CII, Icrisat, Coca-Cola join hands to develop watersheds

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) and the Coca-Cola Foundation (CCF) have entered into a collaboration for watersheds development in Dungarpur district in Rajasthan and Thirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.

The $140,000-project, undertaken in a partnership mode, is entirely supported by the Atlanta-based CCF. The objective of the one-year project is to improve the livelihood of the poor and marginal farmers in the two districts.

According to chairman of CII, Andhra Pradesh, G Vivekanand, the further continuation of the project will be initiated as the results of it and the response of the respective communities and state governments start coming in.

The primary focus will be to evolve a strategy for rapid upscaling and attaining scales where corporate business initiatives can succeed and there can be significant enhancement of agri productivities, production and incomes in the shortest possible time.

Addressing a joint press conference here on Monday, Vivekanand said that the project required "out-of-box" thinking, which most national and international agencies would find it difficult to manage given their standardised approach. Coca-Cola India, which had reposed confidence in CII, proactively pursued the proposal with CCF and made the project possible.

Icrisat principal scientist and regional theme coordinator of watersheds, S P Wani, said the collaboration was expected to lead to a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between Icrisat and CII, which would provide a framework for cooperation on National Resources Management and related activities in rainfed areas.

Wani said that Icrisat had adopted a consortium approach for achieving collective action, convergence and cooperation among the various stakeholders in the development of backward areas.

He said that a consortium approach was needed as only 10 per cent of the watersheds developed by the government were doing well while the performance of 65 per cent of the watersheds developed was below average. This was despite the fact that the government invested more than $ 2 billion so far in watersheds development in the country.

Coca-Cola India vice-president (public affairs & communications) Deepak Jolly said that with regard to water, the company followed the four 'Rs' "� reduce, reuse, recycle and recharge.