Watershed Guidelines: 3rd National Consultation in Nagpur

The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) under the Ministry of Rural Development, with the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, held a two-day national consultation on watershed management at Nagpur. The meeting was hosted together with the ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur, and ran on 4 and 5 November 2026.

What the meeting was about

This was the third national-level consultation on the draft National Technical Guidelines (NTG) for improved watershed management. The exercise sits under the World Bank-assisted REWARD programme, whose full name is Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development. Policymakers, technical experts, researchers, development partners and representatives of several States came together to shape a scientific, technology-driven, cost-effective and participatory framework for watershed work.

Who said what

Secretary, DoLR, Shri Dilip Kumar asked for a balance between scientific rigour and workable field practice, cautioning that guidelines which are too rigid trip up implementation on the ground. He wanted States given flexibility in keeping with their institutional capacity, technical strength and administrative arrangements, and said that a flexible, realistic framework which delivers 80 to 90 per cent of the intended aims is worth more than overly rigid standards. He also pressed for robust baseline data and a full impact assessment of WDC-PMKSY 2.0, so that the gaps found feed into the design of WDC-PMKSY 3.0, and asked that well-performing States and field officers be recognised.

Dr Chandra Sekhar Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of the NRAA, sought a harmonised national Decision Support System built from the best features of the systems already running in Odisha and Karnataka, and wider use of legacy datasets. Joint Secretary Shri Nitin Khade said the guidelines must be finalised in a time-bound manner and tied the work to the goal of a drought-resilient, developed India by 2047.

Technology and community

• Land Resource Inventory (LRI), digital soil libraries and Decision Support Systems were held up as tools that can reshape village-level planning of soil and water conservation, cropping patterns and nutrient management.
• Project timelines have been cut from seven years under WDC-PMKSY 1.0 to five years under WDC-PMKSY 2.0.
• GIS, remote sensing, high-resolution satellite imagery and drones are to be used as local needs demand.
• Farmer Producer Organisations, User Groups and Self-Help Groups are to be strengthened so that water harvesting structures are maintained after a project closes.

Delegates came from the DoLR, the NRAA, the World Bank, the REWARD project States of Odisha and Karnataka, NABARD, ICRISAT, WASSAN, NRSC, MANAGE, voluntary organisations and ICAR institutes. Ms Priti Kumar, Senior Agriculture Specialist and Task Team Leader at the World Bank, and Dr N.G. Patil, Director of the host institute, attended the inaugural session.