Socio-economic and Conservation Measures in Ravine-affected Areas of Gujarat: Policy Interventions

Most of the agricultural land resources are under the threat of degradation. The lack of scientific management practices, socio-economic issues, and non-implementation of policy initiatives are considered to be the major causes of degradation of resources. Further, the stakeholders are economically not in a position to invest in conservation technologies, which are too costly to afford for resource-poor stakeholders. In fact, poor economic condition of the stakeholders inhabiting ravine ecosystem prohibits them to make large-scale investments on the conservation of these resources. Since we have to meet the needs of ever-increasing population for food and other livelihood requirements, therefore, society can ill afford to leave any piece of land including degraded ravines unattended due to environmental benefits accrued from this ecosystem. A productive utilization of such degraded lands is called for with conservation of natural resources as the major objective. This warrants investment on rehabilitation of degraded eroded lands in general and ravines in particular. During successive plan periods beginning the Second Five-Year Plan, funds have been allocated by governments for land development including resource conservation under various government schemes. These have benefited some areas however; the wider impact of these investments is yet to be observed on the ground. One of the reasons, among many, has been reported to be the slow pace of adoption of conservation measures by marginal and small farmers who are in majority in ravines. While policy interventions to address the problem of degraded land have largely been a part of broader programs and schemes of the government, the present study builds a case for policy interventions specific to ravine ecosystem.