Odisha Chief Secretary GC Pati along with Vinod Kumar, Director of IGFNA, Dehradun visited the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun on Monday. He showed his interest for sending the officers for attending four months certificate course on ‘Soil and Water Conservation and Watershed Management’ at the institute.
During interaction with scientists, major focus was given on realistic and scientific watershed planning, de-risk the climate change, augmenting long term gain, producing more and more from less land.
He said that empirical studies should be conducted for knowing the defects in watershed planning, implementation and after withdrawal of the project from the area. Why watershed plan fails, may be studiedIJ
Vinod Kumar gave attention on active involvement of village people in detailed project report preparation of the watershed. He said that integration of all the components should be ensured for getting the success and fruitful gain in through watershed management. PK Mishra, Director, Indian Institute of Soil & water Conservation IIISWC) highlighted the achievements of the institute specially soil & water conservation initiatives and successful watershed cases. His concern was to save soil and water without any adverse effect on environment.
M Madhu, Head, IISWC, Research Centre, Koraput (Odisha) made presentation on soil & water conservation works carried over at different locations of the State. low cost water harvesting technique was also highlighted for Jhola land. Different crop combinations for resource conservation and enhancing crop productivity and profitability was shared. Special mention was made towards farmers’ participatory action research in addition to technologies for addressing the shifting cultivation problem and issues. Pitcher irrigation was introduced in the area for horticultural crops. Existing Self Help Groups were utilised for organising farmers for natural resources conservation and creating income generating opportunities.
Before formal interaction with the scientists, institute museum was visited by the dignitaries where a lot of interest was shown on bio-engineering structures, agronomical measures, gabion structures and participatory integrated watershed management approach. DR Sena made presentation on ‘Cost Effective Watershed Planning- The State of Art Tools’. He advocated about planning based on baseline information by utilising weather data, soil data base, land use prior to preparation of detailed project report and that influence the planning of appropriate interventions.
During the discussion, NK Sharma, Head (Soils & Agronomy); lakhan Singh, Head (HRD & Social Science); Harsh Mehta, Head (Plant Science); Bl Dhyani; D Mandal; GC Sharma; Charan Singh; BN Ghosh; Er SS Srimali; DV Singh and other scientists were present there.