The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in collaboration with the Central and State governments would identify one lakh vulnerable and water stress villages in the country and 4,000 villages in Telangana State.
The villages identified would be allotted two village volunteers (Jal Doot) for 25 villages each and trained by master trainers to create awareness among rural community about the methods of water conservation, preservation and its efficient utilisation using modern technologies, recycling and artificial recharge of wells, said Agriculture Secretary C. Parthasarathi here on Wednesday.
Addressing a meeting at the launch of ‘Krishak Samridhi’ pilot project by NABARD, he said water management practices, conservation and water recycling were important for agriculture development.
The government has been promoting water conservation with schemes like Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha and Haritha Haram which have been received well by the citizens. More than one lakh new hectares have been brought under the micro irrigation scheme whereas it was 4.80 lakh hectares earlier.
With NABARD’s financial support of ₹1,092 crore, another 1.26 lakh hectares would be brought under the scheme in 2017-18.
NABARD’s CGM P. Radhakrishnan, Agriculture University V-C Praveen Rao,Telangana Cooperative Bank MD Muralidhar and others were present.