Seldom are the structures maintained, and so conservation works rapidly deteriorate, causing gullies and accelerating erosion. Sometimes successes are reversed almost immediately. The technologies were inappropriate and the local people were expected to bear all the costs of maintenance. Contour bunds developed for large-scale farming in the USA are widely applied in soil and water conservation programmes in India. These bunds leave corners in some fields, so that there is a risk of losing the piece of land to a neighbour.
Contour farming is only suitable where the holding is large and tractors are available.
It is an area noted in the 1970s and 1980s by various 'expert' missions as having 'massive soil erosion' and 'the world's worst soil erosion'. Such attitudes are a critical constraint for many current soil conservation programmes. Local people come to expect direct payment of other incentives for conservation. Key findings of New Horizons cases Despite differences in the cultural and political context of the case studies of joint watershed management presented at the international workshop, there were important common elements. These cases are as yet only small successes.