Unprecedented population pressure and increase in demand of scarce land, water and biological resources and increasing degradation of these resources are adversely affecting the stability and resilience of our ecosystems and the environment leading to wastelands. Wasteland development is of great significance to realize the full potential of the available land resource and avert its further degradation. Watershed development holds the key to confront these problems. The government is implementing watershed development programmes through the Programme Implementation Agencies (PIAs) which are not fully equipped with the technically trained personnels in different aspects of watershed development/ management. There is an urgent need of qualified persons, well versed in various aspects of watershed management including project processing, review, monitoring and evaluation. This will lead to qualitative transformation of important activities in watershed projects.

 

The Diploma Programme in Watershed Management aims at developing competent human resource in the field of Watershed Development/Management. It intends to impart basic knowledge and skills for water harvesting, conservation and utilization, soil erosion and its management, integrated farming systems including crop husbandry, animal husbandry, agro-forestry, fish farming,  funding, monitoring, evaluation and capacity building of watershed programmes besides extension and communication skills for long term socio-economic development of the society. It will provide the basic understanding of various activities undertaken during the development of watershed programmes. The programme also intends to address the workforce requirement of the watershed management and focus on upgrading the knowledge and skills of existing personnel in the watershed development.