Reviving Water, Restoring Landscapes: Livelihoods Improved After Six Years of Measurable Change in Central India
ICRISAT’s study, “Restoration potential of degraded landscapes for strengthening rural livelihoods,” presents compelling evidence from Bundelkhand, India, tracking watershed-driven transformation and showing how Pura Birdha village moved from drought-stricken conditions to water surplus.
Once regarded as one of India’s most drought-prone regions, Bundelkhand is now emerging as a model for watershed transformation through ICRISAT’s interventions. Groundwater levels have risen by 4–6 meters, and cultivated land has expanded more than twentyfold, drawing growing national and global interest for replication.
To aid replication, it is critical to understand the tipping points and how progress has unfolded over time since the interventions began in 2018. This study unpacks the timeline of change, directly linking hydrological improvements to gains in agricultural productivity at the landscape scale.
Published in Elsevier’s Cleaner Food Systems, the study tracks what happens above and below the ground through watershed interventions in Bundelkhand.
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