This study contributes to the discussion on the effect of government versus NGO activities and is one of the first to compare different intervention strategies. Farmers cultivating the less-endowed dryland (not-irrigated) areas in India's risk-prone, semi-arid tropics, are confronted with the whims of nature like the unreliable monsoon and infertile soils. Most of them are resource-poor, owning small plots of land and having limited access to water for irrigation and capital, and cultivate low yielding crops. Hence, most farming households are not self-sufficient. The expectation that they would benefit from Green Revolution innovations, hardly materialized. In fact, having neglected dryland agriculture in its semi-arid tropics for decades, the Indian government implemented special projects to ameliorate the plight of these farmers only in the 1980s. In addition, various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) did the same. The present study compares the effects of two such projects: the World Bank financed Maheswaram watershed project implemented by the Andhra Pradesh government and a project implemented by a well-known NGO in that State, AWARE. Essential reading for the aid community, economists, agricultural planners, and anyone concerned with the future of Indian farmers.