Chittoor, Anantapur selected for Neeranchal National Watershed project
AP government received a major fillip in their efforts for improving watershed management in the rural and rain fed areas as Anantapur and Chittoor were selected for Neeranchal National Watershed work
Published: 08th September 2017 01:44 AM | Last Updated: 08th September 2017 11:05 AM | A+A A-
TIRUPATI: The Andhra Pradesh government received a major fillip in their efforts for improving watershed management in the rural and rain fed areas as Anantapur and Chittoor were selected for Neeranchal National Watershed project, Y R S Rao, scientist and Director of Neeranchal Project has said.
A two-day workshop on Neeranchal Watershed project was organised by DWMA, Chittoor district here recently. Speaking on the occasion, Y R S Rao said Neeranchal is a `2,142-crore World Bank-aided project of the Union government that supports the watershed development component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).
It is being implemented in nine states - Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana - which account for 60 per cent of the rain fed areas in the country, he said. He said that Neeranchal is a five-year project which commenced in April 2017 and 2016 is the preparatory phase for the project. In each of the nine states, two districts were identified to provide necessary interventions, guidance and support to the community for increasing crop productivity, milk yield, water availability and improving groundwater table, he said.
Each district will have five watershed projects spread over 25,000 hectares. Gradually, the projects in each district would be increased to 40 and each State would get `200 crore from Department of Land Resources (DoLR). “The Neeranchal project will help the State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA) in all the nine states under the watershed plus programme,” he said.
