Context: Recently, Government of India, the State Governments of Karnataka and Odisha and the World Bank have signed a loan agreement of $115 million for implementation of “Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development” (REWARD) Project.

Need

• Government of India has committed to restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 and doubling farmers’ income by 2023. 
• Effective watershed management can help enhance livelihoods in rainfed areas, while building a more resilient food system.

About REWARD Program

• REWARD stands for Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development.
• The project aims to help national and state institutions adopt improved watershed management practices to help increase farmers’ resilience to climate change, promote higher productivity and better incomes.
• REWARD is being implemented in three to four Indian States.
• It is proposed as a 6 years Project.

Objectives of the project

• The outcomes are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rainwater harvesting and recharging of the groundwater table.
• This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area.

Key Benefits

• The new program will help the participating state governments in their efforts to transform watershed planning and execution and adopt science-based planning that could be replicated across the country. 
• It will also help the participating and others states to adopt new approaches to watershed development.

By: Shubham Tiwari