ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun organized a short-term training program for senior officials of State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA) of Tamil Nadu Watershed Development Agency (TAWDEVA), Chennai, Tamil Nadu during 7th to 9th May, 2024. The short-term training program was organized under the provisions of PMKSY, a centrally sponsored program of the State.
Dr. M. Madhu, Director, IISWC requested the trainee officers to share the knowledge and technologies learned with other colleagues of their department for augmented results.
Dr. Charan Singh, Head, Department of Human Resource Development and Social Science, IISWC explaining the importance of forest and horticulture based alternate land uses, briefed about the of the training schedule.
Dr. M. Muruganandam, Principal Scientist and Head (PME & KM Unit), IISWC exposed various food production and livelihood avenues including fisheries, livestock based and advanced technologies.
Dr DV Sigh, Head, Soil Science & Agronomy Division, Dr Lekh Chand, Principal Scientist, Er SS Shrimali, Sr Scientist, Dr M Shankar, Senior Scientist, Sh Suresh Kumar, Chief Technical Officer and Er Amit Chauhan imparted training on various aspects both in indoor and field sessions.
The content of the program included integrated watershed management, watershed development committee formation, climate-resilient agricultural techniques, Detailed Project Report (DPR) preparation for watershed management interventions in rainfed areas encompassing water resources management, soil and water conservation measures, and improved agriculture production.
In-door sessions were organized on the topics of soil health assessment, bioengineering measures, integrated farming systems, food security and livelihood options including agroforestry, horticulture and livestock-based based alternative land uses, project evaluation and social and economic assessment of watershed projects. Practical sessions were organized at the successful models and systems developed by the Institute at Kalimiti Village in Raipur Block and nearfields for ground-level understanding of participatory water resources development, springshed management, alternate land used models and conflict resolution. Besides, the models and systems were exposed through the institute museum.
A total of 20 senior officials of mixed agriculture disciplines including agriculture and Agriculture Engineering benefited form the training. During the feedback session, the participants expressed that the training on natural resource conservation and sustainable agricultural production with special reference to Tamil Nadu was fully engaging towards skill upgradation. The program was coordinated by Dr Charan Singh, Dr M Muruganandam and Sh Suresh Kumar.
