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New Delhi: The Secretary of the Department of Land Resources (DoLR), Ajay Tirkey, chaired a comprehensive review of the Implementation Support Mission of the World Bank Assisted Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD) programme, said the Ministry of Rural Development in a statement on Saturday. The meeting aimed to assess the progress made and discuss the plan of action for the next six months.
The REWARD programme is a World Bank-assisted watershed development initiative. It has been actively implemented since 2021 and is scheduled to continue until 2026, said the statement. Its primary objective is to strengthen the capacities of national and state institutions in adopting improved watershed management practices to enhance farmers' resilience and support value chains in selected watersheds across participating states, it added.
The programme which focuses on introducing modern watershed practices, is being implemented in collaboration with the Department of Land Resources in the Ministry of Rural Development and the states of Karnataka and Odisha. With a total budget outlay of USD 167.71 million over a period of 4.5 years, the funding consists of USD 115 million from the World Bank (allocated among Karnataka, Odisha, and DoLR), USD 46.71 million from the participating states of Karnataka and Odisha, and USD 6 million from DoLR. The funding pattern is split as 70:30 between the World Bank and states and 50:50 between the World Bank and DoLR, said the statement.
At the central level, the REWARD programme encompasses management, monitoring, communication, and knowledge-sharing functions handled by DoLR. Meanwhile, at the state level, the programme aligns with the scope of the Watershed Development Component under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) 2.0, supporting the implementation of science-based activities and demonstrations that aim to synergise efforts across multiple states in India.
During the third Implementation Support Mission (ISM), the World Bank team, led by Preeti Kumar, visited DoLR and the REWARD states to review the programme's progress and discuss the plan of action for the upcoming six months. The team conducted a debriefing session at the Department of Land Resources where they commended the progress achieved thus far and expressed their confidence in the programme's trajectory. They also requested Secretary, DoLR, Ajay Tirkey, to provide continuous support to ensure progress aligns with the Disbursement Linked Indicators of the programme, said the statement.
Several key points were discussed during the debriefing meeting, including the strengthening of the Centre for Excellence on watershed management in Bengaluru, organising a national-level workshop on science-based watershed management, developing protocols for expanding the Land Resource Inventory (LRI) pilot project nationwide, providing LRI-based digital advisory services to farmers, and arranging exposure visits for REWARD officials.
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