NEW DELHI, TRINET NEWS, September 23: A national-level technical committee meeting was held at the NASC Complex in New Delhi under the auspices of the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) with the objective of making watershed development and management systems in the country more efficient.
The meeting was organized as part of the REWARD (Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development) program under the NRAA, which falls under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Chaired by NRAA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Chandrasekhar Kumar, the meeting was attended by ICAR DDG (NRM) Dr. A.K. Naik, Joint Secretary of the Department of Land Resources Nitin Khade, and Odisha Director Dr. Subrat Panda, among others. Karnataka WDD Commissioner Upendra Pratap Singh participated via video conference.
Around 45 attendees participated in the meeting, including representatives from the state-level nodal agencies of Odisha and Karnataka, ICAR institutions, agricultural universities, IITs, NGOs, consortium partners, and REWARD project teams.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Chandrasekhar Kumar advised that the draft National Technical Guidelines (NTG), being formulated based on field-level data collected through the REWARD program, should be comprehensively validated. He urged Odisha and Karnataka to share their watershed data as well as Decision Support System information with relevant stakeholders.
Dr. A.K. Naik stated that coordinating Land Resource Inventory (LRI) and hydrology aspects is essential to make watershed planning more scientific. He suggested clearly incorporating research methodologies into the national technical guidelines and expediting the development of related web portals.
Joint Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Nitin Khade, stated that the duration for preparing Detailed Project Reports (DPR) could be considered for reduction from six months to three months to allocate more time for project implementation. He also suggested incorporating inter-departmental and inter-sectoral coordination into the guidelines.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Susama Sudhishri presented the implementation report of the decisions taken during the previous national-level technical committee meeting. She explained the modifications and additions made in the second draft of the National Technical Guidelines.
Officials noted that the sharing of data collected by Odisha and Karnataka with the NRAA and consortium partners would enhance the efficiency of analysis, report preparation, and guideline validation.
The currently drafted National Technical Guidelines are set to become crucial for future watershed development programs across the country. In particular, they will serve as primary guidelines for programs implemented under the Watershed Development Component – Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) 3.0.
