Why Farmers in the Indian Semi-Arid Tropics Reject
 Recommended Soil and Water Conservation Practices

Both-soil conservation professionals and farmers are aware of erosion and the need to control it,
but their perceptions of the problems and approaches to solving them often diverge. For future
research and development to be effective, these differences must be understood and reconciled.
In this section we first compare the perceptions that have guided indigenous and recommended
bunding systems, then describe the technologies, and finally explain why farmers will not accept
recommended contour bunding methods.


Farmers Have Multiple Objectives

Indigenous and recommended SWC bunding designs have evolved on the basis of different
objectives. Soil conservation programmes in India traditionally have had a single objective: to
design and introduce technologies that conserve the maximum amount of soil and water. Even
in integrated watershed programmes, there is little coordination among line departments
concerned with different tasks, and soil conservation is undertaken in isolation (Vaidyanathan,
1991). Farmers, on the other hand, have multiple objectives, of which soil conservation is only
one.

For example, bunds demarcate property lines and protect against encroachment by a neighbor.
They are often lined with thorny barriers to keep trespassers out. Or they may be lined with
vegetation to produce valuable commodities such as fuel, fodder or fruit. They may create new
fields or protected environments, reducing the high risk that characterizes rainfed agriculture in
the SAT. To make field operations convenient, they are usually built in straight lines. The
resulting demarcations also facilitate partitioning land for inheritance. Farmers are most likely
to accept improved SWC techniques that are consistent with as many of these objectives as
possible. As a result, the best soil conservation practice from a farmer's perspective is not
necessarily that which conserves the most soil.

This discrepancy in objectives leads to two important differences in SWC technologies. First,
recommended SWC structures are positioned on the contour while indigenous technologies are
boundary-based. Second, recommended SWC practices emphasize long term productivity
benefits from maximum protection of the soil, while farmers' practices emphasize short term
productivity as well as conservation. Farmers try to achieve this by concentrating soil rather than
simply conserving it, as we will explain.


Dryland Farmers Reject Contour Bunds

Soil scientists and SWC engineers recommend that bunds be located on the contour so that the
pressure of runoff water is spread evenly. The bunds reduce runoff, increase infiltration, and
divert excess runoff to a central waterway. SWC programmes have introduced continuous
contour bunding covering an entire watershed.5 Figure 2 displays the basic design of contour and
graded bunding systems.


GATEKEEPER SERIES NO. SA34