High-level meeting on watershed development and management reviewed under the aegis of the National Rainfed Area Authority. National technical guidelines for future watershed plans. New Delhi, Trinet News, September 23: With the objective of making watershed development and management systems in the country more efficient, 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).
Organized as part of the REWARD (Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development) program under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the meeting was chaired by NRAA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Chandrasekhar Kumar. 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, participated. Karnataka WDD Commissioner Upendra Pratap Singh attended the meeting online.
Around 45 people attended the meeting, including representatives of state-level nodal agencies of Odisha and Karnataka, ICAR institutions, agricultural universities, IITs, non-governmental organizations, consortium partners, and REWARD project teams. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Chandrasekhar Kumar suggested that the elements in the draft National Technical Guidelines (NTG), being prepared based on field-level data collected through the REWARD program, should be comprehensively validated. He requested Odisha and Karnataka states to share watershed data along with Decision Support System information with relevant stakeholders.
Dr. A.K. Naik stated that coordinating Land Resource Inventory (LRI) and hydrology aspects is necessary to make watershed planning more scientific. He suggested clearly incorporating research methodologies into the national technical guidelines and developing relevant web portals promptly. Joint Secretary of the Department of Land Resources Nitin Khade stated that the duration for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) could be considered for reduction from six months to three months to allocate more time for project implementation. He also suggested including inter-departmental and inter-sectoral coordination in the guidelines.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Susama Sudhishri presented the implementation report of the decisions taken in the previous national-level technical committee meeting. She explained the changes and additions made in the second draft of the national technical guidelines.
Officials stated that providing data collected by Odisha and Karnataka states to NRAA and consortium partners would make analysis, report preparation, and guideline validation more efficient. The national technical guidelines currently being formulated are going to be 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 3.0.
