• The Secretary, Department of Land Resources recently reviewed the Implementation Support Mission of World Bank Assisted Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD) program.

ABOUT REWARD

• REWARD is a World Bank assisted Watershed development program, being implemented from 2021 to 2026.
• Aim– to strengthen capacities of National and State institutions to adopt improved watershed management for increasing farmers resilience and support value chains in selected watersheds of participating States.
• The program is being implemented to introduce modern watershed practices in the Department of Land Resources in the Ministry of Rural Development and in the States of Karnataka and Odisha.
• Karnataka has been identified as a “lighthouse partner” by the World Bank in developing the science-based watershed model.
• At the central level, the scope of the REWARD program covers management, monitoring, communication and knowledge sharing functions by DoLR.
• At the State level, the REWARD program will be contiguous in scope to the Watershed Development Component of PMKSY 2.0, and support implementation of key science-based activities and demonstrations which eventually aims at synergising broader perspective of WDC-PMKSY 2.0 in other States in India.