Telangana, ICRISAT sign MoU to assess Mission Kakatiya

Telangana, ICRISAT sign MoU to assess Mission Kakatiya
Soil, water and socio-economic impact of the scheme to be assessed by scientists of ICRISAT

The Ministry of Irrigation, Government of Telangana and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Hyderabad for conducting a scientific assessment of Government of Telangana’s irrigation scheme, Mission Kakatiya. The mission aims at restoring 46,000 water tanks across the state.
The MoU was signed by G Malsur, Commissioner Common Area Development Authority, Ministry of Irrigation and Dr Kiran K Sharma, Deputy Director General, (Acting), ICRISAT in the presence of Telangana’s Minister for Irrigation, T Harish Rao. Speaking at the signing, Minister Harish Rao said, “There are a number of reported benefits including reports on in-bound migration following the desilting of water tanks. We look forward to understand also how the change in availability of water has affected reverse migration. We need to look at many parameters including sustainability, more than just in monetary terms.”
Highlighting the MoU, Dr Sharma said, “ICRISAT very much values the partnerships with the Government of Telangana in its development agenda. This partnership project has immense significance in enumerating various benefits of the Mission Kakatiya project, especially in promoting soil fertility and productivity, and the associated benefits on livelihoods of the smallholder farmers of the state.”
The two-year project will carry out economic assessment of benefits of Mission Kakatiya to smallholder farmers to understand nutrient return to the soil and the productivity and profitability. Through stratified sampling, nutrient content of silt from across 30 districts will be assessed. Demonstration trials will be undertaken with different levels of silt along with balanced nutrient management for major crops. Overall 750 sites will be examined for soil and water health, besides crop diversity and impact on livelihood.
The Mission Kakatiya aims to enhance development of agriculture-based income for small and marginal farmers, by accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strengthening community based irrigation management and adopting a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks. The scheme aims to restore 46,531 tanks enumerated by the irrigation department. Already in Phase 1 and 2 of the project over 15,000 tanks have been restored.
Headquartered in Hyderabad, ICRISAT is an international non-profit, non-political organisation that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid tropics have over 2 billion people, and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT innovations help the dryland poor move from poverty to prosperity by harnessing markets while managing risks – a strategy called Inclusive Market- Oriented development (lMOD).

Share on

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

× 7 = 49