Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh today said a Rs 200 crore watershed development fund had been set up under the aegis of the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard).
Speaking at a arliamentary consultative committee meeting, Singh said the National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed Areas had also been restructured and revamped to ensure greater involvement of the beneficiaries. It would be mandatory under the restructured second generation of the programme to involve the community in planning, implementing, monitoring and maintaining the work carried out for the conservation of soil and water.
The fund will be utilised to create the necessary framework for replicating and consolidating the successful initiatives in the field of watershed development. Singh informed the members that around 9.6 million-hectare area had been treated under the watershed development programme during the Eighth Five-Year Plan and Ninth Five-Year Plan at an expenditure of Rs 2,990 crore.
The members of the committee suggested that studies should be carried out to evaluate the projects under this programme. They also suggested that nodal coordination bodies should be set up in cases where more than one ministry or department was involved in the implementation of the watershed projects.
