MADURAI: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is providing funds to the tune of Rs. 6 crore for implementing 10 watershed projects involving about 10,000 hectares in Madurai.
Being implemented under its Water Shed Development Fund, which was established in 1999 with corpus of Rs. 200 crore, the project has been taken up in seven of the 13 blocks in the district, according to its Assistant General Manager R. Srinivasan.
The aim of the five-year project is to create an income-generating process for the landless and the poor, especially to SC/STs and OBCs, apart from conserving water by using soil conservation measures.
It involves creating huge percolation ponds in government lands, similar but smaller-sized farm ponds in patta lands, installing field bunds, deepening of tanks, desilting of supply/delivery channels, creating ‘stone gully plug’ to arrest water flow and digging water absorption trenches.
The selected areas, Mr. Srinivasan said, must fulfil the criteria of not receiving more than 800 mm of rainfall per annum, total irrigated area should be less than 30 per cent and where degraded waste land was available in plenty.
Every district has a selection committee to identity the land. It is chaired by the Collector and comprises the Assistant General Manager of the NABARD, Joint Director of Agriculture Department, Project Officer of District Rural Development Agency and Executive Engineer of Agriculture Engineering Department.
Though the selection of the land is done by Government agencies, the actual implementation is done by the villagers and non-governmental organisations roped in for the purpose. Training is given at NABARD’s Water Shed Training Centre at Nilakottai for the NGOs and villagers, he said. “This project has successfully reduced migration of labour, as it provides assured work for five years, changed large tracts of fallow lands into cultivated ones, protected and preserved water bodies,” he added.
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