Evaluating social impacts of watershed development in India

Watershed development is an important policy instrument for rural development in many developing countries. However, evidence of the distribution and magnitude of social impacts attributable to watershed interventions is often ambiguous. This study uses a propensity score matching method to estimate social impacts on gross agricultural returns and domestic water collection times from treatment and control watershed data in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. Results illustrate how matching methods can objectively estimate social impacts of watershed development across intended beneficiary groups. This promotes improved understanding of the performance of current watershed projects and provides inputs for the appropriate design of future rural development interventions.