How can we intervene and improve the resources and help in the development of sustainable resource use system?
Since 1994 several rehabilitation efforts have been under way. About 7-10 % of the watershed area is badly eroded leaving behind badlands that are deeply gullied. These areas represent the only land in the watershed that is currently not producing biomass. At the same time these areas contribute about 1/3 of the annual sediment load in the rivers. These sediments have low nutrient content and plug up vital irrigation systems that serve the most productive land in the lowland. Hence, rehabilitation of these degraded lands is critical. However, efforts to stabilize the remaining soils and to rebuild soil fertility are enormous and at least initially the returns are marginal at best. It is in these areas that we have focused our effort, because the farmers do not have sufficient resources or time toaddress the problems at these sites and, without external help, the short term returns are too small to be of much benefit to the farmers. Three large degraded areas were chosen as demonstratio
