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Integrating Livestock Initiatives with Watershed
Development
 There
is a general tendency to look at livestock as an
income generation activity or a measure of equity
for landless or as an activity for the SHGs.
Distributing/ financing livestock assets is the
underlying program design. Some watershed programs
consider livestock issues as Watershed Plus. It was
observed in the Process Evaluation studies of WASSAN
that the only interventions taken up at large in the
mainstream watershed development programs are
distribution of livestock assets (or credit) and
distribution of fodder seeds. These perspectives are
limiting the scope of the watershed program itself.
Livestock is at the core of the natural resources
providing ecosystem services. As a part of the
production system it makes demands on the natural
resources and also generates products for
consumption and income. While the land distribution
is skewed, livestock provides an opportunity for the
poor to create asset incomes contributing to poverty
reduction. All these functions of livestock are very
much integral to the core of the watershed
development objectives.
Required perspective
shift
Livestock should not be seen as a source
supplementary income or income generation but should
be seen as an important component of the total
natural resource based production system and related
livelihoods.
Livestock should be seen
-
As an integral part of the natural resources making
demands on land use and getting affected by land use
changes
-
As
a major livelihood assets of a large number of
people, particularly the poor
-
As a production system contributing to the economy
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