Odisha aims to cover 705 Micro watersheds under REWARD projects

Bhubaneswar : In a major step towards enhancing famers’ income  in watershed and adjacent areas the State Government set target to cover  a total of around 5.26 lakh hectors of land spreading over 705  micro-watersheds under the proposed REWARD projects.

In February this year, the State Cabinet under the chairmanship of  Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had approved a proposal to implement  ‘REWARD’ project with an expenditure of Rs 500 crore. The modalities and  contours of REWARD were discussed at a high-level meeting held at Lok  Seva Bhavan recently.

Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra who chaired the meeting  said, “Focus on enhancing productivity and opening up new sustainable  livelihood opportunities for increasing the net income of the farmers.  He also directed to treat the watershed and adjacent areas on saturation  mode through the adoption of new technology and data-driven approaches.

Secretary Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Department, Suresh  Kumar Basista outlined the issues at the meeting. “The programme would  positively promote resource-efficient growth in watershed areas,  investment in human capital and developing networks of scientific and  technical partners,” Basista said.

It was decided to treat around 1.15 lakh hectares of land under 152  micro-watershed units in five pilot districts – Koraput, Nayagarh,  Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Sambalpur in the first phase. Besides, around  4.11 lakh hectares of land in seven districts covering about 533  micro-watershed units would be covered both for pilot intervention and  intensive agriculture.

The expected ecological outcomes of the project include prevention of  soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting  and recharging of the ground water table. This would enable  multi-cropping and adoption of diverse agro-based activities for  providing sustainable livelihoods to the people in the watershed area.

The Chief Secretary has directed to complete designing of the project  by end of July, 2021. He directed to appoint a credible professional  agency for continuous assessment and evaluation of the outcomes of the  project.

Pritee Kumar of the World Bank with her team presented the proposed  intervention and outcome details of the programme. “Odisha is a  forerunner in watershed management. The proposed programme would be  helpful in making the watersheds – climate-resilient through land  resource inventory, land use planning, and precision farming in the  context of the specific agro-ecological conditions,” said Kumar.

The project would directly address key strategic actions around  increasing farmers’ incomes, more crop per drop of water, water to every  plot and soil health. It would also focus on promotion of  entrepreneurship through technical and financial support.
Discussions at the meeting revealed that Odisha was one of three States  to have planned for such an ambitious programme, apart from Karnataka  and Andhra Pradesh. The programme would generally be implemented over a  period of six years.

The approximate cost of the project was estimated around USD 211.57  million out of which State and Central Government would provide around  USD 162.57 million through the convergence of different schemes, and,  International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) of the  World Bank would provide USD 49 million as loan, reports said.

Among others, Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena, Additional  Chief Secretary and Production Commissioner Raj Kumar Sharma, Principal  Secretary Finance Ashok Kumar Meena, and senior officials were present  at the meeting held over video conferencing.