). A relentless increase in population and the national priority of achieving food grain self-sufficiency proscribes a growth rate of 4.0–4.5% annually (Planning Commission, 2007) compared with the current rate of growth of 2.72% (MoF, 2008). This increase seems insurmountable in view of the falling public investment coupled with cost escalations, unhindered land degradation and competing demand for land for other uses. Even popular political gimmicks, such as subsidised or free electric power for the farming sector and subsidies for other agricultural inputs are failing to bind the farmers to their land, resulting in an exodus from rural areas to neighbouring urban areas. K. Ramachandran (*) Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India e-mail: [email protected] T. Afifi, J. Ja¨ger (eds.), Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-12416-7_9, Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
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Fig. 9.1 Extent of rainfed agri-ecosystem in peninsular India (source: Velayutham et al., 1999)
This is shown by the data on migration of rural people in the region. In Andhra Pradesh migration has increased since 1971. This is evident within and from outside the state. There has been a marked increase in the rate of migration since 2001. In 1991, 20% of the rural population in the state migrated, and by 2001 this figure increased by 1%, with the actual number of persons who migrated being over 16.02 millio
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