The Hindu Business Line : Watershed project to be expanded to more villages of Rajasthan, M.P.

THE watershed development project in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, supported by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, will now be expanded to more than 100 villages over the next three years.

In the first two years, the project has been implemented in 13 villages in Guna and Dewas districts of Madhya Pradesh and Bundi district of Rajasthan.

A decision to expand the project to new villages has been taken at the project's second annual review and planning workshop hosted by Icrisat at Patancheru here.

Apart from other donors, SDTT and Icrisat provided $1 million each for the project that began in 2002 by a consortium of national and international research institutions, Government, universities, non-government organisations, farmers' groups and self-help groups.

According to an Icrisat press release, the members of the consortium include the Hyderabad-based Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Central Arid Zone Research Institute of Jodhpur, the National Remote Sensing Agency, Maharana Pratap University for Agriculture and Technology of Udaipur, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya of Indore, the State governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, BAIF, Samaj Pragati Sahayog of Dewas and farmers groups in watershed villages.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA) and the Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction (VIKSAT) are the new partners in the consortium. While the CII would explore support from the industry for watershed development and also scaling up of the concept to other areas, the CDSA would advise the consortium partners on sociological and developmental planning aspects during project implementation. On the other hand, VIKSAT, which coordinates a similar consortium-based project in Gujarat, would help in cross-fertilisation of new ideas between consortia, the press release stated.

Apart from watershed development, Icrisat stated, the consortium partners would work to propagate crop diversification through short-duration pigeonpea in Bundi, Kota, Jhalawar, Banswara and Sawai Madhavapur districts of Rajasthan.

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