The World Bank will provide a $115 million (Rs 869 crore) loan for Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD) programme in Karnataka and Odisha.

It will help national and state institutions adopt improved watershed management practices to help increase farmers’ resilience to climate change, promote higher productivity and better incomes. 

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) financing will support Karnataka with $60 million (Rs 453.5 crore), Odisha with $49 million (Rs 370 crore), and the remaining $6 million (Rs 45.5 crore) will be for the central government’s Department of Land Resources. The $115 million loan has a maturity of 15 years, including a grace period of 4.5 years.

Watershed management

• Watersheds are natural hydrological entities that cover a specific aerial expanse of land surface from which the rainfall runoff flows to a defined drain, channel, stream or river at any particular point. 

• The terms basin, catchment, watershed, etc are widely used to denote hydrological units. Even though these terms have similar meanings in popular sense, technically they are different. 

• Size of a watershed is governed by the size of the stream occupied by it. Size of the watershed is of practical importance in development programmes. For example, the size of irrigation-cum-hydel project has its watershed size several thousands of square kilometers but for a farm pond the size may be few hectares only. In deserts and flat terrains with little incipient drainage, it may be difficult to delineate small sized watersheds whereas in undulating and hilly terrains smaller sized watersheds could be easily delineated. Hence the aerial extent of watersheds vary widely in the various attempts made earlier for demarcation of watersheds.

• Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) is implemented by the Department of Land Resources under the ministry of rural development. The main objective of IWMP is to restore ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water.

• The government of India has committed to restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 and doubling farmers’ income by 2023. Effective watershed management can help enhance livelihoods in rainfed areas, while building a more resilient food system. 

• In this context, Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD) programme will help the participating state governments in their efforts to transform watershed planning and execution and adopt science-based planning that could be replicated across the country. It will also help the participating and other states to adopt new approaches to watershed development.

Significance of REWARD programme

• While a robust institutional architecture for watershed development already exists in India, renewed focus on science-based, data-driven approaches implemented through this project can offer new opportunities for farmers in the face of climate change.

• This programme will further advance this progress by developing and applying comprehensive spatial data and technologies, decision support tools, and knowledge exchanges.

• The expected outcomes are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area.

• The primary beneficiaries of the REWARD programme are communities in rainfed areas that rely on sustainable land and water resources for livelihoods and ecosystem services. The sustainable development of watersheds based on better scientific inputs and technical capacities will lead to more effective conservation of soil, improved surface and groundwater availability and efficiency of use, and enhanced agricultural productivity and profitability, thereby generating sustainable improvement in incomes. 

• In particular, it will have positive impacts on women, small and marginal farmers, and agricultural labourers. The efforts to ensure social inclusion in watershed planning and management will enhance the benefits that accrue to the most vulnerable. 

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