Target: Rain-fed areas sans irrigation

BHUBANESWAR: The Government on Thursday set an ambitious target to improve the condition of 10 lakh hectares of land through watershed  management programmes for sustainable livelihood of the people in rain-fed areas. The Government set up the Orissa Watershed Development Mission (OWDM),  an autonomous agency, in 2000 to focus attention on conservation of soil and water through community participation. The objective was to improve the economic conditions of the people by enhancing their economic activities by executing the Centrally- sponsored programme in a mission mode.After a decade, the Government claimed to have taken drought-proofing  measures over an area of 8.46 lakh hectares by utilising nearly Rs 727 crore  out of a total project outlay of Rs 2,024 crore. The mission has so far constructed 4,026 watershed projects. Chief Secretary BK Patnaik reviewed the performance of OWDM at a meeting here and expressed displeasure over the poor achievement and abysmally low utilisation of funds.Watershed projects assumed significance when less than half of the cultivable land of the State is under assured irrigation. With a cultivable land of 61.65 lakh hectares, the Government has created irrigation potential for only 29.32 lakh hectares.The Government took a policy decision in 2005 to create irrigation potential for at least 35 per cent of the cultivable land in each block. More that 150 out of the total 314 blocks are yet to have irrigation facility for 35 per cent of their cultivable land.The Chief Secretary directed the watershed mission directorate to set a milestone to achieve the target of improving the soil and water condition of 10 lakh hectares in rainfed areas having no irrigation facilities.He advised the directorate to adopt cluster approach in which one cluster will have a minimum 10 micro watershed structures and each watershed structure will cover about 500 hectares. At least 200 clusters need to be developed to achieve the target.Watershed projects are executed under different programmes like Integrated Watershed Management Programme, National Watershed Development Programmes for rainfed areas, River Valley project, Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana, Jeebika under the State plan and Western Orissa Rural Livelihood Programmes.The meeting felt the need for a model training institute for agriculture and allied activities and it was decided to set up such an institute at Deras near Khurda. Development Commissioner and Agriculture Production Commissioner RN Senapati, Agriculture Secretary RL Jamuda, Forest and Environment Secretary Santosh Sarangi, OWDM director GB Reddy and other senior officers werepresent.