NRAA Holds REWARD Meeting on Watershed Guidelines for PMKSY

The National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), which works under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, convened a National Level Technical Committee (NLTC) meeting under the REWARD programme on 22 September 2026 at the NASC Complex in New Delhi. REWARD stands for Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development.

Who attended

The meeting was presided over by Dr Chandra Shekhar Kumar, IAS, Chief Executive Officer of the NRAA. Also present were Dr A. K. Nayak, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management) at ICAR; Shri Nitin Khade, IAS, Joint Secretary (Watershed Management) in the Department of Land Resources; Dr Subrat Panda, IAS, Director in Odisha; and Shri Upendra Pratap Singh, Commissioner of the Watershed Development Department in Karnataka, who joined online. Scientists and representatives of the State Level Nodal Agencies of Odisha and Karnataka, technical partners from ICAR institutes, agricultural universities, an IIT, non-governmental organisations and consortium partners made up a gathering of about 45 people. Dr Susama Sudhishri, Technical Expert for Watershed Development and Principal Investigator for REWARD at the NRAA, coordinated the proceedings.

What was decided

• The NRAA chief asked that every claim in the draft National Technical Guidelines (NTG) be validated against data actually gathered under the REWARD programme.
• Odisha and Karnataka were asked to share their watershed data and Decision Support System with all stakeholders, and to hand over recorded data for analysis and for validating the guidelines.
• ICAR pressed for Land Resource Inventory and hydrology to be integrated so that watersheds are planned better, for methodologies behind conclusions to be written out plainly in the guidelines, and for web portals to be built quickly.
• The Department of Land Resources suggested cutting the time taken to prepare a Detailed Project Report from six months to three, leaving more time for actual execution, and exploring convergence across sectors.

Why it matters

Dr Susama Sudhishri opened the meeting with the action taken report of the previous NLTC sitting and presented the additions made in the second draft of the guidelines. Once finalised, the National Technical Guidelines will govern the next generation of watershed development in the country under the Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana 3.0, which makes this a document with direct bearing on rainfed farming.