Watershed Development activities involves management of natural resources like soil and water along with various agronomical interventions with a focus on livelihoods improvement where communities are involved in participatory planning and implementation of watershed programmes. Watershed development projects under various schemes such as, Integrated Wasteland Development Projects (IWDP), and Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), National Watershed Development Project in Rain-fed Areas (NWDPRA), River Valley Project (RVP) are in operation in the State. Another externally aided project funded by DFID namely Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project (WORLP) is currently in operation in Bolangir and Nuapada districts which is subsequently to expand to cover the drought prone areas of Baragarh and Kalahandi districts. In order to coordinate the activities for long term sustainability of watershed development programmes, the State Government has created Orissa Watershed Development Mission since 2000-2001 under the Administrative Department of Agriculture which is Registered Society responsible to plan, monitor, supervise and implement all watershed programmes in a coordinated manner in the State. So far 2594 numbers of micro-watersheds are under implementation covering an area of 12.71 lakh hectares under the schemes IWDP, DPAP,EAS (W/S), ACA (W/S) and WORLP.

Since 2000-01, the Mission is giving emphasis on using participatory rural appraisal tools and techniques following building block approach to promote community participation in planning and implementation of watershed programmes. As a part of the programme ,17024 Self Help Groups have so far been promoted in various watershed areas enrolling about 209742 members. All these Self Help Groups have mobilized a saving of Rs.7.65 crores. Similarly for maintenance of community assets created under watershed programmes, 29606 User Groups have been formed who have contributed Rs. 7.72 crores to the Watershed Development Fund of the respect villages.