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NRAA holds REWARD technical committee meet
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Friday, 25 September, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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The National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), organised a National Level Technical Committee (NLTC) meeting under the Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD) programme on September 22, 2026, at the NASC Complex in New Delhi.
The meeting was chaired by Dr Chandra Shekhar Kumar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NRAA. It was attended by Dr A K Nayak, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR; Nitin Khade, Joint Secretary (Watershed Management), Department of Land Resources (DoLR); Dr Subrat Panda, Director (DSC&WD), Odisha; and Upendra Pratap Singh, Commissioner, Watershed Development Department, Karnataka, who participated online.
Around 45 participants, including scientists and representatives from the State Level Nodal Agencies (SLNAs) of Odisha and Karnataka, technical partners from ICAR institutes, agricultural universities, IITs, NGOs, consortium partners, the REWARD Programme Management Unit (PMU) of DoLR and NRAA, and the Centre of Excellence for Watershed Management (CoE-WM), participated in the meeting.
Dr Susama Sudhishri, Technical Expert (Watershed Development) and Principal Investigator, REWARD, NRAA, coordinated the meeting. At the outset, she presented the action taken report from the previous NLTC meeting and outlined additions incorporated into the second draft of the National Technical Guidelines (NTG).
During the meeting, Dr Chandra Shekhar Kumar stressed the need to validate statements and claims made in the draft NTG using data generated through the REWARD programme. He also advised the governments of Odisha and Karnataka to share watershed data and Decision Support Systems (DSS) with stakeholders.
Dr A K Nayak highlighted the need to integrate Land Resource Inventory (LRI) and hydrology for improved watershed planning. He also emphasised that the methodologies used to arrive at results and conclusions should be clearly documented in the NTG and recommended that web portals be developed at the earliest.
Nitin Khade suggested reducing the time required for preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) from six months to three months to provide more time for implementing watershed development activities. He also called for greater convergence among sectors and suggested incorporating relevant aspects into the NTG.
Dr Susama Sudhishri requested the SLNAs of Odisha and Karnataka to share recorded data with NRAA and consortium partners for analysis, report preparation and validation of the NTG.
The National Technical Guidelines being developed under the REWARD programme are intended to support future watershed development in India under the Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) 3.0.
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