Centre asks states to speed up watershed development to help farmers

New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS) The Centre has urged states to effectively and speedily utilise funds allocated to strengthen science-based watershed development programmes for resilient agriculture to benefit farmers and rural communities, an official statement said on Thursday.

Speaking at the national-level consultation meeting on the draft national technical guidelines (NTG) for improved watershed management in Nagpur, Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Dilip Kumar, emphasised the importance of identifying a set of essential parameters to be followed uniformly by all states, while allowing flexibility in adopting other desirable parameters according to local requirements.

He called for robust baseline data and comprehensive impact assessments to evaluate the outcomes of WDC-PMKSY 2.0, identify implementation gaps and draw lessons for the effective design and execution of WDC-PMKSY 3.0.

Kumar further stressed that watershed development should remain focused on tangible outcomes for farmers and communities. Scientific interventions must translate into practical, location-specific solutions that can be effectively implemented at the grassroots level. He also called for recognising and motivating well-performing states and field-level officers to strengthen institutional commitment and improve implementation.

The two-day consultation session is being held under World Bank-assisted “Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD). ”

The officials also highlighted the need to accelerate project implementation under WDC PMKSY 2.0. while noting that project timelines had progressively been reduced from seven years under WDC-PMKSY 1.0 to five years under WDC-PMKSY 2.0.

The participants also underscored the importance of community participation, with the need to strengthen Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), User Groups ( UGs), Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and other community-based institutions for livelihood enhancement, value addition and better market access. The need to strengthen community ownership and participation in the maintenance of water harvesting structures beyond the project period was also underlined.

The consultation saw participation from representatives of the Department of Land Resources, NRAA, World Bank, REWARD project States of Odisha and Karnataka, NGOs, consortium partners including ICRISAT, NABARD and various ICAR institutes.

The consultation provides a platform for detailed technical deliberations and knowledge sharing on LRI, hydrological assessments, GIS and remote sensing applications, Decision Support Systems, community participation, livelihood interventions and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

–IANS

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