2. STUDY AREA:
The study area is located in North Maharashtra, which is susceptible to drought. For this case study, the village of Rahud was chosen. It is administratively located in the Nashik district of Maharashtra, India, in the Chandwad Tehsil. It is 71 Km. east of Nashik’s district headquarters and 10 kilometers east of Chandwad. It stretches from latitudes of 20019’31”N to 20022’40”N and longitudes of 74019’20”E to 74015’30”E. (SeeFigure 1 )
Village Nandurtek to the north, village Uswad &Kalamdare to the south, village Chinchave to the east, and town Chandwad to the west surround the village Rahud . From the village’s centre, National Highway No. 3 passes. The settlement ofRahud covers an area of 18.26 Km2 (1826.25 ha). According to the 2011 census, the village of Rahud has a total population of 2677 people. Between 602 m and 991 m, the study area has moderate to high relief. The lowest elevation, 602 meters, found nearRahud ghat in the east, and the highest elevation, 991 meters, found near the hilly area in the west.The research area’s land use/land cover extent reveals that agricultural fallow land, wasteland, and scrubland encompass around 50.63 percent of the total village area. It is consequently critical to assess land and soil resources in order to ensure optimum land utilisation and reclamation for long-term agriculture resource management. (See Table 1 )