Livelihood Security Analysis of IWMP (Integrated Watershed Management Programme) Beneficiaries in Kerala, India

IWMP (Integrated Watershed Management Programme) is a participatory approach for natural resource management and livelihood enhancement for rural development in rainfed tracts of India. The scheme is initially launched by the Government of India in 2009 and made as component of PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana) in 2015. In Kerala, IWMP is executed by the Department of Rural Development. Kerala is the only state where IWMP is being implemented exclusively through the complete involvement of local self government organizations and local population in all stages of watershed development. In this backdrop, the study was conducted in three watersheds representing north, south and central zones of Kerala to analyze the livelihood security of beneficiaries in IWMP during 2022-2023. The livelihood assets pentagon framework proposed by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) is conceptualized for the study. A livelihood security index was computed by compiling five categories of assets, such as human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital. Most of the beneficiaries had medium level of capital assets possession for livelihood creation whereas half of them had medium livelihood security. This was highest in the Mamoodu watershed and not much variation for others was verified by Kruskal-Wallis test. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance exposed that human capital had highly influenced the livelihood security of beneficiaries in Mundyanum watershed and Allanchery padam-Kallan thodu watershed however financial capital had the highest contribution in the Mamoodu watershed.